Tuesday, August 9, 2016

It is a Wrap for 4.0+





The Big Boy Sectionals is in the books.  While most of Dallas is disappointed with greater aspirations than a sectionals weekend away in... Dallas, we actually had a team advance to Nationals.  T-Bar Bartzen advanced to the big dance with the big boys.  Since they are the only team to live up to the lofty Dallas expectations, I will start with them.

5.0+ T-Bar-Bartzen defeated Dallas-West (aka Fort Worth) 2-1.  They won two third set tiebreaks at line 1S and 1D with line 2D about to head into a Tiebreak.  It doesn't get much tighter.  Both lines dropped their first set but rallied to win.  Bartzen has been a force at 5.0 for a long time and it is good to see him advance.  This team has several players that were national runner-ups a few years ago.  They even have a 6.0 on the roster.

4.5 This level turned out unexpected.  The presumptive heavy favorite, SETX, defeated Rossouw and troops 3-2.  SETX won a tight 3rd set breaker at 3 Doubles.  I know Marc felt pretty good when he swept singles as everything was close.  Greenhill gave all they had but ran into a 4.5 team with a strong flavor of Division 1.  SETX went ahead to advance to the Semis.

Reiman's JCC Wild Dallas team did advance to the final.  In the semis, they defeated usually mighty Houston to face Austin who just took down the mighty SETX/Lamar U team.  While they had a good run, it was not meant to be and the Austin team that defeated Lamar U was a little too much.  Austin's Line 1&2 Dubs dominated some very good Dallas players.  Reiman's 1 singles lost a third set breaker and Austin wins with a 3-2.

I am definitely pulling for Texas to win but I will not wear a Keep Austin Weird shirt in support.

4.0 This was suppose to belong to our city.  After hearing about how great we were, I was sure Dallas would represent here.  First, Wild Dallas rolled through their flight dropping only 110 games when the second closest team at sectionals dropped 143 games in flight.  Wild Dallas draws usually good but not great Austin.  Things looked good when Line 1 Singles and 3 Doubles won easily.  Up 2-0, things looked like the finals were an inevitability.  Unfortunately, we need 3 lines to win.  Austin flipped their singles line to avoid Rivera and he pulled off an upset over the Futures Playing 4.0 and self professed former Indian top 45 player, Valaparia.  Still, Wild Dallas had their 3.5 ringer who had been laying waste to the field.  He made a lineup change and they lost in 3 sets.  His other players that had been dominating got upset also.  I sincerely believe they were 1 tiebreak away from nationals.

Sisk's Dallas team started with the usual pushover from Houston (aka NOHO).  Yet, NOHO surprised them with a 4-1 upset.  This was an ominous warning as NOHO went on to win this flight.  In hindsight, this should have served notice that this perennial sectionals participants but usual non-factors were there to play.  This was the toughest flight by far!  There was Dallas and Wild Houston and NOHO wins this flight while dropping the second fewest games in flight.  In the semis, the after-thought NOHO defeats Wild Austin needing a third set breaker at line three to emerge.  NOHO then defeats Austin 3-2 with another third set breaker at 3 doubles.

Congratulations to NOHO.  Represent at Nationals!

Good Luck to all Texas Teams.  As we all know, Texas typically fares well at Nationals and I don't expect any less this year.  I think Austin 4.5 has the best chance to bring home a title but I will be pulling for them all across the board.

22 comments:

  1. Good analysis. Yes - Wild Dallas at 4.0 was 1 tie break away. However, the Austin team called a line at 5-4 breakpoint to Dallas out when it was 2 feet in. This led to the tie break else the match would be 5-5 with 3.5 ringer serving (think he was not broken in entire tournament). Best of luck to NOHO...

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    1. This is complete bullshit. As a player from the Austin team, our singles player won the first set comfortably, dropped the 2nd, and then it went to a super, where he took a 7-2 lead and eventually won 11-9. Stop the lies. There was also a line judge present the entire breaker, and numerous out calls were missed by both players. She was letting them play.

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    2. Ain't that rich. A 3.5 that was unbeatable at 4.0 that never tanked to get a 3.5 ratings are calling their opponents cheaters. 1 line call versus an entire USTA career of cheating.

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    3. You can also check scores, there is not a single 6-4 set score that went Austin's way. So your analysis is clearly bias. Let us also not forget the 6-0 hook in the super that occurred at line 2 at the hands of wild dallas desperate for a point.

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    4. Hooking at sectionals? First anybody on this board has ever heard of that. I guess the Wild Dallas and Austin teams are making their first trip.

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    5. line 1 doubles - set 2. Wasn't that 6-4 Austin?

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    6. No. 4-6 in wild dallas favor. Learn to read scores

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    7. Line 1 doubles second set was 6-3 Austin. The game mentioned was at 5-3 and would have put the set back on serve. 4-5 Wild Dallas serving.

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  2. Dallas Wild had the best roster top to bottom. But a questionable lineup and three 10 point tiebreaks sunk them. Losing Rajiv's doubles line spelled doom. He should be a lock, and they should be in nationals.

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    1. yeah that was a surprise, one the Austin players had gone to Nationals about 7-8 yrs ago on a Team from Southern, he moved to Austin about 2 years ago, he must have improved quite abit to win a few at Sectionals in Texas

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    2. But they are not.

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  3. Lolol Dallas wild had garbage in doubles

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    1. Agreed. Takes more than a big server to beat a quality 4.0 doubles team. Lines 1-2 had one good player and one mediocre player Vs. Austin's two quality players, and make no mistake, the doubles lines of Austin are no push overs.

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    2. Austin had no third doubles line and no second singles guy and still won. Wild Dallas plays their best eight and they win another doubles line easily. Rookie mistakes.

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    3. Really? Whose their best 8?

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  4. Raja for starters, at least he thinks so.

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  5. OLYMPIC NEWS FLASH
    News reports out of Dallas are claiming the Dallas Tennis Association has filed a grievance against Michael Phelps for a lack of sportsmanship. Are carefully reviewing tapes of Phelps' semi-final and final races, they claim he did not give full effort in his semi-final race and has thereby violated USTA (and they claim) Olympic rules. They seek a one year ban from competition.

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    1. Added a DTA representative, "Let's be honest. Who will ever know if he gave his full effort or not? The damn guy has just won enough and its time to let someone else on the stand. Preferably from a Dallas country club but we'll take whatever we can get."

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    2. LMAO well done sir

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  6. Funniest stuff posted on here in a while. Sadly it's true, win too much and face a suspension. Well done DTA!

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  7. Also in: "other swimmers and countries that he had beaten last 12 years have filed a grievance as well leading the IOC to change his times and keep him from competing and winning anymore events". IOC chair Juss Rohnson added: "We finally got this ***hole". Perennial qualifying loser Rarc Mussouw also chimed in and stated " This is our year without him as an opponent". Stay tuned.
    BBC

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