Friday, July 10, 2009

No Secrets

I like the 4.5 playoffs this year. They're fun...at least while every team is still in the hunt.

This Thursday the 4.5's will be the only male division playing, and the matchups will all be familiar ones as division rivals will be squaring off in the playoffs.

Kingwood Crush vs. Westside Black Sheep

Kingwood swept the season series 2-0, both by a 3-2 count. Kingwood absolutely dominated in the doubles, taking five out of the six lines, while the Black Sheep took 3 out of 4 singles. Lacy and Phan split their two matchups and Bradley crushed Rios and squeaked past Quack Bui. Both teams have their backs to the walls after losing their first match in citywides. It's do or die time. It was nice to see Minh Phan playing on Thursday...he helps Kingwood's chances.

Copperfield Lobsters vs. MPTC - Ssshhhwings

Copperfield didn't use Holmes in the first matchup, but swept Ssshhhwings' vaunted doubles teams to earn the victory without a singles win. Lindloff surprised Bergmann in that matchup. In the season finale Bergmann retired to Lindloff, which may(?) explain his absence from the lineup the other night. Neil Carpenter dealt Sam Holmes his only loss in that one and Ssshhhwings' doubles rebounded well, albeit against a weaker Copperfield lineup. ***Edit*** Ssshhhwings are 1-0, while Copperfield is 0-1 in the playoffs

LLTC - Hurricanes 4.5 vs. MPTC - Deucebags

These teams should know each other backward and forward by now. This will be their fourth meeting of the year. The series was extremely competitive. The 'Canes won two of three, but only won 8 lines to the Deucebags 7. If, as I expect, the Hurricanes roll through the playoffs, then every line taken from them along the way can become crucial. Aadrian Hasker has the game to beat anyone in 4.5, but there are probably 4 Hurricanes (Dibua, Dibua, Pumma, David B.) who have the capability to beat him on a given day. Bui will be an underdog to any of those four or even to Green if he sneaks into the singles lineup. Anyone who can guess at Alain's doubles lineup is a better man than I am. I admit that I thought he made a mistake sitting out Jannuzzi last week, but Tran knows his team best and his team came through with two doubles wins to keep them among the favorites for that #2 spot.


P.S. I sent out an invite to Betsie to report on goings-on in the women's divisions. I know there is some interest out there and I'd love if she, or someone else, would take me up on my offer to report on Citywide/Sectionals in the women's divisions.


78 comments:

  1. Correction: Copperfield lost last night.

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  2. Here is the update in the women's league: Betsie wins.

    Where are the matches this week? Higher seed hosts? It could get expensive to be the higher seed....

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  3. Everything is at LLTC from here on out.

    This years playoffs are much more interesting. It would be nice if the 4.0s played a full round robin but 8 teams is to many. The HTA did a great job this year.

    Towle, just noticed the beatdown you handed out last night. You better watch that rating.

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  4. Yeah I tried to recruit Towle for my 2010 4.5 team, but he politely declined. I'll wait til Sectionals to ask him again.

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  5. Thanks, but that goes back to my hatred of the no-add hoowey.

    We had EIGHT 3-3 points and we got 6 of them.

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  6. Typically captains just agree before the match starts to play regular scoring. I know the HTA has court and timing issues but no ad tennis is just not appropriate for the playoffs.

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  7. Greg, let me work on it. The 4.5s gets interesting with the Monday Met team (last year's team to go to Sectionals). 4.0 is interesting too. I know nothing about the 3.5s. I'll post something by Sunday night.

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  8. 4.5
    This year’s playoff between Nat Guts and Top Gun has some significance. In my years of captaining it will be the most competitive 4.5 City Playoffs. This will be the first meeting of the two teams because up until last year, Houston has won 4.5 Sectionals since 2005 (2005 Nat Guts, 2006 Top Guns, 2007 Nat Guts) The 2006 team wasn’t called Top Guns however it included a lot of the same players coming out of the Met with the biggest difference and key to winning Sectionals in 2006 being Maria Taylor and So Youn. Without those 2 players they didn’t make it out of their flight last year. So, this brings us to 2009 with the show down of perennial favorite Natural Guts trying to show Top Guns that last years trip to Sectionals was by default since NG wasn’t in it.

    There’s speculation that there was some preferential scheduling in this year’s playoffs however it has not been confirmed. For the first time since I’ve been involved in City Playoffs, the 2 First Place teams (Monday Day vs Tuesday Night) face off in the first match on Saturday. Sounds suspicious. Rumor has it that the Monday team was going to be short handed for Sunday and wanted to meet my team on Saturday. If this is true, I don’t like that concessions are being made for one team (especially if it’s not mine – haha). In any case, I want my team to play every team at full strength so it doesn’t matter to me either way.




