First, my predictions at the beginning of the season, followed by the actual winners :
(Flight winner, followed by 2nd place team going to QT, 3rd place in parenthesis)
Flight A – GTC, Eldorado Eldorado,
GTC (LB
Houston 3rd)
Flight B – 3 way tie Brookhaven, T-Bar & 2-way tie - T-Bar, Oak Creek
Oak Creek (Springpark
3rd)
Flight C – HP, Fair Oaks
Fair
Oaks, HP
Flight D – Canyon Creek, Royal Oaks Canyon
Creek, Royal Oaks
Flight E – McKinney, Greenhill McKinney,
Greenhill; (Huffhines
3rd)
With the exception of my dyslexic calls on Flight A &
Flight C, you have to admit that was pretty good. So the question begs to differ, out of having
45 teams and close to 700 players, has regular season play in Dallas tennis
really become this predictable? I only
know a handful of players and made speculative guesses on many of the flight
calls. But to get it this close before a
match was played?
What I liked about this season is that the top 20% of
teams and players are pretty well equal and competitive with each other on any
given day. What I got wrong was not
giving enough credit to the core of Dallas tennis, and giving too much credit
to the leaders of the past. Congratulations
to Eldorado for beating Sisk and team Corey for defying the odds and beating Le. (Looks like Terrell earned his pay for those
2 Miller Lights.) What looked like was going
to be a flawless season for Bazan in Flight E , was disrupted by Hackberry with
an end of season spoiler and raising concerns with some of their doubles
strength. The only team to emerge having
a flawless season with no losses was the boys at Canyon Creek. Congratulations and well deserved. While impressive, enjoy things while they
last, because I don’t think it will be that easy for you come Cities.
So what appeared to be a foregone conclusion (a city
finals with Sisk & Le) now turns to the battle in QT with only one of those
teams emerging. That is, if one does
emerge. While each of those teams have
a handful of exceptional players (Le has Weimer & Glasgow; Sisk has Flora
& Baker), they aren’t stacked. The
remainder of their rosters (while seasoned) appear to be on equal footing with
other team rosters coming to the dance. This
was proven to us throughout the season by other teams with no hired guns on
their roster able to take lines from each of these teams. Also,
the late additions to both of these rosters by both captains tells me they are
still needing depth. Sisk added a couple
of self-rates so not sure if their losses are real or planned. Le has recruited additional computer rated
players, going as far west as to Fort Worth.
My question is why?
In addition, will all of their players be available for
the QT weekend? I am sure when the
season began the QT was not on either of these captain’s calendar. This is an unexpected weekend they are having
to play, and having to get their top players clearance for two straight
weekends in the midst of summer vacations might be challenging. The question is will Sisk need to get
clearance from any parole officers for his newly recruited self rates?
Even if one of these teams does emerge, it is a difficult task taking a team through 4 matches in the QT and then playing the following week in Cities. In fact, I do not know of a team in the past that has won the QT to go on and win Cities.
What becomes even more interesting and a topic of debate is how the DTA will determine the
flights. I know I was disappointed this year with
Roland Garros seeding 1-3, 2-4, which gave cause for the true final occurring in
the semis. The US Open did the same seeding. However, if you look at the Australian and Wimbeldon,
they seeded 1-4, 2-3. In looking at
years past of Dallas City Playoffs, I don’t follow any pattern. If you look at the last time there were
flights in City, which was 2011, it appears they seeded based on lines won, not
matches won since two flights only had 7 matches as opposed to the other 3
flights having 8 matches. That year,
they were flighted 1-3, 2-4. If you look
back to 2010, it is a bit more confusing.
All but one flight had 8 matches.
If you look at matches won, they seeded 1-2, 3-4. If you look at games won, there is no pattern
as 2-3-4 were all in the same
flight. Rumor has it that they have been
known to do “blind” draws if some teams had unequal amounts of matches. Perhaps that’s what they did in 2010. This year, all teams from all flights played
8 matches so I don’t think that would be the case. Regardless,
if you look at matches won or games won, it still seeds Le as 1st
and Sisk as 2nd.
To make matters even more interesting, this is the 1st
time they have given 3rd place teams a seeding in the QT. The QT has typically been round-robin with no
flights, so there is no real precedence here.
Given the wacky Fall play-off format we had, I think any seeding is
possible. What if the DTA actually tried
to level the playing field some and for the QT seed 1st and 2nd
place in the same play-off flight, followed by 3rd and 4th
place in the opposing flight? I’m not
saying that is going to happen (although that’s how it was flighted in 2010),
and would be surprised if it does, but that would mean you would have the
GTC/HP showdown before Sunday. Now
wouldn’t that be amusing.
My understanding is that schedules won’t be released
until the week of play-offs, so we will all be in a quandary until then. If it is 1-3-5-7 and 2-4-6-8, it will be Le, Ohl, Brauer & Walters in one flight and Sisk, Head, Parsons & Prather in the other. Regardless of how the flights are determined and
seeded, the difficult part is calling a winner. Whether in the same flight or not, I still
believe we will see a GTC/HP match. Given
the recent roster adds, with Sisk having a few self-rates as unknown commodities,
and Le’s added computer rates while good but not overly impressive, I have to
go with Sisk winning. I think Ohl makes
honorable mention, if not for finishing 3rd, at least for keeping me
hydrated out there watching. Greg- your
cooler is safe with me!
As far as Cities, we will look at that once we know the
QT winner. I think this year it is anyone’s to grab.
Good luck to all teams playing in both events.
