So next weekend is the Tri Level Sectional and I am imploring your help so Team Madison and Team Bazan can sweep the weekend. If we don’t win I guess I would cheer for the Fort Worth teams.
Should be some great teams and it is always hard to plan to play against teams in a State event because you are lucky if you have seen one or two of them. The easy thing about this is there are only so many lineup options. My team has 7 players so the only choice I have is our rotation at 4.0. Justin has 3 at each level so he has a little flexibility but if I was him I would play Eugene Davis until he falls over from exhaustion.
Lower Tri Level
College Station: 4.0s Eric Schroeder and Ryan Hillestad seem to be strength but entire team doesn’t have a lot of results. Could be not so good or a pack of good new ringers.
SETX: 3.5s look to be strengths with Michael Getz and Shamus Darden being somewhat regular tourney players.
Fort Worth: Very balanced team, 4.0 Tom Hillebrecht has great record at singles and their other 4.0 Timothy Hatcher is a recent bump up like myself from 3.5. Jonathan you played him any advice?
NETX. Very good looking team on paper, glad we play them last. 4.0s William Rohrer and Erik Fleming were at sectionals last Spring. 3.5 Charles Lusk also made it to sectionals at 3.5 last year.
Upper Tri Level
Much was made that the Austin and San Antonio teams are allowed to use before end of the year ratings but I think there are other teams that can hang with them.
Flight I
This flight is stacked with Austin, FW Wild and Dallas. FW Wild has Prather and Delira playing 3.5 dubs, they should be very tough to beat, they did lose to the FW team of Aranda/Kinson in a 3rd set tiebreaker though.
Flight II
San Antonio will be the favorite but NETX will pose a threat I think. College Station has Omon Dibua playing dubs at 4.5 so they shouldn’t be counted out here.
Flight III
This will be a tough fight between Houston and Fort Worth. Both teams are stacked with depth at all levels and that should be a great match. Only 3 teams in the flight and no schedule listed not sure if there is going to be an additional area sending a team or possibly a wild card.
Feel free to leave any advice about any other players you know about.
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Monday, February 4, 2008
Two big tourneys this weekend
Thanks for the prod Anonymous, I have been a little sleepy lately. So there are two big tourneys this weekend and it looks like there are some good teams and players entered at both of them.
Brookhaven Doubles Indoor Tournament
3.5
Muniz and Bostick will be tough to beat. My 3.0 team(Kelly/Alzuro) from tri level will see them early, that should be a good warm up match. Montgomery and Kirk should be solid as well.
4.0
Really a toss up here. I like Harrigan and Hardaway together. I have partnered with both and they bring good strengths to form a good team. Robinson and Brouer are solid and the Somabut reps are Bob/Kirby and Hai/Jean and Deviney/Carlquist. It would be safe to pick any of those two teams. Madison/Sweeney should be good too. OK before I name the entire draw I will stop. Really looks like a good draw though, sucks there is no consolation because some good teams will get knocked out early.
4.5
A very small draw, I think some of those 4.0 teams should have moved up to play. Noel and Young play the #1 seed first and should have a good match. I am guessing the winner there has a great chance to win two more.
Abilene Major Zone
Singles
3.5
Some pretty good names headed out to W Texas, Scott Blackburn, Molina, Getz (who we will face at the Tri Level), Forrest Gray, Parker and Larry Reitzer. Tough to pick but I would probably go with Reitzer or Parker.
4.0
Good size draw, Jonathan Marcus, Mark Carter, Tim Newman, Paul Trevino, T Nguyen, Delira, Kraemer and Brian Walker. This sounds like an old 3.5 draw but plenty of talent and no clear frontrunner so I think you all will have some good matches. That type of grind out sounds good for Nguyen but I would probably vote for Carter or Walker to come out on Sunday.
4.5
All the big names, Trautmann of SA, Schumucker of Houston, Kern, Kallus, Mark Jenkins, JD Miles. Not that big of a draw so big names will play each other early. GO JD take out all these Houston chumps!!!
Brookhaven Doubles Indoor Tournament
3.5
Muniz and Bostick will be tough to beat. My 3.0 team(Kelly/Alzuro) from tri level will see them early, that should be a good warm up match. Montgomery and Kirk should be solid as well.
4.0
Really a toss up here. I like Harrigan and Hardaway together. I have partnered with both and they bring good strengths to form a good team. Robinson and Brouer are solid and the Somabut reps are Bob/Kirby and Hai/Jean and Deviney/Carlquist. It would be safe to pick any of those two teams. Madison/Sweeney should be good too. OK before I name the entire draw I will stop. Really looks like a good draw though, sucks there is no consolation because some good teams will get knocked out early.
4.5
A very small draw, I think some of those 4.0 teams should have moved up to play. Noel and Young play the #1 seed first and should have a good match. I am guessing the winner there has a great chance to win two more.
Abilene Major Zone
Singles
3.5
Some pretty good names headed out to W Texas, Scott Blackburn, Molina, Getz (who we will face at the Tri Level), Forrest Gray, Parker and Larry Reitzer. Tough to pick but I would probably go with Reitzer or Parker.
4.0
Good size draw, Jonathan Marcus, Mark Carter, Tim Newman, Paul Trevino, T Nguyen, Delira, Kraemer and Brian Walker. This sounds like an old 3.5 draw but plenty of talent and no clear frontrunner so I think you all will have some good matches. That type of grind out sounds good for Nguyen but I would probably vote for Carter or Walker to come out on Sunday.