    Round 1 (virtual Finals) MP Natural Guts vs Met Top Guns

    I credit my years of success (past City) with depth and strength at singles and this year is no different. It will be any captain’s guess as to who will play singles for any given match (Emma McDougal, Jo Keene, Connie Hsiao, Lori Carruth) – they are all capable of beating any of the Met singles players. The Met’s best bet to take a singles line from us will be in the hands of Carol St Clair (former Natural Gut) and Mariuz Calvet-Saiz. If the Met has any chance of beating NG they MUST split singles.

    This year, I have more options than ever for doubles pairings. Take your pick, mix and match, it doesn’t matter (Jo Keene, Cori Mullins, Emma McDougal, Dominique Glinzler, Jesselyn Reed, Kaye Estrada, Kristen Samuelson). Not a bad problem to have. I’ll skip ahead to who I believe we’ll face at doubs.

    Tiffany Burris / Angie Momeir
    Renee Heckler / Kai Siewratten
    Cheryl Aven / Kate Clarke

    The only line of the 3 I’m fairly confident we’ll face are Cheryl and Kate. Both crafty, smart, athletic, old-school doubles (serve and volley) players. The other 4 players seem to not have set partners this year. Tiffany Burris and Angie Momeier played together a lot last year so I suspect that will be one of the teams. The doubles will be fun and exciting tennis. I think all 6 teams (my 3 and TG 3) are all fairly evenly matched and I’m not sure which line each team plays will have much significance in the outcome. That’s how you want it. No such thing as dropping lines in this match-up.

    My Prediction: Natural Guts wins 3-2. I can’t even guess which 2 lines we’ll lose but TG is way too good a team for us to sweep or go 4-1 against.

    It’s too bad Houston doesn’t have a 4.5 Wildcard in 4.5s because both teams could make it to Sunday in Dallas.

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  9. Thanks Betsie...Let us know how it turns out. I'm sure a lot of us will see you out there at LLTC next weekend. Good Luck!

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  10. My pick for ladies 3.5 is LLTC-baseline, but only because I actually recognize most of the names there :P

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  11. My money on Briargrove Park-Matchmates 4.0 to take it all.

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  12. Kingwood, Copperfield, Walden & Woodlands are competing in ladies 3.0. While Woodland and Copperfield are the favorites, look for Walden to upset them all if their players are available.

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  13. 4.0
    This year’s 4.0 Playoffs will have the usual suspects in the Finals with a different outcome. It will be Briargrove vs Mason Creek in the Finals. Several weeks back I would have said BGP would have no problem against MC, however, things have changed slightly with the loss of some of their players.

    BGP Singles: Lan Chen, Tawn Vo, Christina Cochran
    Vs
    MC Singles: Julie Tolbert, Dustin Sadler, Robin Brand

    Singles Prediction: Singles should split. All of these singles players are excellent and it will simply come down to matchups and who’s on. While Lan and Tawn are very consistent defensive players, Julie and Dustin both have a lot of fire power and if their seeing the ball big, can beat any player out there.

    BGP Doubles – Dena/Debbie anchor their doubles teams, followed by several real good doubles players Theresa Houston, Melone Zak, Yannet Brister, and Margaret Diano)
    Vs
    MC Doubles – Shannon Walla/Theresa McLaughling their main doubs, in addition to many other good doubles players as well Robin Brand, Pam Bartay, Dawna Kelly, Joneen Peiser

    Doubles Prediciton: Briargrove 2-1

    4.0 Winner: Briargrove (3-2)

    Flight I
    The biggest threat to BGP is in their first round match against Longwood. Other than Sandi “slice and dice” Pike, LW probably doesn’t have a chance without some other singles players who can realistically compete with BGPs guns of Lan Chen, Tawn Vo, and Christina Cochran. Unless LW can manage to split singles I don’t think they have a legitimate chance of beating BGP. LW has some solid doubles lines in Crystal Bryant/ Shellie McBeth and Barb Sawaya/???? But the chances of them sweeping doubs is unlikely.
    1: Briargrove Park
    2: Longwood
    3: Kingwood
    Kingwood has some good veteran doubles teams but without substantial singles players probably don’t have a chance against BGP or LW.
    4: Sienna
    Their biggest gun is Betsy Ramirez a competitive 4.5 singles player before getting dropped to 4.0
    I don’t see their doubles players doing too much damage.
    5: Champions Park North: Don’t know where that is so I have no opinion and place them last LOL


    Flight II
    1: Mason creek
    This is the weaker flight of the two and Mason Creek should easily emerge as the Flight winner.
    2: New Territory
    This team has a lot of talented doubles players in Diane Williams, Mary Dana, Lisa Littlefield and Janine Vonderhar, Mindy Gibson, and Julia Stoner. They came in 3rd place last year behind Mason Creek and MPTC Divas who is not playing. They’ll do well this year but no chance against Mason Creek.
    3: Rice
    I obviously don’t know a lot about the players from this team. They burned me in Combo. I think this team is anchored by Anh Truong and Lani Trieu. They don’t have enough weapons to beat Mason Creek or New Territory.
    4: Homer Ford
    5: Westside

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  14. Good info. Thanks Betsy.

