1st weekend of Tri Level (Jan 4-6)

So the 2nd annual Tri Level tournament has expanded this year to include a lower level tourney with 3.0, 3.5, and 4.0 players.

Thanks to many of you on this blog and your answers to my constant email cries for help we were able to create 4 very good teams to compete against one another this coming weekend for the right to represent Dallas in February at the Sectional Tri Level tourney in Houston-Kingwood.

Team Bazan
Team Hess
Team Kelsey
Team Dewan

I of course would love to say my team is the strongest but I took a lot of players on referral so many I haven’t met at all especially the 3.0 players so this should be pretty evenly matched up. The final match I will get another match against Marcus/Kelsey unless I decide to send in my ringers to beat you all. :)

I look forward to playing this weekend and I have been checking out the rosters of week two of the tournament (3.5, 4.0. 4.5) and there are some very good rosters there as well. I will update my predictions once you all have a schedule.

Senior League Starting

So unless I can get a fake ID I cannot play in the senior league that starts this coming weekend but good luck to all of you “old” guys as you start up this weekend. Everytime I look at a senior roster I think "no way that guy is 50."

3.5
It looks like all the favorites are in Flight A: High Point/Bender, Canyon Creek, Shores and Oakridge. Flight B has some good entires as well High Point/Northcut and Kayser’s team should be the favorites but Jim Burn’s LB Houston has some good players including himself since he just got bumped back to 3.5.

4.0
Bartlett returns everyone to his Sectional team but there are some other strong teams and they are all in one big flight. Other favorites should be Pearlman’s BH team, HP/Northcut, T Bar and Springpark.

4.5
I truly have no idea but Springpark looks to have a good roster as well as Oak Creek.

Best of luck as you start this weekend.

Cotton Bowl Tourney (Two Days away)

So only two days till the Cotton Bowl starts. I don't play on Friday so three days for me but here are some interesting early matchups. Let me know if you see some others.

Singles

3.5
2nd round-- Robert Wisdom v. David Prather

4.0
1st round-- Kelsey v. Kraemer
2nd round--Buford v. T Nguyen, Dutchover v. Russell, Mcintosh v. Marcus

4.5
Favs to win: JD Miles, Warren and Griggs, anyone else who can beat these three???

Doubles

3.5
2nd round--Bostick/Muniz v. Leclair/Nichols

4.0
1st round--Kelsey/Marcus v. Kraemer/Ludwig
2nd round--Dutchover/Nguyen v. Helterbrann/Mattes

Blog Challenge #3 Winners (Pickett/Bazan)

So I will be honest I expected a similar score as in the first two challenge matches but due to strong play by Kelsey and Marcus they gave Joel and I a run for it.

Final score 7-5, 4-6, 6-3

Obviously the largest factor in the match was the wind but 3 out of the 4 players on the swing so hard the wind didn't matter but it did mess with all of our serves a bit.

1st set:
I was broken twice in the 1st set but somehow we were able to come back and Joel served it out at 6-5. Jonathan was nearly broken but held strong a few times to make this 1st set close.

2nd set:
Kelsey/Marcus went up 3-0 quickly and we fought back to 4-4 but couldn't make it happen and we lost that set on some great shots by Jeromi and Jonathan.

3rd set:
We broke early and were able to hold serve and then Jeromi served at 3-5 and we were able to break him to win the match.

Overall I think Jeromi and Jonathan although not pure doubles players hit with enough power that they force you to make errors and come up with some great angles. When we could approach well it worked out but they rarely gave us short balls to attack so I think that is why the match was so close.

Nice match guys!!

Challenge match (Batman v. Robin)

So Batman and Robin will part ways this Saturday and face one another.

Joel Pickett/Cary Bazan
v.
Jonathan Marcus/Jeromi Kelsey

Date: Saturday, December 22nd

Where: Springpark Tennis Center

Time: 11:30 AM

Of course when we set this time the forecast was great but now there is a slight chance of showers but if the skies stay clear Joel and I will be raining down WINNERS.

I predict Jonathan and Jeromi will have plenty of time to get to the Singles Tourney at Oak Creek in fact can we get some court fees back if we finish in 30 minutes or less? :)

Cotton Bowl Tourney Update (DRAWS!!!)

The draws are out. Let me know some interesting matchups.

My challenge partner (aka Batman) will be playing John Kraemer in the first round on Friday night in the 4.0 singles draw. Yikes, sorry John I like Jeromi in this matchup.

Tuyen Nguyen will likely play Don Buford in the 2nd round, so one of the Houston duo should be ousted early. The other half of the Houston crew will play seeded Scott Russell so hmmm they could both be out early.

I avoided the "play in" match on Friday night in 4.0 doubles that honor goes to Zach Stein and his partner. How crazy is this I just saw Kelsey and Marcus will take on Kraemer and Ludwig in the first round. John and Jeromi will be sick of one another by Saturday afternoon.

I pulled my old friend Steve Adams and his son in the first should be a good match. If we win we get the #1 seed Nguyen/Newman. I am so psyched for that.

Singles Battle Royal Update (Note from Marc)

We will give this one more try.

Saturday Dec 22 2:30pm - 5pm

The Oak Creek Christmas Massacre

Same Rules as Before. Please confirm by tomorrow so I can post the Draws!

New Feature: Child Care Available
Oak Creek Holiday Jr Tennis Party - Games, Prizes, PizzaRun by Jennifer Jerabek and the Oak Creek Pros - My Daughter will be there.
Ages 5 -13 - $15 per kid call the Tennis center for details.

So fool your wife, tell her you will take the kid while she does some last minute Christmas shopping,Then drop them off and make them someone else's problem, and Come out looking like Husband of the year and reap the benefits.Or maybe that's just how I roll.I already have tentative confirms from 6 players including myself so look like we are good to go,Thanks

I can't make it but I hope yall have fun.

Blog Challenge #2 (Batman & Robin reign supreme)

So it was a little bit of different match compared to the first challenge but the result was exactly the same 6-4, 6-2.

A close 1st set with a late break of Jim Yauch allowed Jeromi to serve out the first set. The 2nd set started on serve but then two early breaks set up Jeromi to serve at 5-2 and yet again close it out.

I have to say the ball was flying a lot faster than in our first match. Both Marc and Jim blast the ball as well as Jeromi so I spent most of the night attempting to mix it up a bit.

We did play a 3rd set for fun which the OC crew won 6-3.

I don't think anyone played their A game probably since none of us have played due to the weather lately and also some wind gusts and chilly temps that made the ball a little tougher to smack around.

Overall a pretty good match.

Next victim???

Singles Battle Royal (RAINED OUT)

Well the weather spoiled our plans but Marc is attempting to get us together for another date. It was a miserable day for tennis or existing outdoors for that matter. YIKES! I am still cold.

Blog Challenge #2 still set for Monday night, bring your long johns.

Blog Challenge #2

So Challenge match #2 is set:

When: Monday, December 17th
Time: 7 PM
Where: Oak Creek Tennis Center

Jeromi and I will travel to old and crusty hostile territory and defend our title against the OC Super team.

Cary Bazan and Jeromi Kelsey
v.
Marc Klamecki and Jim Yauch

Early odds are in favor of the champions but Yauch and his monster serve should prove to be more of a challenge than what we saw in the first match.

Now if the snow will just stay away...

Cotton Bowl Tourney Update

So the list of competitors is now listed for this tournament. There are 42 and 48 entries at 3.5 and 4.0 singles respectively and 15- 3.5 and 17- 4.0 doubles teams.

Some good entries at both levels. Ismael Dutchover and Tuyen Nguyen are coming up from Houston and playing singles and doubles. Hai Nguyen and Tim Newman playing together should be strong at 4.0 and Jeromi and Jonathan are playing in that draw as well. Jacques and Ron Corcoran should be strong too.

Any other thoughts and entrants?


http://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=49396

Leaguetennis.com (FREE for Winter League)

Hey guys wanted to let you know about this:

There is another new flexible tennis league that is just launching in the Dallas/Ft. Worth area. They offer singles AND, doubles formats. Individuals sign up for singles or with a partner for doubles and get a competitive schedule of matches over a 7 to 8 week time period. Very similar to the Ultimate Tennis or flextennis format.

They are offering all of their leagues FREE this Winter ( a savings of $25 which is the regular fee). They also offer a referral program that allows players to earn $2 in LeagueTennis dollars every season a referral plays so if you refer 13 players who play regularly, you could essentially play for free forever :)

Go check out their site for more info and get in quick for the doubles league the registration deadline is January 6th and the singles registration deadline is February 11th.

It seems like online tennis is growing and this seems like an interesting new site especially since they include a doubles format which for a doubles specialist like me peaks my interest. Also the creators of this site seem to have cost in mind since $25 is cheaper than other sites and even cheaper than local club leagues.

So many new tennis leagues to try out please let me know positive and negative feedback about any of these new sites.

Go check it out!!

Tri Level update, no blog challenge

So due to scheduling conflicts and nasty weather there was no blog challenge showdown #2 but stay tuned for a new victory photo soon with my new Batman partner.

Also thanks for reponse on the Tri Level. It seems there are some super teams being formed out there and even some people playing in Ft. Worth (I thought I was addicted to team tennis)

I am actually still sorting out stuff till Wed so if you are interested let me know it seems everyone is in need of 3.5 players so if you are out there and want to play let me know.

Right now I am just trying to fill up as many teams as possible on that 1st weekend but I might actually end up not playing in that tourney and opt to play in the upper level tourney on my B-day weekend.

Jason Freeman from Houston has put together a team that won the Houston area tourney and will be repping for Houston in the sectional event in February. His team last year won the TX tourney and represented TX in the tourney in Indian Wells, CA.

In order to help Jason and his travel expenses we need to put together a team good enough to crush him and his group. Sorry Jason we must put an end to the dynasty you are creating it is kind of like the NE Patriots or something down there.

Tennis, Tennis and more Tennis (Another challenge match)

As most of you know coming up in early January is the 2nd annual Tri Level Tournament.

January 4-6: Lower Level Tourney 3.0, 3.5 and 4.0
January 11-13: Upper Level Tourney 3.5, 4.0, 4.5

The Upper Level tourney filled up extremely fast. Two of the upper level teams have asked me about some top level 3.5 players if any of you are interested let me know.

