Friday, May 1, 2009

Not much news

I was playing out at Memorial Park last night and it was definitely pretty dead out there compared to your typical Thursday night.  

There were only two matches last night which interested me.  The Deucebags were again at the center of things.  Coming into the week, it looked to be a cakewalk for Alain Tran's bunch, but veteran captain Ken Douds had some tricks up his sleeve and had four last minute roster additions to make his team formidable.  It was a nice move, perhaps designed to catch the Deucebags by surprise if they brought in a mediocre lineup.   Sugar Creek added Sean Straley, Nick Hiemstra, Jason Cooney and a player who is unknown to me:  David Herr.  

I only have third hand information on the match last night, but I understand that the Deucebags took the match 3-2.  Aadrian Hasker again had a tough matchup (and a toothache).  Last year he was stuck in an easy division and was untested during the regular season.  Simon Jim gave him a tough battle in the first set last night, but Hasker pulled it out and cruised in the second.  The Deucebags also took line 2 singles as Douds used Straley and Cooney in doubles, where they both won their matches.  

The Deucebags as a team have made great strides and are a close-knit group.  They have weekly team practices on Wednesday nights and recently had a team tournament at Seven Lakes high school.  Some emerging 4.0 stars like Rafah Ahmed also practice with the team as Tran looks to groom players for the future.  

I've not heard any news from the other "big" match of the week where the Sienna 4.0 team hosted JCC.  Sienna usually reports scores promptly...makes me wonder if there might have been an upset?  

At MPTC last night, the 4.0 Hurricanes cruised over the Acers and I believe the Breakers pulled out a 3-2 win in 4.0 over Double Trouble with recently married Allan Chiu manning the number one singles slot for the Breakers.

46 comments:

  1. Just heard from our 4.0 captain, Sienna won against JCC 5-0. JCC defaulted a singles Line (too many people with Rockets tickets) and of course numbers will never be our issue...

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  2. That definitely puts the pressure on the Hurricanes if they want to take the division.

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  3. Sienna still the team to beat in 4.0. The Westside 4.0 teams are looking good as well.

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  4. Nothing much at LLTC last night either.

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  5. Nothing much is incorrect as we finally had Towle vs Urban match-up to see which doubles partner was truly carrying the other. Turns out the "doubles specialist" title now belongs to Eric Urban.

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  6. Bradley and Alzate crushed Whitsett and Bobo in 5.0 league last night. Black Sheep will be tough.

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  7. Watch out for David Herr. This guy can flat out play.

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  8. Did Herr play last night? Who did Douds use in singles besides Jim? Why not straley?

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  9. Big mistake. Douds should have played Straley and Jim in singles. You ALWAYS get both singles if you can.

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  10. Bradley & Alzate played well... Hats off to them, but that was a very off night for Whitsett. Whitsett very rarely doubles, and even more rarely gets broken and rarely misses volleys, let alone floaters. Both sets were good. The 2nd was much closer than it appears by looking at the score, with (4) 3-3 all games. Bobo returned well, but as a team they are a little rusty right now. Bradley was an animal on the net, and was clearly the difference maker as Alzate turned around and lost a 4.5 match 1 & 3.

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  11. David Herr played Division 1 at Tulsa. Great Lefty player

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  12. Nice Self Rating done by Mr.Douds

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  13. Other team captains will eat a self rating alive when then need too.

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  14. What school in Talsa did David Herr play? The University of Talsa has nothing about him on their website.

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  15. Or better yet when did he play for Talsa?

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  16. It's Tulsa, not Talsa. Check collegetennisonline.com if you care. I haven't bothered to check.

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  17. Something kinda' fun happened in Austin this weekend. They had all of the 4.5 teams show up at one site (Lakeway) on Saturday and each team played a "doubleheader". Nice to get all the players together at the same site for comraderie and/or to check out all of the other teams. Might be tough logistically to do that in Houston, but I thought it was a nice idea for Austinites.

    Big matchup in Dallas 4.5 today between Feldman and Branch, probably the two top teams. No word on how it turned out.

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  18. Why do Memorial Park teams have to play at Homer "Thug Passion" Ford Tennis Center. Why aren't they called Homer Ford Double Trouble instead of MPTC Double Trouble.

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  19. Because Memorial Park does not have enough courts to support the number of teams playing out of there.

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  20. Oak Creek Branch won 5-0 today

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  21. Noone's picking them but Bear Creek is a sleeper team. Juan M. Pacheco and Massimiliano Perut are two of the most underrated 4.0 singles players around.