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  15. Way to kill a thread with 3.5 and 4.0 Women's talk

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  16. LOL. CRUSH WILL CRUSH BLACK SHEEP.

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  17. crush and blacksheeps will be close again. bs got swept last week, so a lost will end their playoff hopes.

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  18. Greg,

    After the summer season ends, you should start a discussion on how USTA should define what a 3.5, 4.0,
    4.5 and 5.0 players really are. The disparity in the quality of play, especially in the 4.0 and 4.5 is way out of whack. In 4.5's you have people with no high school playing experience playing against people who played division I college experience just in the last few years. Clearly there is a major discrepency in what is supposed to be "levels" tennis.

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  19. I know so many guys that tank matches to get their rating down it's a joke. If I'm a legitimate 5.0 why the f**k would I want to beat up on 4.0's and weak 4.5's? Get a life.

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  20. Expecting another tight match between the Hurricanes and Deucebags this Thursday.

    This one could be the best matchup of the week...

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  21. I agree with the recent comment. What satisfaction does a recent division I player get in beating a legitamate 4.5? This is the same thing as, what satisfaction does it give a 4.5 beating up on a 3.5 player. It should be embarrassing for that player. They must have some major insecurity issues.

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  22. Not only that, but try being the legitimate 4.0 playing a league doubles match in the spring and/or fall season with a 4.5 who is trying to get his rating down.

    Being the sacrificial lamb sucks!

    Play to your level and if you get your a$$ whipped you'll eventually end up where you should be.

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  23. hasker vs. o. dibua
    d. bui vs. puma

    -hasker wins in 3rd set tie-breaker
    -puma wins in 3rd set tie-breaker

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  24. dat won't even come close to a set against puma. doesn't have the mental game to beat a pusher.

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  25. Yep. Saw dat play against holmes the other day. He stunk up the first set and was better in the second, but he's too wild and impatient.

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  26. League is out of whack. Why do 4.0 players play in 4.5 league to lose? Then they complain. It has been this way for years. You made the decision for which league to play.

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  27. How can you get your rating up if you don't play up? But you're right, too many weak 4.0's (and even 3.5's) are trying to play 4.5.

    I don't like that HTA allows you to play down in the Spring and Fall leagues as long as you play Line 1 or 2 with a lower-rated partner. Why is that?

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  28. Some people have friends who play different levels and want to play on the same team together. Since HTA leagues are noncompetitive, why not allow it? It's not gonna' kill anyone to play a tougher or easier opponent once in a while.

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  29. Ratings is a joke, I think they should take the top 10% of each year and bump them up and take the bottom 10% and bump them down.

    In 4.5 perhaps they should take the top 15% and bump them up.

    The Gallery Furniture is a good example where the draw size for the 4.5 vs. 5.0 is a joke. It tells anyone there should have been at least 10 or more guys in the 4.5 who should be playing 5.0.
    Certain guys who have dominated 4.5for years should move up.

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  30. Who has been dominating 4.5 for years?

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  31. There are guys playing 4.5 who win tournaments in the 5.0 and Open divisions. You know who they are.

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  32. Winning a 5.0 tournament is meaningless. There are 4.0 league players who could be competitive in 5.0 tournaments.

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  33. Pls.name a couple of 4.0 guys who could be competitive in 5.0 Tournaments???

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  34. A legitimate 4.5 should beat a legitimate 4.0 1-0, 1-1 at best. A legitimate 5.0 should do the same against a legitimate 4.5.

    No legitimate 4.0 can compete against a legitimate 4.5. If you believe that, then you're not comparing actual ratings, you're comparing opponents who have been mis-rated (intentionally or not).

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  35. I meant no legitimate 4.0 can compete against a legitimate 5.0 (or 4.5 for that matter as I originally said).

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  36. Sienna 4.0 have the worst captain and co-captain. Horrible lineup decision. That is why they are losing. Most of the players are ok.
    Leadership sucks big one.