I am also working to build teams in the lower level tourney on Jan 4-6. So feel free to contact me and I get you on a team. bazan.dean@gmail.com

The winners of both tourneys play in a State tourney down in Houston on February 22-23. (Road trip!!)

Also wanted to let you know about Ultimatetennis.com. I have heard great things about it and I saw they had an ad in our Tennis Life USTA magazine and they are starting leagues in Texas. These are flexible schedule leagues and have fun prizes like KSWISS shoes. The inaugural season in Texas is free so if you are interested sign up quick. I am already signed up and waiting for ya.

Also check out the article in Tennis Life about sandbagging. Apparently the eyes of Texas are upon us and are talking about unveiling some rules for the 2008 season. I will be interested to see what new changes will arise in 2008.

Marc’s Singles Battle Royal coming up next weekend (12/15), email him or post your info to his site.

Kelsey/Marcus v. Bazan/Pickett looks like it might happen this weekend or Monday barring rain.

Also don’t forget the deadline to sign up for the Cotton Bowl is December 9th.

Whew, did I forget anything……………..I thought I said this was a the dead time of year for tennis.

1st Blog Challenge Winners

So the results are in and 27% of you were right that Jeromi and I would win in straight sets. The first four games remained on serve and actually David and Jacques held rather easily while Jeromi and I struggled to hold serve. At 2-2 we were able to break David and held onto the break until Jeromi served it out at 5-4 but I believe we had 2 or 3 set points before we closed that out.

Jacques and David then held serve and immediately broke me to go up 2-0 in the 2nd set (I'll be honest I envisioned a 3rd set at that moment) Then Jeromi and I picked it up a bit and won the next 6 games for a final of 6-4, 6-2.

They are a good doubles team but I think we were just able to hold a little easier in the 2nd set which allowed use to take some risks.

Highlight of the night: Jacques hits a good serve down the middle to me and I hit a inside out forehand that clips the line and Jacques somehow curls a backhand around the post that just misses multiple water bottles and possibly a small child down the street and it somehow landed on the outside of the line.

Good stuff, I hope we can generate even more great challenge matches like this one.

Nice match guys!!!

Blog's 1st Challenge Match

So it is on!

Date: December 5th
Place: High Point Tennis Center
Time: 6:15 PM

Jacques Delira and David Prather
vs.
Jeromi Kelsey and Cary Bazan

Let me know your thoughts and feel free to give advice either way and your thoughts on who might win and how. Odds? Score predictions?

I look forward to playing these guys especially since Jacques gave me a loss a month or so ago.

Final day of Playoffs

So Garland and GH are on the court now as are HP and Lakes. Can't wait to see the results.

Looks like Oak Creek Branch is rolling along posting a sweep over T Bar paying them back for a regular season loss.

Correction the 3.0 result from yesterday it was actually Canyon Creek that won that tourney.

Playoffs Day 2

Well the forecast is shaky for rain and such but I don't see any on the radar so hopefully all the matches go on as scheduled.

3.5 starts the day in about 20 minutes

HP v. SBridge and Garland v. OC

I'll go with HP and Garland. I just didn't see enough last night from OC to take out Garland.

4.0
Lakes v Pearlman and HP v. Spk

Tough matches but I like the Lakes and HP

4.5
T Bar v. LB and F Oaks v OC BRANCH

T Bar should win easily but the next match is the one to watch, I hope I can make it in time but I think Branch will get a close win.

3.5 then ends the day at 3p
Garland v. Oakridge and HP v Greenhill

I see Garland and HP rolling in these matches.

Good luck.

Playoffs Day 1

So the playoffs begin tonight with 4 matches.

6p (3.5)
Oakridge v. Oak Creek and Greenhill v. Stonebridge

7:30p (4.0)
Springpark v. BH/Bartlett and BH/Pearlman v. Stonebridge

I think all these matches will be close in fact I would be surprised to see any 5-0 sweeps and maybe not even any 4-1 decisions.

3.5
I have to go with the team that starts with "O" in the first match and if Jason Fraser plays I will take Greenhill if not I see Stonebridge squeaking it out.

4.0
Sorry OC BL I hate to go pro country club but I see a Brookhaven sweep tonight which would be two upsets but I just have a feeling.

Best of luck tonight.

Playoffs 2 DAYS Away

Thanks for your spirited conversations regarding ratings. I have always been perplexed by the rating system but I do think the longer your play the more accurate the ratings become. I am sure they are always attempting to tweak the system so they are as accurate as can be.

But the playoffs are two days away and there are some good teams at each level who I think can win. From the previous poll it seems everyone agrees High Point is a lock at 4.0. Why? Is there any 4.0 team out there who will come out and say they can take them down? The 3.5 poll showed Garland, Oak Creek and High Point as favs and I believe that but as much as I knock Oakridge (just for fun) I think they could score an upset. I do hope someone in the blue flight goes undefeated because I hate a flight being decided by differential instead of who beat who.

At 3.5 as much as some of you have thought I have been unfair in my thoughts I truly think there are 5 out of 6 teams that would win this tourney at 3.5. I do think the Blue Flight is stacked and all those matches will be tough. I would love to watch a Garland v. High Point final because they gave us one of our only losses last year and I would love some payback. I would also like to see Oak Creek v. High Point because these two had a great match on the opening weekend of the season and I think both teams have gotten better since then. And of course I would love to see our Oakridge Boys make it to Sunday and get a shot at High Point. All that assumes the darkhorse Greenhill or longshot Stonebridge don't mess up my Sunday afternoon plans.

4.5 should be fun too as there are three good teams the only bad part is it might be decided early as Fair Oaks plays Oak Creek in the 1st match. The loser of that match will have to hope for no undefeated teams in order to remain in contention.

RATINGS ARE OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The new year end ratings are out. They have not posted it on the TX site yet but if you go to "Find a Rating" on the tennislink site you can view your new rating.

You can also appeal online immediately and the process is very easy. I earned a 4.0 rating and tried out the new online appeal option to see how it worked and I was "DENIED."

So I guess I better lose some weight and get in some drill classes. Let me know if you see any intesting names I have only checked my own so far.

New Topic (before that last one catches fire)

As much fun as Oakridge bashing is I will take Jonathan's advice and move on. Still a little while to go before ratings and the playoffs but if you have a chance check out this story from one of our links regarding the 3.5 that won nationals this year. For those of you have issues with the current rating system feel free to get on this site and there are two contacts at the National USTA office that will take comments and suggestions. Jason Freeman of the TX champ team noted this team was head and shoulders above the other teams at Nats. My old team in So Cal played them at Sectionals and had similar things to say.

Team of 3.5 Self-Raters Wins Nationals

Do you think the USTA Dynamic Computer Rating Program might need some parameter adjustment, when it Dynamically Disqualifies honest, enthusiastic Computer Rated Players who have played at the same level for years, and then allows a team of Self Raters to win Nationals?

A team consisting of 11 Self Rated players, out of the total 13 players, advanced to, and won the 2007 3.5 National Championship! Unbelievable! Eleven Self-Raters, one 3.5 Benchmark, and one player with a 3.5 Mixed Doubles only rating.

7 out of 8 players from this team in the National Final were Self Rated.
The 2 singles players who played at Nationals, Self Rated Vincem Munoz and Raffy Bautista, never lost a match - from the local season all the way to Nationals.
Self Rated Nelson Toledo won every match all the way to Nationals and won one and lost one at Nationals.

You can go to TennisLink, at national.usta.com and look up USTA Team Number 6518356658, and review all the 2007 season matches for this team.

Do you think maybe USTA is starting the Self Rated players with a rating number that is too low within their self rated level?

Should a Self Rated player even be ALLOWED to come in and win all their regular season matches against the thousands of players who have played for years at the same level and have never even been to post season play?

Contact USTA and let them know what you think!

News and Notes (Oak Ridge smack talk and ratings very soon)

Congrats to Bob Somabut’s High Point 7.0 Mixed Doubles team who was the runner up to Nor Cal this weekend in Las Vegas. I know first hand those Californians take mixed doubles seriously, we even had DQ’s in Mixed Doubles back in So Cal.

Keep an eye out this week as the year end ratings should arrive, I am hoping by tomorrow. For some interesting thoughts from USTA Texas check out the Houston Tennis Blog in which the blogger has asked the USTA to look into blatant sandbagging. There is a 5.0 team there so blatant about getting back to 4.5 they named their team "Danny Four Five." Some people have no shame.

Also this weekend the Ladies Fall Championships took place and the winners were:

3.0 Royal Oaks
3.5 Stonebriar
4.0 T Bar M

And I would be remiss if I didn’t repost some comments from the Oak Ridge team on a older post in which I referred to them as good tourney players but not quite good enough to hang with league playoff teams. Meowww!!!

Anonymous said...
What a bunch of pussies. If you've ever had to play 8 to 10 matches on a Friday through Sunday before, you wouldn't even mention that those tournament guys don't have what it takes. Also that team doesn't have any ringer type people, like jeromi or eddie hill, as they have proven records from the last year in the tourneys. Most every other team that is in this league has at least one or more sandbaggers on their team, so instead of trying to smear the only legit team, why don't you clean up yours.
November 18, 2007 7:26 PM
Anonymous said...
Nice language. Didn't really help you make your point.I agree with your comment that tournament play is difficult especially if you play singles and doubles.But don't fool yourself that any playoff team has no players that could be questioned as playing below level.I assume you are referring to Oak Ridge 3.5, but am unsure because Eddie Hill didn't play 3.5 this USTA season.
November 18, 2007 9:42 PM
Anonymous said...
What players do people think are ringers or sandbaggers at 3.5?

4.0 Playoff Preview and odds to win the weekend (I’ll take bets)

High Point (3 to 1)
I have to put them at the top since you can’t go against the sectional runner-up with the exact same roster plus a few good additions. Still no guarantees at singles but there isn’t any mega ringers among the 6 teams so that shouldn’t be an issue since they should at least earn a split each time out. I think it will come down to them or the Lakes winning this tournament.