    They will be a tough 1, 2 combination in singles. That leaves Bear Creek to scrap up 1 doubles match to win it.

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  22. Bear Creek has a solid overall team. They will be in the City playoffs along with Copperfield from Division I. Copperfield will be hard to beat.

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  23. Copperfield might be the best 4.0 team in Houston. They have some nice bump downs and new additions to their roster.

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  24. Bear Creek: Don't bring a knife to a gun fight.

    Scott Foster and Aaron Green will beat Juan and Massimiliano in a walk.

    We still have some housekeeping in our division but make no mistake, we will make City.

    Everything up to playoffs is just practice.

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  25. Is Aaron Green the second best single player on Hurricanes?

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  26. Scott Foster is not the best singles player on the Hurricanes and Aaron Greene is not the second best singles player (but they are both good).

    I like Bear Creek's chances against Copperfield.

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  27. Whatever, Foster and Green can't win every line for them. I believe Sienna showed the Hurricanes weakness. All hype, no substance.

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  28. Green lost against us in doubles.

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  29. Scott Foster would beat all legit 4.5 players.

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  30. To the last poster, Scott Foster lost 1st round at the Coke in 4.5 doubles.

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  31. I agree, the Hurricanes are all hype, always have been. Foster played all last year and didn't even get bumped up. I don't ever even remember his name showing up on this blog as being anything special. Greene is an average tournament player but can't even beat Sienna at line 3 doubles.

    Hype, hype, hype

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  32. Foster lost in the 2nd round in doubles after beating the San Antonio major zone winner (Wayne Morgan) in singles in straight sets. There is nobody in 4.0 that can beat him in singles.

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  33. If Foster is so good why didn't he play singles last year? Did Freeman screw up or is 4.0 really tough? He had Najaros, Martinez, Foster, Morris, Dwyer and Pham. All of those guys are pretty good in 4.5.

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  34. Is Scott Foster young with a big first serve and one handed backhand?

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  35. Scott Foster did not play singles last year because the Hurricanes were so loaded last year.

    Scott Foster is clearly the most dominant singles player in 4.0 this year barring an unknown self rate coming in.

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  36. It's not just Foster's big first serve try to return his second. It's hard to break someone's serve when they have such a variety and the never double fault.

    And serving is only half of the game a player has to be able to return a little even if it goes to a tiebreak.

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  37. Predictions as to which teams will grab the 2 playoff spots in 4.0 and 4.5.

    4.0:
    Copperfield / Bear Creek
    Chancellors / Westside-Phoenix
    Sienna Plantation / Hurricanes
    SAP / Roliso Boys

    4.5:
    Copperdield / Swing
    Kingwood / Westside-BS
    Hurricanes / Sugar Creek

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  38. Scott Foster has the best serve in in 4.0 and 4.5.

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  39. Foster does not have the best serve in 4.5, Odion has the best serve in 4.5.

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  40. Copperfield 4.5 has slowly been adding depth to it's team. They now have two legitimate singles players and fairly decent depth for one or two doubles wins each week.

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  41. Man, this has turned into the kiss Foster's ass blog.

    Yes, he is good.

    Yes, he should probably be playing 4.5.

    Yes, he is under the radar at this point, but by playing on both the 4.0 and 4.5 team he should get bumped after this year.

    Yes, Freeman hid him well last year, did not expose him too much to getting bumped(as a good captain should).

    But realize he is one line and if Freeman starts playing him at singles then teams will just throw a scrub out there and sacrifice that line and target the other 4.

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  42. Based on the city playoff predictions listed, how would you rate them 1-8 for 4.0 1-6 for 4.5?.

    The Sienna/Hurricanes runner-up will likely be stronger than some of the division winners.

    4.0:
    Copperfield / Bear Creek
    Chancellors / Westside-Phoenix
    Sienna Plantation / Hurricanes
    SAP / Roliso Boys

    4.5:
    Copperdield / Swing
    Kingwood / Westside-BS
    Hurricanes / Sugar Creek

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  43. Canes will sweep all 3 divisions. Foster went 3 with Yang from Rice last year. He's not unbeatable in singles.

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  44. Here is how I would rank the 4.0 divisions. I don't know 4.5 well enough to guess

    4.0:
    1) Hurricanes
    2) Sienna
    3) Chancellors
    4) SAP
    5) Copperfield
    6) Bear Creek
    7) Westside-Phoenix
    8) Rolido Boys

    Despite the 1st loss, Hurricanes are still the team to beat. If JCC, were in another division they would have cracked the top 8.

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  45. Foster is a tweener. A really good 4.0 and a an alright 4.5.

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