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  37. good luck playing at noon in 100+ degrees ... pain pain pain NO gain

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  38. whine whine whine, this is all i hear in the end of this thread.

    get better, go practice, stop typing

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  39. Legitimate 4.0's can compete (not necessarily win) against 4.5's. I think people are overestimating the difference between the levels. I consider myself a legitimate 4.0 and last year I was competitive (2-1) in my 4.5 matches and even managed a win over Kim/Lindloff, albeit with a great 4.5 player as a partner. A few of the 4.0 players I played were as good as the 4.5's.

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  40. Just by reading the arguements listed above concerning the different ratings, you can see why national USTA doesn't have a clue on how to even things out either. Different people match up well with different types of games. I just wish USTA or maybe us on this blog, can come up with some ideas on how to not have such a wide swath of players in both the 4.0 and 4.5 divisions. There are clearly some 4.5's that should be in the 4.0's and some 4.5's that should be in 5.0's. What rule or something can be put in place to enforce that? The template is a good start, but it seems that some people conveniently leave off pertinent information so that they can play down, and it also appears that TTA doesn't really look at those templates until and unless someone files a protest on a player. The whole system is corrupt and flawed unless TTA enforces the rules that they have in place. But, just like the FED's, and banking regulators, there isn't enough manpower out there to catch all the thieves.

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  41. Sorry, I meant legitimate 4.0's competing against legitimate 4.5's in singles, not doubles. I agree with you about doubles.

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  42. Dwyer is not really a legit 4.0 anyways.

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  43. I don't think the system is perfect but I do think it's better than it was under the visual rating system. I have always been an advocate of 2 things:

    1. Visual Raters at Sectionals and Nationals. This is unlikely as the USTA has invested a lot in the current DNTRP system.

    2. Stricter and more punitive penalties for "Self Rated" players who become disqualified either by the computer or by the visual raters at Sect's and Natl's. For example, a self-rated player who is DQd (by the 3-flag rule) can not play in a USTA sanctioned event for 3 years and the team loses all of that players matches. Being DQd is different than just having the computer bump you up due to your results. The computer rated player who gets DQd would only lose the last match they played causing the DQ and cannot advance with the team to the next level of play. The USTA has never been in favor of harser/different penalties for self rated DQs vs computer rated DQs.

    The problem is that there are too many computer rated players who are playing below their level. This high level of play perpetuates the problem because they cause match results to be competitive against other high level players just entering the system. The USTA would literally have to require every player to reself-rate themselves and start over with the self-rate penalty being enforced for that year.

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  44. The USTA will never go to stricter penalties because they know people will just quit renewing. It's all about the $$$!

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  45. There's nothing wrong with worrying about the bottome line. The USTA needs to be run like a business if it is to survive. But, how do they know there aren't active members who don't renew because they eventually get fed up with the current system. Who knows how many members they've lost.

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  46. There has been a DQ in men's 4.0. Daniel Dolsberry got his third strike in his win against Juan Pacheco last Thursday. Therefore, Lakeside's 4-1 win will become a 3-2 victory and they will be without Dolsberry for their match against SAP, who now seems to be a clear favorite in that flight.

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  47. That's a shock. Don't understand that at all.

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  48. So the old white dudes got caught cheating?

    How funny after all of the smack talking about the Asians and such.

    Who's going to be talking all of that glory about their captain now??? He is such a great guy, etc.

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  49. Good for us (I guess) bad for the league I suppose.

    Here is my question:

    I know the men's stuff is not retroactive b/c the season is so far down the path, but in the mixed league he has a KEY win for Robyn's mixed team over our favorite UT engineer Aaron Greene that could really change the winner of that flight.

    Does that get changed since the situation is still 'influencable'?

    Is that a word - influencable?

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  50. Wait, nevermind. Aaron beat him. I read the score wrong.

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  51. No, when a player gets DQd it does not affect Mixed results.

    Look at Marold who was key for Mason Creek to beat Mixed and Matched.

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  52. "Old white dudes"
    "Asians"

    Maybe teams should be named more like gangs:

    Lakeside Old Honkeys
    MPTC - Chinese Take-out
    Copperfield Shit-Don't-Stinkers

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  53. That's funny.

    Some humor is welcome in a sea of "that guy sucks, he foot faults, etc...bitch, bitch, bitch, whine, whine, whine....

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  54. That sucks for the Smokers because they would have won that match against lakeside 3-2 which means they would have been in the playoffs instead of lakeside.

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  55. No they would not. They got caught cheating and weren't going anywhere near the playoffs.

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  56. I think HTA needs to be more transparent on these types of rulings concerning the smokers.