Lakes (6 to 1)
This team although they made it to the QT tourney last season is somewhat of a surprise to me but a few good additions here and there and this team is rolling along and will get a chance to show just how good they are and I think they will do well although I am not convinced they are extremely deep at doubles but Jobe looks to have moved from singles to help shore up the doubles group and Ramesh Balan is a tough player. I think they will depend on singles to carry them through this tourney but they have a good group with Runda, Jobe, Tran and Valtierra.

Brookhaven/Bartlett (10 to 1)
I would love to rank them higher especially since they came from our flight but they have a lack of depth at singles that will hurt them. Don Buford should account for a win just about each time out but past that Archer and Lazarra cannot pull off victories at this level. They have some great doubles teams though so if they can get a split at singles these team can be in the mix each time out only needing two doubles wins.

Springpark (15 to 1)
Flight B may not have been stacked with power teams but they were undefeated until the final week with their sole loss to #2 Lakes so I think they are about even with Bartlett’s group. This ranking is mainly earned from making it to Sectionals in the Spring. They did lose Walters and Erickson so they weakened them at singles and doubles but they are still a strong and experienced team that should do well but now lack a little depth to contend with the top two teams.

Stonebridge (25 to 1)
This team is a lot like Bartlett’s group in that their singles play may hurt them but there is no denying they have some good doubles teams but then again so does everyone else in the playoffs so that is why I have to rank them this low. Singles players Nix and Ruiz will keep them in the running though since I just don’t see any singles superstars in these six teams.

Brookhaven/Pearlman (50 to 1)
I know they fought hard to get into the playoffs but I just don’t see this team being able to stack up against the better teams. Other than Renwick and Chiu this team’s biggest strength is being consistent which was enough to get them through the regular season but I just don’t see the weapons that can have them come out on top of this list of teams. Also as much as I like my team if we beat them I find it hard to think they could beat out the top 5 teams in the league but they should be congratulated on bouncing back from a bad start to make the playoffs.

3.5 and 4.5 playoff schedule (updated)

So here are the 3.5 and 4.5 schedules along with odds for the 3.5 group. No need for odds at 4.5, Branch is even money with T Bar and Fair Oaks with a slight upset chance and LB Houston merely coming hoping their is free beer provided by the DTA (of course that is same reason I am coming out to watch)

4.5 Round Robin schedule

Saturday matches:
12p: T Bar v. LB Houston and Oak Creek v. Fair Oaks
Sunday matches:
10:30a: T Bar v. Oak Creek and LB Houston v. Fair Oaks
1:30p: Oak Creek v. LB Houston and T Bar v. Fair Oaks
---------------------------------------------------------------
3.5 Schedule (Odds to win)
Blue flight:
Oak Creek (6 to 1)
Oak Ridge (45 to 1)
Garland (2 to 1)

Red flight:
High Point (3 to 1)
Greenhill (10 to 1)
Stonebridge (35 to 1)

Friday matches:
6p: Oakridge v. Oak Creek and Greenhill v. Stonebridge

Saturday matches:
9a: Garland v. Oak Creek and High Point v. Stonebridge
3p: Oakridge v. Garland and High Point v. Greenhill

Sunday 3.5 Final
12p Winner of Blue v. Winner of Red

4.0 Season complete (Almost…)

So the Flight B playoff teams were already decided but Lakes and Springpark played each other for 1st place in the flight and the Lakes prevailed 4-1. Lakes won both singles matches in close straight set fashion, then gave up line 1 doubles and won lines 2 and 3 in tiebreaks. Lakes is the only 4.0 team to finish undefeated this season and looks to be cruising, they don’t have any ringers but have solid play from top to bottom. I have seen and played against some of this group before and they are good. Mike Runda has been one of the consistent singles players for them and he is a tough competitor with a big serve which gets even tougher on important points.

Flight A saw Stonebridge lose their final meaningless match and slip to 2nd place and High Point Somabut won a must win match v. LB Houston 4-1 with one win by default. Joel Pickett won in straights at line 1 singles and the rest of the matches went 3 sets so this was tougher than expected but they prevailed and earned a playoff spot. That win eliminated the other High Point team captained by Adrian Giuhat.

Flight C is still pending but some teams have been eliminated. Before Saturday 5 teams were still fighting for two spots but with the results posted so far Garland and Lifetime have been eliminated from playoff contention. These two had a close match Saturday with Garland prevailing 3-2 (I am sure Jonathan can give us a rundown on this match) but it was all for nothing as Brookhaven Pearlman passed by both of them sweeping JCC in their final match. Currently the two Brookhaven teams will advance but 5-2 T Bar M still has two matches to play (JCC and Brookhaven/Bartlett) and they must win both matches and they will advance along with Brookhaven/Bartlett.

We will just have to wait and see but I believe they are required to get this match in before Monday so I will update as I see it posted.

3.5 Playoff preview

It seems like forever until Nov 30th but I will go ahead and post this up for lack of matches to talk about. (I guess we will have new ratings to talk about around 11/20)

I will be interested to see the pairings for the tourney but here is what I expect (just my guess on past pairings)

Flight I
Garland, HP and Oak Ridge

Flight II
Greenhill, SBridge and Oak Creek

And here are my pre-playoff thoughts.

3.5 Playoff Rankings

1. Garland
Undefeated and only lost Vijay Singh from their runner up finish in the Spring. Even though they lost Singh they gained Oberto. I think the difference with them will come down to Delira. This is probably his last hurrah at 3.5 and he has come up with great results in the playoffs but has also had some really bad results (I watched him get trounced by Rob Bliss in Spring 06 (6-2, 6-1). If he plays well they will be tough to beat but without strong results from him I am not as confident in their chances to finish on top.

2. High Point
Hmm. We lost 8 players off of the sectional team, one got his appeal through but we moved up 5 players from our 2nd team who had a 6-2 record in the Spring so they are experienced. Strong addition of singles specialist Di Zhao will help in that area as well. Although not as strong as our previous group I like the makeup of this team even better, there are three consistent doubles teams and three strong singles players that almost seem interchangeable. Also the bench players are very capable of stepping in and making contributions. Sorry I can't put them 1st but I don't want to be a total homer.


3. Oak Creek
Old and crusty but good enough. I haven’t seen the new dominant doubles team (Yauch/Rivera) but they should account for one win v. just about any team in the tournament. After that the doubles talent drops off a little to just good unless OC decides to split them up to disperse their strength. Singles now lands on the shoulders of Marc Klamecki, he must get a win each time out or I worry about their chances. Marc is strong but if he runs into a pusher he could get in trouble. Not sure who will be a regular in the #2 slot behind Marc, maybe Barnhard but line 2 singles will be important for them.

4. Greenhill
I like this team and would have them rated higher if not for the stronger and younger teams at the top. Greenhill will rely heavily on their doubles strength to do well. Their roster reads like a senior all star team at doubles but singles is pretty much John Sims and Jason Fraser, both solid players but not guarantees to win. If they can get a split at singles I like their chances but don’t see them being able to win a match unless they can grab at least one singles match in each match.

5. Stonebridge
This team continues to hang in there and returns just about everyone if I am not mistaken from their Spring team that made it to the QT tourney in the Spring. Too bad them and Garland look like they will not play a rainout match, I would be interested to see how they match up. They will probably go as far as Fitzpatrick and Ackerman can take them. They don’t have much at singles after that although Greg Barats is solid. Kevin Dooney, Ruben Muniz and Jim Bostick are probably their best doubles players. I think this is a good team but not enough firepower to contend with the teams at the top.

6. Oak Ridge
Jeromi should be happy I listed this team last. Truly nothing personal in fact I would say they could be tied with Stonebridge at 5th. I know a lot of these guys play tourneys but league tennis playoffs is a whole other animal. I took a talented team to this tournament last year and ended up 0-3 in our flight. I look at their results and roster and they all have good results but nothing stands out to say they can contend with the big 3 at the top. Prather and Girder have some good results but these teams squeaked by a few teams that were weak in the C flight. I did like their win v. Greenhill but Sims didn’t play that match and Terry Newman was playing singles, I would have liked to seen that match with Newman at doubles and Sims playing #2 singles.

4.5 Early playoff preview

I am no expert at 4.5 tennis (have you seen my serve, eek?) but here is my humble opinion on the 4.5 playoffs. Please feel free to chime in upper level players out there. I am interested to catch a match or two that weekend, can you say Tri-Level recruiting???

Ok here we go:

4.5 Playoff Rankings

1. OC/Branch
Kind of hard to rate them lower since they have won this league for I am not sure how many seasons running. With James and Walker playing singles most of the way and doubles teams that have wins at the sectional level it will be hard to pick against them. But I am an underdog lover so I cheer against the Yankees, Spurs and Patriots so I have to root for another team to knock them off this time around.

2. T Bar M
This could be the team to beat OC this time, they beat them in the regular season but I am curious how “real” those results are but I don’t think these guys are light years behind. They have a huge roster so they maybe hiding some players of their own. They also have some players coming down from 5.0 much like Branch’s group so they should at least make it interesting.

3. Fair Oaks
Surprise team of the season and I don’t know what to think but I plan on checking out one of their matches to see what is up. I have seen their two 4.0 rated players before (Gervelis and Russell) as well as former 4.0 Robinson. Seems like their strength actually lies at singles with Jeff Wells, Chris Pak and Corey Noel. I think they will need to win a lot of singles matches that weekend in order to do any damage because I just don’t see that much amazing doubles results that could contend with the top two teams here.

4. LB Houston
Hard to rate them any higher than this spot since they lost their last regular season match v. OC/Feldman and at the time that win would have clinched a spot instead they got some help from Greenhill to get into the playoffs. Definitely some quality players but I don’t see them scoring any upsets. They will mostly be hurt by lack of good singles play, many matches they won 3-2 by dropping both singles matches. With that said the obviously have some good doubles players and I guess will be in a lot of 3-2 matches but at this level it will be tough to sweep the doubles matches.

4.0 playoffs shaping up (1 week to go…)

Flight A:
After a great start and also a big win over Somabut’s team HP/Giuhat’s playoff hopes are all but over with a loss to Stonebridge. HP took both singles matches but lost all three doubles matches. Only line 3 was close as it went to a tiebreaker. Stonebridge qualifies with this win. The 2nd spot comes down to the two High Point teams, Somabut’s team is in with a win and Giuhat’s team needs a win and a Somabut loss in order to make it in.