4.5
All the big names, Trautmann of SA, Schumucker of Houston, Kern, Kallus, Mark Jenkins, JD Miles. Not that big of a draw so big names will play each other early. GO JD take out all these Houston chumps!!!
Thursday, January 24, 2008
League Tennis.com Doubles league
For us non-seniors who are looking for competition some USTA regulars have joined this new league for free.
Long Pham/Hai Nguyen
Jim Burns/Zach Stein
Batman and Robin
Billy Wu/Kartik Jayaraman
Kalyan Bitra/Diwakar Dewan
Furquan Azhar/Noaman Azhar
Kyle Bowman/Rob Johnson
Bowman and Johnson have already racked up two wins and last night Long and Hai crushed Batman and Robin 6-2, 6-3 so our undefeated streak is over.
I can honestly say we were in the match but they are just better players and over the course of the match they won the important points. they both have great hands and overheads.
Long Pham/Hai Nguyen
Jim Burns/Zach Stein
Batman and Robin
Billy Wu/Kartik Jayaraman
Kalyan Bitra/Diwakar Dewan
Furquan Azhar/Noaman Azhar
Kyle Bowman/Rob Johnson
Bowman and Johnson have already racked up two wins and last night Long and Hai crushed Batman and Robin 6-2, 6-3 so our undefeated streak is over.
I can honestly say we were in the match but they are just better players and over the course of the match they won the important points. they both have great hands and overheads.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Senior League Update
Teams are about ¼ of the way through their season and so far here is what it looks like
3.5 A Flight
Oakridge and High Point/Bender clash this weekend in a battle of the unbeatens but seem to be the class of this flight. I am not sure how many teams advance to the playoffs but my guess is two and these two teams seem pretty evenly matched and a lock to stay at the top of this flight.
B Flight
This flight is much more evenly matched with 4 solid teams in Huffines, Gleneagles, Greenhill and High Point/Northcut. I thought Northcut’s team looked solid but with 2 early losses they have dug a little hole but they still have a shot to climb to the top.
4.0
Springpark and T Bar stand alone at the top as the only undefeated teams and Springpark has only lost one individual match so far. I expected Northcut to do well here and they are tied with Eldorado for 3rd place with one loss. This will come down to the final weekend because there are too many good teams for someone to run the table. Bartlett’s team who won this league last year is sitting at 1-2 and even if they are out of it I wouldn’t want to play them towards the end of the season if you need a win.
Best of luck to you all and STAY WARM!!
3.5 A Flight
Oakridge and High Point/Bender clash this weekend in a battle of the unbeatens but seem to be the class of this flight. I am not sure how many teams advance to the playoffs but my guess is two and these two teams seem pretty evenly matched and a lock to stay at the top of this flight.
B Flight
This flight is much more evenly matched with 4 solid teams in Huffines, Gleneagles, Greenhill and High Point/Northcut. I thought Northcut’s team looked solid but with 2 early losses they have dug a little hole but they still have a shot to climb to the top.
4.0
Springpark and T Bar stand alone at the top as the only undefeated teams and Springpark has only lost one individual match so far. I expected Northcut to do well here and they are tied with Eldorado for 3rd place with one loss. This will come down to the final weekend because there are too many good teams for someone to run the table. Bartlett’s team who won this league last year is sitting at 1-2 and even if they are out of it I wouldn’t want to play them towards the end of the season if you need a win.
Best of luck to you all and STAY WARM!!
Monday, January 7, 2008
Upper Level Tri Level starts Friday
Red Flight:
Favorites have to be Team Martin and Team Noel. Noel’s team has a good depth but not sure if they match up well against Martin in the first match on Saturday. Kraemer and Madison have strong groups as well but are lacking some locks which helps win you need two out of three.
Blue Flight:
I like Cormier and Pickett in this flight mainly again because they have some top players at each level and don’t seem to have any weak areas. Myers and Stevens have some solid players as well but might be lacking at 3.5 a bit although look good at 4.5 and 4.0 respectively.
Even though I see those four teams as favorites I don’t foresee many lopsided results this weekend.
Odds to join Team Bazan in Houston on February 22-24:
Team Pickett 3 to 1
Team Martin 4 to 1
Team Noel 6 to 1
Team Cormier 8 to 1
Team Stevens 12 to 1
Team Myers 15 to 1
Team Kraemer 25 to 1
Team Madison 25 to 1
Favorites have to be Team Martin and Team Noel. Noel’s team has a good depth but not sure if they match up well against Martin in the first match on Saturday. Kraemer and Madison have strong groups as well but are lacking some locks which helps win you need two out of three.
Blue Flight:
I like Cormier and Pickett in this flight mainly again because they have some top players at each level and don’t seem to have any weak areas. Myers and Stevens have some solid players as well but might be lacking at 3.5 a bit although look good at 4.5 and 4.0 respectively.
Even though I see those four teams as favorites I don’t foresee many lopsided results this weekend.
Odds to join Team Bazan in Houston on February 22-24:
Team Pickett 3 to 1
Team Martin 4 to 1
Team Noel 6 to 1
Team Cormier 8 to 1
Team Stevens 12 to 1
Team Myers 15 to 1
Team Kraemer 25 to 1
Team Madison 25 to 1
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