Tri-level Preview - Mission Impossible 3 - And Then There Was One

Well, not just one.  I have to find something to do with my weekend.

 Lineups, let’s talk lineups.  It’s always the easiest thing for us Monday morning captains to criticize.  Why didn’t that guy play?  He was out of town; he was injured; he was cramping; he throws up on himself in matches that matter.  Even easier, why DID that guy play?  He is the captain’s buddy; he pays for the team parties; I promised him he’d play when I didn’t realize I’d find better players. 


I don’t see Team Mayer or Team Myers having trouble deciding on a lineup.  Hell, they may have trouble fielding a full lineup for all four matches.  I also don’t see Team Jeung having trouble deciding on a lineup.  They’ll have a lot more guys offering to sit than they will guys bucking for more match time. 


So let’s start with Team Kingsley.  I’m afraid if I start with Team Sisk/Kanchi I may run out of gas.  Personally I’d like to see Foster/Foster on the 4.5 line.  Since one of them is a self rate, let’s rule that out.  Well then, let's go with Foster/Hill.  Oops, Hill is also a self rate.  This is getting awkward.  Faris and Shreiner will want to play together but Foster is the cream of the crop here.  Another opportunity for a goofy lineup decision, great. 


As for the 4.0s, I’m envious of this Waters guy.  The last two years he’s only played tri-level and I can’t even get on a team.  Sawires only went 1-3 in 4.0.  That’s not the kind of record I’d look for if I was importing someone from Austin.  But he has accounted himself well against 4.5s.  I’d guess big, inconsistent hitter.  Vince loves those.  Another Kingsley on the team.  He held up pretty well at 8.5 combo so that will be interesting.   I don’t know exactly what to make of these guys.  They are all over map and none of them seem to have ever played together before.  They clearly have some talent here so it will be interesting to see what they come up with.


Team Sisk/Kanchi, I’m tired already.  I’m not the expert here, and these guys are better than me, but on the 4.5 line I’d start with Davidson, Kelly and Davis.  Do I need to go any further?  Yes, yes, the other six 4.5s would be line one on several teams but that’s other teams.  The only real question here is who doesn’t play.  I’m sure someone will be injured when the time comes.


As for the 4.0s, I’d start with Kommineni (a 3.5C).  Did you see this guy and Jay Benjamin go three sets against Davidson and Abbruzzese?  He had the biggest serve on the court and played fantastic.  As we saw at 4.0 sectionals, he needs a partner, but they have several to choose from.  If Abbruzzese can replicate his play from that same 8.5 combo match I’d start with him.  They look like they’d be a natural fit on a doubles court.  They also have Josh Rivera who was a terror in 4.0 singles this year (12-0 in the playoffs).  While he only played singles in the playoffs his game did look like it would translate to doubles more than most singles guys.  Again, I would start with those three.  Of course Kanchi is a 4.0 so I’d expect his to push for playing time in the big match with Kommineni.  Let’s see who really has the pencil in this captaining duad. 


As I’ve often said, I don’t know the 3.5s so I pass on them but this time I’ve done the research and made some inquiries.  Here’s what I found.  For Team Sisk/Kanchi we can easily see that Hans Valaparla was Kanchi’s #2 singles guys on his spring 4.0 team and he plays nothing but Open level tournaments.  Let’s start there.  Sean Luh went 3-1 at 4.0 and I have it on good authority that he was working out regularly this year with a certain SpringPark 4.5 team.   Good enough for me.


As for Team Kingsley, good but not great.  All seem to be known commodities though.  Plenty of USTA results to look at.  Based on what I saw, think we’ll go with Hutchison and Chhajed. 

So, if I had the pencil it would be:

Davidson/Kelly versus Foster/Faris
Kommineni/Abbruzzese versus Hanna/Kingsley
Valaparla/Luh versus Hutchison/Chhajed

I see that as a win for Sisk/Kanchi with the results getting progressively more lopsided as you go down the ladder.