Flight B:
The Lakes and Springpark had strong outings this weekend to both improve to 8-0 and both qualify for the playoffs. They have a match against each other this weekend but it is meaningless as far as advancement is concerned.

Flight C:
Brookhaven Barlett bounced back after their first loss of the season taking out Lifetime 4-1. There were some close matches but in the end a 4-1 victory secures a playoff spot for Brookhaven. In the most interesting playoff chase the 2nd spot is available to four different teams (BH/Pearlman, Garland, Lifetime and T BAR M) T Bar and LF both only have two losses so they have the best shot but BH/Pearlman and Garland still have good tiebreakers to get in with 3 losses. Garland had a hard 2-3 loss v. Pearlman’s team Saturday as former 3.5 Kyle Rhodes handed Trey McKinney his first loss of the season. I have no idea what will happen here and T Bar has 3 matches to play somehow, all against teams that have nothing to play for so that will benefit them. The Garland v. Lifetime match should be very competitive and probably produce the 2nd playoff team.

3.5 and 4.5 Regular season over (Playoff teams set)

4.5

Flight A:
Fair Oaks dropped a meaningless match and wins their flight with a 7-1 record. OC/Feldman beats Greenhill but not convincingly enough so they finish 3rd behind LB Houston who will be the 2nd playoff team from this flight with a 6-2 record.

Flight B:
T Bar M rolled over Canyon Creek to secure a playoff spot along with playoff regular OC/Branch.

These four will play a round robin at the end of November with Branch’s team being the early fav but T Bar M has to be in the conversation since they beat them two weeks ago.

3.5

Flight A:
High Point was able to bounce back after their loss to Westlake and beat Gleneagles 4-1 to secure 1st place in the flight and end Gleneagles’ playoff hopes. I was at this match and it was close for a little while. Both line 1 and 2 doubles went to 3rd set tiebreaks and High Point was down in both of those tiebreakers but rallied to win. Trae played very well to take out previously undefeated Aamer Ravji. Oak Creek swept out Canyon Creek to secure the 2nd spot and complete a great comeback after dropping to 2-2 early in the season.

Flight B:
Garland swept Lifetime to finish undefeated and Stonebridge took out Brookhaven securing their playoff spot and dashing the hopes of Brookhaven who will miss the playoffs for the 2nd straight season.

Flight C:
Greenhill won the big match up with Springpark only dropping one line to Jeromi Kelsey at line 1 singles. As predicted their doubles were just too much for Springpark. Greenhill finished tied with Oak Ridge at 7-1 who will be the other playoff rep.

Now we just wait to see how the RED and BLUE flights break out. These are six good teams and any one of them has a shot. Early fav would have to be undefeated Garland.

Big matches this weekend

So obviously the biggest game is Colts v. Pats this weekend (GO COLTS!!!) but in our own little world of league tennis there are some big matchups.

4.5
OC/Feldman v. Greenhil (a big win sends OC to the playoffs)
T Bar M v. Canyon Creek (a CC wins should get them into the playoffs)

4.0
Lifetime v. BH/Bartlett (Both tied with 1 loss, winner will be set up for final week of season)
Garland v. BH/Pearlman (Garland has been on a roll but so has Pearlman's team)
HP/Giuhat v. Stonebridge (winner will be in 1st place and sitting pretty for the playoffs)
Springpark v. Greenhill/Arnette (Greenhill needs a win or they are eliminated)

3.5
HP/Bowman v. Gleneagles (HP just needs just two individual wins and GE needs a win)
OC/Smith v. Canyon Creek
(OC has been on a mission and needs one more win and some help from HP to finish their comeback after the DQ of Ahner)
Springpark v. Greenhill
(This match will decide the 2nd playoff team in this flight, the loser will stay home)

Thoughts???????????????

1st Annual USTA Masters Tourney

There is a lot of tennis going on this weekend and looks to be great weather. For you tournament players there first annual MASTERS tourney takes place in Austin, starting tomorrow AM.

Dallas reps:

4.5: J.D Miles of Canyon Creek: he has Odion Dibua and Reader in his round robin section. If he could make it out of the first two days I would think the final maybe a breeze. Any thoughts?

4.0: Jason Warren of the Village: he has good results against some of the top players, I wouldn't be shocked to see him to do well. Big guns Janek and Kern will be tough but Kern is in other section so there could be a clash between the two in the finals.

3.5 John Kraemer and Eddie Hill headed down to represent Dallas. They are in seperate flights so who knows it could be an all Dallas final. Kraemer has Nguyen and Dutchover in his section which means there will be plenty of defensive tennis going on there. Eddie should do fine in his section and meet up with one of these three in the final. I think Eddie will win the weekend.


Let me know what you think of any of these guys, I know Jonathan has played many of them and has wins over a few of them as well.

4.0 Update

Flight A:
Still waiting on a post from Giuhat's High Point team, I would love to assume they won but after their last loss to the Village I won't be presumptuous. Stonebridge and Somabut's High Point team continued to roll along to improve to 6-1. With two weeks to go this flight is getting tight and I am not sure if both High Point teams can hang in there but Bob's team looks to be improving.

Flight B:
The Lakes and Springpark further cemented their spots at the top and even the loser of that match has good tiebreakers against 3rd place Greenhill, so I think this flight is all but over.

Flight C:
The battle of the Brookhavens turned out to be a big upset as previously undefeated Bartlett went down to Pearlman 1-4 (OUCH!) So now this becomes a four team race for two spots and all these teams play each other down the last two week stretch. I still like Bartlett's chances since they have the Village on their schedule and play Lifetime this week (and I believe Eddie Hill will be in Austin this weekend playing the Masters) I may be going out on a limb but Pearlman's team has a good chance here as they finish with Garland and JCC who I think they match up well with both teams and the top three will be beating up on each other. Crazy to think a 3 loss team could make it and as much as it would hurt to see them advance since my team handed them one of their losses I really think they have a good shot.

3.5 Update

Flight A:
Trae warned me he wasn’t confident about the lineup and maybe paired with my constant talk about the good play of Westlake they scored a big upset over previously undefeated High Point 3-2. Gleneagles and Oak Creek stayed in contention with solid wins this weekend and the playoff spots will come down to the GE v. HP match and the OC v. CC matches. High Point needs to just win 2 individual matches to secure a spot and GE needs to win and OC needs to win and wait for the scores to roll in. Should get interesting…And I know they are like my adopted team but strange things could happen and Westlake could end up in the playoffs. We will just have to wait and see.

Flight B
Garland continued to roll along and they are the only undefeated team at 3.5. Stonebridge is still in 2nd with a make up match v. Garland still pending. Brookhaven is staying on track at 5-2 and has a match up this weekend with Stonebridge. So this flight should be decided this Sunday afternoon and could get very interesting. My prediction (SB and Garland)

Flight C:
I hope I didn’t jinx Lifetime when I predicted them as an early lock but I am shocked to see them out of the race in this flight. Oakridge is now in the playoffs (congrats!) The 2nd spot will be decided this weekend on the court between Springpark and Greenhill/Kayser. My pick (sorry if I jinx you) Greenhill 3-2. Jeromi Kelsey took on blog poster Jonathan Marcus and handed him his first loss of the season at 3.5 or 4.0. I would love to know your thoughts Jonathan. DQ material???

4.5 Update

Flight A
This flight is pretty much over with T Bar cruising to another victory. I am beginning to think this team is for real. I wasn’t impressed mainly because a lot of this team was doing just OK at 4.0 not that long ago but it is hard to argue against their record. OC Branch still looks to be in good shape as well although OC Boverman is lurking close behind with their match coming up this Sunday.

Flight B:
So Fair Oaks is in the playoffs, the have one remaining match but win or lose they are headed to the playoffs. The 2nd spot comes down to OC/Feldman and LB Houston. OC Feldman must win 5-0 v. Greenhill/Stoner. I know an early poster predicted a comeback from this OC team but I find it hard to believe the OC team can sweep Greenhill unless Greenhill is just not interested in winning this coming weekend.

News and Notes (Nats and Ratings talk)

A new poster requested a new post, so who I am to turn down a request. Here is what were were talking about.

"I couldn't agree more with wanting the best players to represent TX and it seems like TX has more stringent rules. The talk about Oberto in this post is a player I think is a good sectional/nat level 3.5 but will lose at higher level 4.0 matches so I think he should be safe but I will be shocked if this current system doesn't DQ him"

In related news the last week of Nationals took place this weekend and Bob Bender's Dallas Senior 3.0 team faired the best finishing 3rd and losing to eventual champ from Southern in a close match, congrats on your season. The super 4.0 Women's team from Greenhill that had about 50 players that read like an all-star group of Dallas did not fare as well finsihing 1-2 in pool play. Also finishing 1-2 in pool play was the Houston 4.0 mens team which did lose a close match to eventual champ (Nor Cal).

The one I find most interesting is the 4.0 mens group not only because that is my current level but more so because I heard how amazing they were from players at the 4.0 sectional tournament as they dominated that weekend, winning 5-0 in the final over High Point. But then they get to NATS and get beat in their first two matches.

I am still waiting on results to roll in from this weekend so let me know your thoughts on the TX section and the Dallas area as well in the meantime.

3.5 Week in Review

Flight A:
High Point continued to roll with a sweep of Chandler’s Landing and sit undefeated at the top. Gleneagles won a 4-1 decision over Eldorado although there was some close results in there. Oak Creek and Westlake also had convincing victories to stay in contention in this flight. High Pt all but clinched a playoff spot with that win and so it comes down to the other three teams. Westlake and GE have to play High Point over the next two weeks so that will be interesting to see how those matches play out.

Flight B:
Garland remains undefeated with Stonebridge hanging out right behind them as they had a 4-1 win this weekend. These two have a makeup match that should be very competitive and decide the 2nd spot. Stonebridge has a bye this week so maybe they are playing Garland this weekend. After that they have a final date with Brookhaven which should give BH one last chance to catch them. I think Stonebridge is balanced enough to hold onto 2nd but probably not strong enough to catch Garland.

**Ben Oberto** It is kind of strange that I called out this player’s name as a DQ watch and Sunday morning he showed up as my 4.0 opponent. Result 6-4, 6-1 win for Oberto. Hmm. You can thank me later, he also racked up another win at 4.0 on Saturday (6-3, 6-3). I have a feeling Garland knows he will be DQ’ed and will need him on their 4.0 playoff contending team anyway. To be honest after watching him play I don’t think he deserves to be bumped, he is a good player but not “out of category”. I should thank him as well with that loss and another one I should be a 3.5 in no time.

Flight C:
This flight will come down to the final point as three teams have one loss and Lifetime is right behind at 4-2. Oakridge knocked off previously unbeaten Greenhill/Kayser to takeover 1st place. Kayser’s team is in a virtual tiebreaker tie with Springpark for 2nd place and Lifetime also looks to have good tiebreakers. I don’t even know where to start with predicting the winners in this flight. I will put Oakridge in because even if they lose to Lifetime they still have a chance to get in. The other teams have two matches remaining and all have matches they could lose. My prediction is Oakridge and GH/Kayser. I just don’t think LF has enough depth to win a big match and I got to see Springpark play and we defaulted a match and almost beat them so I don’t see them getting far. They had a “ringer’ at line 1 singles but my best singles player took him out in 3 sets and their doubles teams are not quite up to playoff level quite yet.

4.5 Update

Flight A:
At first I was shocked when I saw this, Branch’s team loses 1-4 to T Bar M but I wonder how much of that is just “working” on their ratings and hey I totally get that. They are still in first place an with no seeding in the playoffs as long as they get in the tourney they will be fine. This result will bolster the hopes of T Bar M to get into the playoffs since they only have one loss and two winnable matches left.

Flight B:
Looks like Fair Oaks will ease the rest of the way and finish undefeated here as far as the 2nd spot it comes down to OC/Feldman v. LB Houston this coming Sunday. The winner of that match should hold the tiebreaker over the loser and advance onto the playoffs. My pick goes with Oak Creek.

4.0 Update

Flight A:
This flight is starting to take form as it looks like it comes down to 3 teams for 2 spots. Stonebridge has a big tie break edge on High Point Somabut but they also have a remaining match with High Point/Giuhat. The only problem for Bob’s team is that team Giuhat doesn’t need to win that match so why would they play their best players? Who knows what will happen but I think the High Point groups will get in here although I wouldn’t be shocked if this Stonebridge team messes things up because they are on a roll lately.

Flight B:
So the clash of Lakes and Greenhill turned out to be rather anti-climactic as the Lakes won easily 4-1. That result in my mind kind of cements Springpark and the Lakes as the winners in this group, I just don’t see one of them dropping back far enough to have Greenhill catch them. I am still not totally sold on the Springpark team as a big contender but I do think the Lakes could cause problems in the playoffs for some of the other top teams although they would still be an underdog.

Flight C:
My team’s hopes ended Saturday with a loss to JCC so our big match up with Garland turned into a casual match for us and it showed as Garland won 4-1 and also picked up a 5-0 sweep over T Bar M to shoot up to 3rd in this flight. Lifetime had a dominating win to hold position in the 2nd playoff spot. Bartlett’s continued to look good as they won over Canyon Creek. So it really comes down to these three teams. I have played all three and Bartlett’s team is the best of the bunch but not by a huge margin. Both Garland and Lifetime use good 3.5 players to fill out #3 doubles and last I checked those players couldn’t even play in the playoffs because they would be needed more on their 3.5 teams for the playoffs. It should come down to the last week of the season when Lifetime plays Garland and they will need to win because they should be a 2 loss team by then since they still have a date with Bartlett’s team. If I had to put money down I would go with Garland because of their singles players but if they can manage to split singles with Garland I think they have better doubles teams.

4.0/4.5 Week in Review

4.0

Pretty light action at 4.0 since we had a bye for the Dallas Tennis Cup (anyone know how that went?)

Flight A:
Stonebridge had a big makeup win by knocking off Hackberry convincingly and taking over 2nd place, moving into 3rd was High Point/Somabut as they made up a rainout match with Brookhaven and won by yet another 3-2 score. They have won or lost all five matches in this fashion which should make for an interesting ending in this flight. Still a lot of tennis to be played in this flight and I still like the two High Point teams to win some big matches, I am just not a believer in Stonebridge or Canyon Creek quite yet, but I have been wrong before.

Flight B:
Springpark was the lone makeup match here as they improved to 5-0 with a win over LB Houston. Oak Creek and Eldorado also squared off and Oak Creek got their first win as a season as Blog all star DQ Dewayne Ahner (formerly of 3.5) debuted at 4.0 and lost a close match, hey maybe you are a 3.5 Dewayne. Although Dewayne did have the closest match with undefeated Jeff Weiss of Eldorado, so what a minute, maybe you are a 4.0 after all.

Flight C:
Brookhaven remained the only undefeated team with a make up v. Garland. Garland took line #1 singles with William McKinney (undefeated on the season) but lost the rest of the matches. The 2nd spot in this flight is still up for grabs with 5 teams with legit chances to finish up behind Brookhaven who looks to be unbeatable in this flight. Big matches this weekend T Bar v. Garland, High Pt. v. Garland and Lifetime v. LB Houston.

4.5 Matches

Flight B
Fair Oaks had off this week so they remain undefeated. LB Houston and Brookhaven squared off for sole possession of 2nd place. LB Houston won the match 3-2 by dropping two singles matches and winning all the doubles. Oak Creek/Feldman jumped up to 3rd place with a solid 4-1 win over the Lakes. This sets up a big match on 10/28 between LB Houston and Oak Creek/Feldman to see who will take over 2nd place. The would actually be tied record wise but they are currently tied at 19 individual wins so Feldman’s team would almost certainly win the tiebreaker if they just win out in their final two matches.

Flight A
Canyon Creek faltered for the 2nd week in a row with a loss to Stonebridge. Now that the luster has fallen off them it will be interesting to see who joins Rusty Branch’s team in the playoffs from this flight. Possibly T Bar M or Boverman’s Oak Creek team but they still have a date with Branch’s team at the end of the season so we will see how nice they are to one another when those lineups come out. Looking at these teams I am not sure at all who will come out and at risk of making a bad prediction I don’t see the 2nd place team in this flight making any noise in the playoffs.

3.0 Nationals

Bob Bender's 3.0 team beat the Caribbean team 3-2 on Sunday to win 3.0 Nationals yesterday. Congrats to all of you!!!

This is Bob's 2nd 3.0 title, he also won in 2004. So get ready for some of these guys at 3.5 next year they will be good.

3.5 Week in Review

3.5 Week in Review

Flight A:
High Point continued to look impressive with a 5-0 win over JCC and knocked them down to 6th place. Their new addition Di Zhao debuted with an almost double bagel at line #2 singles. Canyon Creek dropped two singles match but managed to win all the doubles matches to beat Chandler’s Landing and remain in 2nd tied with Gleneagles. Canyon Creek has three big matches that will show their true record very soon with Westlake next week, then Gleneagles followed by Oak Creek. Westlake swept over Eldorado to get back in the mix at 3-2 tied up with Oak Creek. So essentially 6 teams are alive here with legitimate chances to capture the top two spots. I have a feeling there will be a tie for 2nd place here so winning 4 and 5 lines will become important over the next few matches for these teams. High Point must remain interested and continue taking care of business and if they win big over the next two matches they could build up a big enough lead to clinch the #1 spot before the last match is even played.

Flight B:
Garland remained on top knocking off Hackberry rather convincingly only dropping a singles match. Ben Oberto dropped a double bagel on Stephen Levine at line 1 singles (ouch!) I don’t wish any bad luck on Garland but can you say STRIKE! (possibly his 2nd already) Stonebridge rolled to an easy victory to remain in 2nd place while Brookhaven notched a rather impressive 4-1 win over early front runner Lifetime/Kaiser. This flight should get interesting as it looks to be a fight between the top four teams (Garland, Stonebridge, Brookhaven and LB Houston) They all play one another down the stretch so this flight will take shape rather soon, I really think the Stonebridge v. Garland makeup match should be very close as well as LB Houston v. Brookhaven. I think when the dust settles you will see Stonebridge and Garland hang onto their top spots.

Flight C:
Greenhill remains on top as they knocked Lifetime/Ferrell further down the rankings with a 3-2 win. The doubles matches looked very close with Greenhill taking lines 1 and 2 with the most impressive win coming from the captain v. captain match at line 1 doubles where Kayser/Hall took out Ferrell/Blackburn. This win was very impressive and although this Greenhill lacks ringers at singles they do have some very good doubles teams. Terry Newman played #3 doubles in this match, I believe I played Terry at line #1 doubles at 4.0 a year or so ago. That shows you how deep this team is. The other team that finished this weekend looking good is the new Oak Ridge team headed up by David Prather who moved to 5-1 with a 4-1 victory over Oak Creek only losing the Jonathan Marcus at line #1 singles. Springpark also stayed on track with a close win over Greenhill/Lyon. I will get to see this Springpark team in person so I will let you know more about them next week as my team plays them. I am missing some good players so take it easy on me.

Another DQ

This actually looks like it happened back somtime after 9/23 but I didn't catch it since it was in Flight B and I don't have a rooting interest in that flight. The player name is Jeff Wier from LB Houston/Wisdom. This was done rather quick in just 3 match results. A 6-1, 6-1 beating of Nilesh Mistry who has been a consistent winner at 3.5 and a double bagel of Dustin Lamb (don't know much about this player) and the nail in the coffin was probably the 6-4, 6-2 win over Jacques Delira who will be a 4.0 once again when the year end ratings come out.

Any thoughts? This might make a difference for the LB team who looks to be doing OK but a player like this could have really helped them get over being just a fringe team and being a real contender if they make it to the playoffs.

4.5 Week in Review

So the two big matches happened this weekend, let's start with the Battle of the Oaks which went to Fair Oaks in a sweep, yes they whipped up on Royal Oaks 5-0. I know I and another poster have doubted just how good this team is but if you start to win like this I believe it becomes contagious so I would say watch out Oak Creek teams this group looks good.

Speaking of Oak Creek, they went into thier big match up with undefeated Canyon Creek and spotted them a default and then proceeded to beat them 4-1. Hey Oak Creek ,I was free on Sunday I could have taken a beating at line 3, give me a call.

One day I hope to have a team good enough, I can give the other team a head start and then romp them.

Anyway in Flight B other than Fair Oaks there are a bunch of other teams that are fighting for leftovers and to take the 2nd spot including OC/Feldman who took out a good Brookhaven team in a very close match.

In Flight A Canyon Creek still looks good for spot #2 but OC/Boverman and T Bar are lingering at the top as well.

3.5/4.0 Week 5

So 4.0 wrap up is pretty easy it rained so there was no matches completed. Should make for a lot of makeups on our bye weekend coming up and the following weekend as well.

As far as the 3.5's everyone has posted except for one match (Canyon Creek v. JCC) so here is what happpened:


Flight A:
The Gleneagles/Oak Creek match turned out to be a rout with Oak Creek surprisingly winning 4-1. I guess they still want to be considered a top team. They will still need to win out although they have two somewhat easy matches and then a last weekend match with Canyon Creek that will probably be for their season. Not only do they need to win but win big every week which can be tough with a small roster and teams just playing with no pressure. Gleneagles still sits in a good spot with one loss and can also rack up some good wins before they play High Point in the final weekend. If all goes according to plan it could come down to individual matches played which is always a tough way to have your fate decided.

Flight B:
Garland continued to roll with a 5-0 win over LB Houston/Daly. They continue to get the job done against the lower end teams and will soon have a chance to show just how good they are since they have a makeup match with Stonebridge and a match against a rising Hackberry team this weekend. Stonebridge knocked off Lifetime 3-2 to become the only one loss team in this flight and can really cement a good spot if they can get a win over Garland. Wisdom’s LB Houston team improved to 3-2 to sit right behind the top two teams. The big upset of the weekend was last place Stonebriar knocking off 2-1 Brookhaven and almost dashing their hopes of the playoffs because now they would have to win out against some good teams. Wisdom’s team will meet Stonebridge on 10/21 and that should decide a lot about final positioning for the playoffs.

Flight C:
Greenhill Kayser had a bye this week but by not playing they became the only undefeated team in this flight as Lifetime Fitness was taken out by the upstart B team from Oak Creek, maybe they are attempting to become the A team from Oak Creek. At 2-2 they are still in the mix with the top four teams. Springpark stayed on track with a win over Canyon Creek and hopes to get a chance to make up some ground in the weeks to come but don’t play Kayser’s team for another few weeks in what should be a good match. Oak Ridge had a good win over my guys 4-1 this Sunday. I wasn’t able to make it out but the had a few very convincing wins at line #2 singles and #1 doubles. They improved to 4-1 and can really change the composition of this flight as they have remaining matches with Lifetime and Greenhill/Kayser. Looking at those four teams at the top I truly think they can all beat each other so who knows who will come out of this flight with Oak Creek at #5 they could even vault up to the top 2 after all these team beat each other.

DQ at 3.5

We have our first DQ of the season: DeWayne T. Ahner of the formerly 1st place Oak Creek team has been disqualified and moved to 4.0 after four out of category results. This shakes up the Flight A big time as Trae's High Point team has moved to 4-0 and Oak Creek falls to 2-2 and almost out of contention altogether. In order to even remain in the mix they must come up with a win at Gleneagles without Dewayne.

I can't say I am surprised after Trae gave me the scouting report on Dewayne, I have been watching. I know how frustrating this can be as I lost a player to DQ last year but Oak Creek was due after getting away with Antonio DelRincon last fall who now is winning at 4.5.

Anyone else know of any players who might be in jeopardy so far this season.

I think DQ's are a tough thing to debate because so often it is matchups that determine lopsided scores. I was beaten by a DQ player two years ago 6-1, 6-0(Chan Park) and then took him onto my 4.0 team. After playing him over the last two years my results are very close although I still haven't beaten him. Many of you know TQ who was part of my 3.5 team last year, he is not overpowering at all but would often beat players convincingly by merely frustrating them to the point they wanted to retire.

I do like self rating more than the rating clinics which used to judge people in "practice" play which isn't always indicative of competitive match play.

Oh and by the way I lied I guess this wasn't my last post but this was big league news especially since it effected one of my teams.

Last post for today - Dallas Leagues (I promise)

I really should be working but I have been a little sick this week so blogging requires less concentration so here is one more thought for the day.

I know I have posted results but I am also wondering if you all have any ideas, complaints or compliments about Dallas League Tennis.

I moved from CA and the first thing I love about Dallas tennis is the participation. We were lucky to get 13 teams to play 3.5 tennis as opposed to Dallas with 30 teams. Which seems crazy since LA has 3 times the population.

Here are some rules and ideas I know that might be worth thinking about:

3rd set tiebreaker: Good, bad or EVIL???
Team names: Why the hell not, I personally hate having my name as part of the team, I have an ego but not a big enough one that I need my name at the top. I have named my teams anyway especially since I have multiple teams it makes it easier for me to tell them apart.
Weeknight leagues: I have run into a few people who don’t join league tennis because of weekend commitments why not a league during the week as well as the weekend league??

Weekend schedules: Do you think it would be crazy to open it up to the captain to decide whether the match will be on Saturday or Sunday?

Sundays: Matches before 1p???? Sacrilege or a good idea?
Singles league/Doubles leagues: in off seasons many other large cities have single leagues and doubles leagues instead of the Fall format we have. What do you think?

Fall Champ automatic Bid: Do you like the idea of the Fall champ getting the auto bid or do we need a season off to just play?

Let me know about any other issues you have thought about or bitched about during league play and maybe we can bring them up at our next meeting in 2008.

3.5 Vegas Nationals

The Houston (with a little Galveston, FW, Dallas) super team is headed to Vegas for 3.5 Nationals this weekend. Do you think they have a shot of being 3.5 National Champs?

Some of you I know have played a lot their players in tournaments throughout Texas and John Kraemer is from here in Dallas and so many of you have seen or played against him. So let me know your thoughts.

I think they will do well if they can make it out of their flight. They truly only have one ringer Francis Tongol and after that they are just very deep and consistent. 3.5 Tourney champ Ismael Dutchover will be hard to beat in a long tournament so I see him doing well. The doubles teams of Freeman/Hart and Goodwin/Johnson will be tough to beat, I don’t think Freeman/Hart have dropped a set this year.

I had the pleasure of playing them on the court at sectionals and hope they do well this weekend.

4.5 Update, Week 4

Flight A:
The two big guns continued to do well and set up a match of the undefeated teams in the flight on Sunday. Hackberry and OC/Boverman need to win so they can try and catch the loser of the match for the 2nd spot. Also T Bar only has one loss at 1-1 since it looks like they have a missing match score v. Collin County.

Flight B:
Fair Oaks continued to do well with a good win over Greenhill. Brookhaven stayed undefeated as well but matches up with OC/Feldman this weekend in a good test for them. Fair Oaks and Royal Oaks match up in the “Battle of the Oaks”??? and it could be a chance for Royal Oaks to get back in the mix.

4.0 Week Four Recap

4.0 Week 4Well there were some big matches and they seemed to have lived up to the hype.

Flight A:
The clash of undefeated High Point teams went to the underdog Adrian Giuhat’s team as they edged out a 3-2 win. I was most impressed by the win by Steven Bolden and Sam at line #3 doubles. I practice with Steven so I know how well he can play but he had been struggling with injuries lately. You must have played great, congrats! So now the Giuhat’s team stands at the top there are 4 teams locked at 3-1 (Stonebridge, Hackberry, Canyon Creek and High Point/Somabut) I think these teams are rather even, they all have some weak points but obviously are good enough to beat anyone. It looks like this flight will be decided late in the season. Some more big matchups this weekend before the bye week will be important including Stonebridge v. Hackberry and LB Houston v. Canyon Creek.

Flight B:
The three undefeated teams stayed undefeated and we just have to sit and wait till they play one another because they are just chugging right along with somewhat easy wins. I will mark my calendar for Oct. 20th when Greenhill meets the Lakes so we can see something happen in this flight.

Flight C:
Big win by T Bar started the weekend as they knocked off previously unbeaten Lifetime. They now bump up near the top with a strong 3-1 record. Brookhaven Bartlett stands at the top at 3-0 as they took out JCC and my team this weekend. We hung close but missed out on winning two 3rd set tiebreakers. Brad’s team is very good at doubles, I personally got killed at #1 doubles and I thought I played awesome. I guess my version of awesome wasn’t all that great. Garland has not posted yet and is still missing two match results so who knows what is going on with them but they are still 2-0. Pearlman’s team climbed from 0-2 back to 2-2 and is trying to make a run but with 4 teams in front of mine and Burt’s team it looks rather impossible to make up that type of ground unless some other teams fall backwards.

3.5 Week Four

Not too many surprises this week only one undefeated fell (Canyon Creek) but most all went according to plan.

Flight A:
Oak Creek continued to roll on with a convincing victory over Westlake and set up a clash for 1st place this coming weekend v. Gleneagles. High Point met up with previously undefeated Canyon Creek and won easily 4-1. So this coming weekend will tell a lot about the fate of this flight. Oak Creek could all but secure their spot at the top with a win or at least a spot in the playoffs. Gleneagles will put up a good fight, I don’t see another 5-0 win for Oak Creek because Gleneagles is way too deep for that too happen. High Point has a bye this weekend and Canyon Creek has JCC so they have a chance to get back on track and stay in the mix at the top of this flight. I really expected Westlake to do well this season but they have struggled so far and look to have fallen out of contention with loss # 2.

Flight B:
Garland is now the only undefeated here but has to play Brookhaven this weekend so they will be tested for sure. After that we have two others that are at 2-1 (Lifetime and Stonebridge) Lifetime started strong at 2-0 but now faces some more quality teams and may fall from this spot which paves the way for Stonebridge to take over that 2nd spot. The match to watch for the 2nd spot may be the last day of the season when Brookhaven meets Stonebridge at Brookhaven. The rest of this group has slipped to two losses and beyond and would need to go on a big run to have a chance.

Flight C:
So this flight is shaping up to be a battle between Lifetime and Greenhill who meet on Oct. 14th. But there are two one loss teams that I know are legitimate contenders to catch the loser of that match and that is Oak Ridge and Springpark. Oakridge seems to have strength in depth as they have good players all the way down to #3 doubles although no dominant ringer. Springpark I have heard does have some singles players to watch out for but lacks some depth at doubles. If I had to pick a winner in this flight right now I think Greenhill has enough to win with John Sims and Jason Fraser and some very experienced doubles players.

3.5 Week Three recap

Flight A:The top teams here continued to roll as Gleneagles scored another good victory this time over a new and improved Westlake team and Oak Creek took care of biz over Chandler’s Landing. Canyon Creek had the week off but resumes play against High Point who scored a 5-0 win over Eldorado. Gleneagles will take on Oak Creek so in this flight there could be one unbeaten left depending on how the weekend goes. Should be some good matches. Westlake is the wildcard, the early loss hurt them but I think their roster is too good just to pack it in, I expect them to bounce back and try to get back into this race for the playoffs.

Flight B:Lifetime Kaiser is showing they are not the only Lifetime team that can win at 3.5 as they moved to 2-0 and are locked in with Garland and Brookhaven who knocked off previously unbeaten Hackberry (sorry if I cursed you all talking about how improved you were). I still think Hackberry will decide some outcomes, that loss to Brookhaven was very close and this Brookhaven team is a consistent winner at 3.5. No score post from the Garland/Stonebridge match which would definitely answer some questions to how good these two teams are.
Flight C:The two big unbeaten teams here continued to do well as Lifetime won two matches over the weekend taking out Springpark and Greenhill Lyon and take on my little team this coming Sunday. Please be nice to them Mark. Greenhill/Kayser’s team took out my team 4-1 in very convincing fashion, I wasn’t there but I heard they are looking very strong. I have only played against a few guys on that team but I know they can be tough and they have added some good players to build on their success from the Spring. Oakridge and Springpark are still creeping right below these two at 2-1 and have roster that can cause some trouble but the top two have depth unlike anything the rest of this flight can handle.

4.5 Update

Nothing too interesting there are two unbeaten teams in each flight so obviously it is up to them to hold their positions an they are in the playoffs.

Flight A:
Oak Creek/Branch and Canyon Creek/Wildberger look strong at 2-0 as Oak Creek Boverman lost a close won to Collin County. Looking at the other teams I don’t know if there is anyone who can challenge the top two here, any thoughts???

Flight B:
Fair Oaks continued rolling to 3-0 and stayed unbeaten along with Brookaven, these two won’t meet until November so it will be awhile to see who grabs first if these two stay on track. Waiting in the wings are LB Houston and Royal Oaks but both have losses to these teams so they will need some help.

Does anyone think this Fair Oaks team can contend with the Flight A teams? I have seen some of their guys and they were good at 4.0 but not dominant so I am wondering if they can hang with the Branch team in December.

4.0 Week Three Recap

Flight A:
So in the A flight the High Point teams continue to roll along although Somabut’s team gave a default and had a doubles match come down to a 3rd set tiebreaker. Looks like they enjoy living on the edge this season. The Giuhat team is hard to figure, they have a different lineup each week and just keep finding good combinations to win. LB Houston had yet to report their matchup with Hackberry which should have been interesting. Stonebridge and Canyon Creek moved to 2-1 with good wins this week and remain one loss behind with hopes of joining the top group soon. The remaining four teams (Brookhaven, Eldorado, Village and Greenhill 2) were probably eliminated from the playoffs this weekend. With only two getting in with 1 loss is just about guaranteed but with 2 or 3 you are in need of a some type of miracle. This weekend will decide a lot as the two High Point match up in a battle for 1st place supremacy and also LB Houston battles Stonebridge. So it is possible there will just be one unbeaten team after the weekend concludes. Best of luck to all of you sounds like some good matches, I will try and swing by after my match and catch the High Point battle, anyone know a time???

Flight B:
So the big three continued to roll along with the Lakes racking up individual wins left and right. Springpark and Greenhill also kept pace with good wins. Unlike flight A these undefeated teams don’t meet each other until 10/20 when the Lakes and Greenhill will tackle one another. So these flight will continue to be a wait and see as 6 teams already have two losses and the new Stonebriar takes on Greenhill this weekend so barring a big upset there this flight will really be lopsided. I think Stonebriar could pose some problems if they bring their best lineup. Ryan Caras is a strong player (former 3.5, yeah right) who can give some troubles to Greenhill in singles but he is also a strong doubles player along with Gaines. I can’t wait to see the result, I have to root for the former 3.5 guys to give this flight some intrigue and score the upset over Greenhill. GO SB!!

Flight C:
Hmmm. Somebody hasn’t posted their scores, no names but I think you can guess. I am really curious to know since I am playing them this Saturday. Ok no secrets it is Brad Bartlett’s team. Curious to know how the Garland rescheduled match is coming and also the JCC match. But for the scores we do know Lifetime Fitness has jumped to 3-0 with a close win over a previously undefeated T Bar team. A good win that further shows they one of the top teams in this flight but I do think they lack depth but they make up for it in quality of players at the top. Garland improved to 2-0 with one match pending, it was a close win over LB Houston which brought them back down to earth after their week 1 destruction of the Village. Brookhaven Pearlman got on the right track as they took out a Canyon Creek team that is falling on hard times. My team won 4-1 over the Village and improved to 2-1 to stay in the mix. I took on Michael Bebb at line #1 doubles (he beat me at 3.5 two years ago) and this time he beat me at 4.0, so in 2010 I hope to beat him at line #3 doubles at 4.5. Some interesting matches will be played this weekend including my team taking on Brad Bartlett’s group, I think the matchups will be interesting and more importantly should provide some direction for both of our teams. Garland and Lifetime have winnable matches but must continue to stay focused with bigger matches looming including my team v. Garland on 10/6. Lifetime won’t see another undefeated until November so they must stay consistent knowing they will have two tough matches to end the season.

Congrats to another Bob

Bob Somabut's 7.0 mixed doubles team won the Sectional tourney this weekend in Corpus Christi beating Austin 2-1 in the FINALS. Great job guys and way to represent Dallas and High Point Tennis Center (I am not biased or anything).

They will now advance to the National Mixed Tournament in November which I believe is in LAS VEGAS!!! Best of luck.

I am officially going to change my name to Bob or Bobby that seems to be a prerequisite for a Nationals trip.

Seniors last weekend (Bender to Nats...again)

So Dallas had one representative finish strong last weekend. Bob Bender followed up his 3.0 Sectional win in August with another trip to Nationals with his 3.0 Senior Team. Congrats on a good year. I may have to create a 3.0 team just so you have some good competition.

Mixed Doubles Sectionals are this weekend so best of luck to the Dallas teams and hopefully we can have a few teams end up as winners.

4.0 Week Two Recap

Flight A:
So LB Houston looks to be cruising right along with another strong victory while Bob’s High Point team inched pass Canyon Creek. Brookhaven got back on track with a solid win over Eldorado. Stonebridge got their first win by beating the Village team . One match has not been reported and that is the other High Point team who played the other undefeated team (Hackberry) so it will be interesting to see the result of that match which should show who the 3rd contender in this flight is.

Flight B:
I got to see some of the Springpark match at High Point and they were rather dominant save although some of the matches were close especially singles. Springpark lost a few solid pieces from their sectional team of last Spring and although they are 2-0 I am not sure if they feel they are as strong as last season. The Lakes is showing that last season was no fluke even though they lost their captain and best player Mike Richardson they still are putting up good scores and are sitting at 2-0 with Springpark. Greenhill is also back on track to their old ways and make up the 2-0 trio in this flight. Greenhill doesn’t meet either team for awhile so they will have a chance to find their way so this race could get intriguing. There are four 1-1 teams and looking at their rosters compared to these top three teams I am not sure if they are experienced enough to make any noise and in this top 2 finisher league they 0-2 teams are in a win or go home format as of this weekend.

Flight C:I guess I underestimated T Bar as they shot up to 2-0 with two wins over former playoff teams. They are looking to be one of the most impressive teams in any flight so far. I could give you the rundown on our match with Lifetime Fitness but I would just get depressed. It all came down to line #2 doubles, my team was down a set and 2-5 and forced a 3rd set tiebreaker only to fall 10-5. They fought off a total of 10 match points in the 2nd and 3rd set but could not overcome a good serving Brandon Myers. Yosh a bump up for 3.5 looks very comfortable at 4.0 as well. No report on the Garland v. Brookhaven showdown, anyone know anything on this one?????? This match would show who would be joining the two undefeated teams. LB Houston got to 1-1 this week with a pretty good win over Canyon Creek. This flight is also looking stronger than expected as you look at two former playoff teams in the cellar.

3.5 Week Two Recap

Most all of the scores have been reported and here is what happened flight by flight.

Flight A:
So Canyon Creek and Gleneagles continued their winning ways. They may not have played any strong teams yet but have taken care of biz against the opponents in front of them. After Oak Creek’s big win last week they had a little letdown against JCC and just squeaked out a 3-2 win but they are still undefeated along with Westlake who I am guessing had a bye this week. High Point/Bowman got back on track with a 5-0 drubbing of the Lakes. I have to say looking at those top 5 teams that there will be a few good teams not heading to the playoffs this fall.

Flight B:
So Hackberry came up huge and knocked off Stonebridge 4-1 and all four wins were in straight sets so I guess Hackberry is for real. Garland slipped by LB Houston who may have taken a step back but did score a win over Jacques Delira at line#1 singles. Brookhaven started their season with a good win over LB Houston/Daly after having week 1 off. High Point/Forte got into the win column taking care of Stonebriar who joined the LB Houston teams at 0-2 at the bottom of the standings. I am curious with some of these close matches how much longer there will be an undefeated team in this flight. I have to say Hackberry is looking the most impressive so far, that win over Stonebridge was very strong and Garland’s wins were not nearly as impressive.

Flight C:
Greenhill is the only team at the top with 2 wins since Lifetime and Springpark have a make up match from last week. My team started off with a close win even with a default but we run into Greenhill this week and that will be a tough match. Springpark’s win over Oak Ridge was very strong and shows they are a force to be reckon with. I was impressed with Oak Creek 2nd team, they have a few very good players. I played our default singles line for fun and played Shaopeng Sun, I won 7-5, 6-3, he is a very tough player, he hits with pace on the forehand and has a good serve. I predict he will not lose this year. Too bad that doesn’t count towards my record then maybe I could play 3.5 in the Spring. Still interested to see how Lifetime does in this flight, a win over Canyon Creek doesn’t show that much but I will be interested to see how the makeup v. Springpark goes since they look to be strong as well.

3.5 Week one recap

So all but one 3.5 match has been recorded and there was definitely some interesting action out there this past weekend. My team had a bye so I gorged on Sunday brunch and then made friends with my couch and watched football but thanks to those of you who got out there and played 3.5 tennis and the wind and impending rain storm. Welcome back to Fall tennis in Dallas.

In Flight A there were two major thumpings done by Canyon Creek and Gleneagles who must have had plans in the early afternoon as they disposed of their opponents quickly or didn’t care for my comment about being “middle of the pack” teams. Westlake scored a close victory over Chandler’s Landing in a closer than expected match. Oak Creek scored a good upset over High Point and I have already taking some ribbing over my lock prediction on High Point. I can handle the ragging so bring it on. Any of you who have played me in the past know I can be obnoxious on the court so feel free to lash back. I love it!!

In Flight B Garland got off to a strong start with only a strong upset from Andrew Sutherland stopping the sweep. Lifetime Fitness and Stonebridge also scored big with opening weekend sweeps. Hackberry had the biggest win in the flight by taking out LB Houston that was not expected but Hackberry has shown promise in the past so who knows what they could do here.

In Flight C the new Oak Ridge announced their arrival with a 4-1 win followed up by Greenhill Kayser with an expected win and the Oak Creek B team taking advantage of some defaults to get a good win over Rick Lyon’s team. Lifetime Fitness had not posted when I went to press but I am thinking they won their match but as noted before I could be wrong. My team had a bye so don’t blame me for not posting a score.

I looked forward to starting with my team this coming week, hopefully we can make some noise in the C Flight.

Week 1 in 4.0 and 4.5

I would include the 3.5 teams in this recap as well but they are notoriously slow score posters so I will hold of until tomorrow.

4.5 :
As noted the Oak Creek teams got out to a quick start and looks like the top two teams from that Club are in the same flight and will get to battle it out for 1st place. In the other flight Brookhaven came out with a large win and the 3rd Oak Creek team was letdown by that player called DEFAULT, I hate that guy, he never wins any of his matches. Fair Oaks and LB Houston also scored strong wins (4-1). The upset was the aforementioned Oak Creek team that lost out to Royal Oaks who oddly enough was on the "not enough players signed up" email from Jane the day before roster deadline. Good win!!

4.0:
Flight A went according to plan with the favorites winning although Bob's team squeaked by 3-2 and threw in a default. Hmmm. Bob I would have scrapped my team and joined you (just kidding team, or am I?)

Flight B was headed up with the remainder of the Sectional wild card from Springpark starting off the season with a big 5-0 win. Steve Harrigan's team scored a strong victory as well as the Lakes who showed they are still a force to be reckoned with. The surprise may have been the brand new team out of Stonebriar, not to be confused with the Stonebridge teams, as they beat out an LB Houston team. They have some good 3.5 moveups and it will be interesting to see if they can make noise in this wide open flight.

Flight C (my flight)
It was nice to start off the season with a win. We clinched the match and then my match got pushed to a 3rd set tiebreaker, I would love to say we let up and could have won 4-1 but our opponents played well down the stretch and thanks for the ice cold beer. Pearlman's team still looked good I know he had some roster issues and we matched up well at singles so it turned out well for us. Lifetime Fitness took care of biz over the JCC team somewhat easily except for line 1 singles. Garland overpowered a Village team and had some very convincing singles wins.
Brookhaven/Bartlett represented the lone BH victory this weekend and it was a good one over a good LB Houston team.

Hard to get to excited or depressed over week one results but with only two slots in each flight a 2nd loss puts teams in a spot where it is no longer their destiny whether or not they advance.

4.5 Preview

As noted before I am not up on my 4.5 knowledge but another poster left this so feel free to comment:

Here is the 4.5 preview. It always comes down to Team Branch and Team Conway (I think this team is now Feldman)- unless their players decide to start tanking matches to keep some rating. I noticed this morning that they may have aleady started since Team Feldman already lost a match.

4.0 Fall Season Preview

4.0 Fall Preview

So I am happy to be back playing at 4.0. I appealed last time but decided not to this time even though it was a hard decision. I enjoyed playing 4.0 and even though my first two teams at 4.0 got off to rough starts I hope we have some bigger firepower this time around.

As I got the flight assignments they seem fairly even dispersed even though I ended up with two teams that made the DCC (BH/Bartlett and CC/Madison) as well as Burt Pearlman’s team who was in the QT but I think a tough regular season is invaluable, my 3.5 team last year was in an easier flight and it was hard to be ready for tough matches when you have been crushing teams in the regular season.

With that said I would have to say the toughest flight would be Flight C followed closely by Flight A and the wide open flight would be Flight B.

Flight C: As I mentioned there are 3 teams in this flight that advanced to the postseason last plus a good T Bar team and an LB Houston team that just missed out on the postseason in the Spring. Lifetime and Garland have some experienced players on their roster that should be tough and the same can be said for the Village. I am not familiar with the JCC team and luckily I don’t play them till towards the end of the season so I can scout a little better. Then there is my team, we will be awful so feel free to default two lines to give us a fighting chance. But seriously I feel good about my roster but after writing this paragraph I know every match will be contested but I am excited about that.

Flight A: Bob’s team is the clear cut favorite since he is bringing back just about everyone from his Texas runner-up team from Sectionals and if it wasn’t for an amazing team for Houston they would probably be preparing for Nationals. I think the other High Point team headed up by Adrian Giuhat will be a strong contender as well. I see a few other strong teams that should cause problems (Brookhaven, Greenhill and LB Houston). The remaining teams have some questions marks but have had some past success and could pose some problems for these top teams.

Flight B: Not to put pressure on the captains in this flight but if you would like to win this flight it is there for the taking. I do see Springpark as a clear favorite for the top spot but has lost a few players including one by a mind-blowing DQ at Sectionals, if anyone can explain that to me I would love to know what happened. After that I see Greenhill being a favorite but not overwhelmingly so which means these other teams that all carry at least one if not more 3.5 player have a chance to do well in this flight. Maybe I am just pulling for some of my High Point former teammates but I think Steve Harrigan’s team could be the one to break out of this flight.

Best of luck to all of you as we start our season this weekend.

See you on the courts…

3.5 Fall Season Preview

3.5 Breakdown

There are 27 3.5 teams this fall vying for 6 spots in the City Playoffs at the end of November with a valuable prize on the line (automatic entry to next years City Championships).

After looking at the flight assignments I think these are strongest to weakest Flights: 1)B Flight 2)A Flight 3)C Flight

Flight B:
The favorites in the flight have to be Garland and Stonebridge. Both of these teams finished strong in the Spring and didn’t lose that many players at all. Garland was a sectional rep from Dallas and I believe only lost 1 maybe 2 players so they will be tough. Stonebridge made it to the QT last Spring and gave Garland a close match and is always strong at doubles. Very close behind is Brookhaven and LB Houston who gave my 3.5 Spring team last year some good matches and have both lost a few players but will still be strong contenders. The dark horse would be High Point who made it to the Fall playoffs last season but missed out on the Spring playoffs and will be looking to bounce back. Hackberry is an improving team as it LB Houston/Daly. The Lifetime team is a move up from 3.0 so I don’t know much about them but have had success at 3.0 so they are used to winning and Stonebriar although minus some good players were a few points away from being in the Fall finals a year ago so I would call this the Flight of DEATH. There are only 2 spots available in this flight for the playoffs and I think there will be a fight for both of them and I would be surprised if someone goes undefeated in this flight.

Flight A:
Not to be partial but my old High Point guys headed up by Trae Bowman and Leonard Hutchison are huge favorites in this flight. We did lose 5 players including myself to bump ups but we moved up our best players from the JV team from the Spring and should be very strong. The other contenders will be Oak Creek although they will be hard pressed to duplicate past success with so many players gone to 4.0. Westlake although a new team looks to have swallowed up some players from neighboring teams and looks to be strong. Gleneagles and Canyon Creek would be in the next tier of favorites but are always a player or two from being a top team to a middle of the pack team.

Flight C:
Lifetime Fitness is a clear cut favorite in this flight but after that I don’t see a team that stands out. Either Greenhill team has a shot and the new Oak Ridge team made up of tournament dwellers could have success. My team in this flight is very new to league tennis so be kind to them and feel free to send out your weakest lineups to give us a chance. (he, he :)) I wish I could give you a rundown on my team but I have a lot of new people as I mentioned so I expect every match to be close. If I had to put money down for that 2nd spot I guess I would go with Kayser’s team but who knows???

As far as my prediction for the playoffs I see Lifetime doing well as well as Garland and Trae’s High Point guys but I am sure there will be a up and coming team that will make some noise. I cannot wait for this Sunday to see how week 1 goes.

Welcome to Dallas Tennis Blog

Welcome fellow league tennis players. I was inspired to create this blog after visiting:

http://houstontennis.blogspot.com/

I think a lot of players and captain ran across their site after trying to scout some of their players since Houston did so well at Sectionals this year. I know there are many league addicts here in Dallas so I thought we should have our own blog.

I will focus posts on 3.5 and 4.0 tennis, since that is what I know more about but feel free to suggest other topics at higher or lower levels that you think others might be interested.

This has been a busy time so far this summer. My 3.5 team fell to eventual 3.5 State Champ (Houston) as did Bob Somabut’s 4.0 to the same tennis club from Houston.

Bob’s Mixed Doubles team did take the City Championship this past weekend and will represent us at the 7.0 level at Sectionals.

If you have any thoughts about this past Spring season feel free to post your thoughts here. I will add a new post soon to put in my two cents worth about the 4.0 and 3.5 upcoming fall season.

Happy blogging!