    There have been rumors that they cheated, but only a few select know the story.

    But the previous poster (Michael) is correct, had this Lakeside guy not played then they may have won the match and then would have been QUALIFIED to play in city wide. The fact that they cheated on something else is independently disturbing.

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  57. Here is the guy that got DQ'ed.

    Anyone know him? Kind of showed up on USTA this year out of no where.

    http://tinyurl.com/Lakeside-cheater

    The link takes you to FB.

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  58. wow, 57 comments and only a handfull that have to do with the playoffs and not complaining about the system (which will always be flawed by the way). Does anyone want to talk about the playoffs and predictions??

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  59. LOL the people who are IN the playoffs are getting ready for them. It's the losers who are blogging!

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  60. Not sure how getting bumped up is considered cheating...

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  61. It is not getting bumped during the normal cycle of mid year or end of year bumps.

    The system thought he was an outlier and flagged him based on no tennis history and the victories over established players at that level.

    That would be considered playing out of level which is synonymous with cheating. right?

    Maybe Lakeside just didn't cheat well enough... maybe he should have been coached to take a loss or two against weaker teams to lower the probability of being flagged and offset that undefeated record some?

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  62. Not sure if this is news or not, but mid-year ratings will be out tomorrow.

    (per USTA-Texas on facebook)

    What are the top 5 stupid questions that get asked every year?

    Here are the ones I recall:
    1. Do the midyear bumps count for the city playoffs and sectionals
    Ans - NO
    2. Do the midyear bumps count what tournaments I can play in 2009?
    Ans - NO
    3. Can I appeal my rating?
    Ans - Yes, in December when final ratings come out.
    4. How do they do the mid-year ratings?
    Ans - Based on summer league play only.
    5. Why do they do mid-year ratings
    Ans - Really no good answer I can come up with....


    What else gets asked every year?

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  63. So who benefits/hurts the most from the Lakeside DQ in the 4.0 playoffs?

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  64. SAP can waltz to Sectionals now. But even lowly Sienna still has a little chance now.

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  65. Not sure who wrote that, but I think this weekend will hardly be a waltz for us.

    More like a hip-hop dance of some sort IMHO.

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  66. Somehow I can't picture Towle on Dancing with the Stars...doing a waltz OR hip hop.

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  67. I am glad to see LakeSide got DQ. They really should have two players get DQ in addition to Daniel C. Dolsberry. Geber Enrique Urbina is another player that should have been DQ. The guy is playing 4.5, 5.5 and open levels the entire year except for three matches. Of course one of the matches were against the Smokers which caused them to miss the playoffs. The whole season they were making complaints and baseless bullshit accusations while they are the ones cheating the system the entire time. What goes around comes around. Glad the system caught on to them. Yeah and watch out for their doubles players also they will deliberately try to smash overheads directly at you.

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  68. These are the first real complaints that I can remember about the Lakeside teams. I know that they have been playing league for a long, but don't remember any complaints about sportmanship, cheating or playing out-of-level players. Someone please correct me if I am wrong?

    I wonder what has changed recently, or is it this year?

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  69. I, for one, like having comments and updates about the women's league. After all, the blog is about Houston League Tennis, not just men's tennis. Most of us, like me, have spouses that also play tennis.

    Just wait till the women start trash talking and complaining about other players, just like the men's league.

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  70. Betsy Hollis an advocate of more strict guidelines: she abuses the system just like a few of the 4.0 and 4.5 captains (everyone knows who you are)

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  71. Let me see if my team can get a spot at the city playoffs: does everyone have their players registered with HTA? If not, I will start the DQing this evening. I have some time to kill and some hopes to be squased in your chances to go to Sectionals.

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  72. Sienna 4.0 have the worst captain and co-captain. Horrible lineup decision. That is why they are losing. Most of the players are ok.
    Leadership sucks big one.

    I agreed. Sienna have good players. But the captain have a big ego. The line-up he put out sucks and a jokes to his players. If you want to win sit you and your brother ass out off the line-up. Any team could beat them w/ the line-up that he throw out.

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  73. Sounds like a disgruntled Sienna player. One of about 10 of them. Maybe you should take it up with your captain directly.

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  74. Towle,

    you forgot to mention that yes, input from this blog does count for midyear ratings!

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  75. So Dolsberry gets DQ'ed but not his mixed matches? Why is that? If his mixed matches gets DQ'ed then his Mason Creek 8.0 mixed team gets a loss against GTAC 1-2 instead of Mason creek winning 2-1. That's huge because that would make it a tie with the Rice team.

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  76. Here's a great idea for all MXD captains: Get a ringer to self rate at the appropriate level, play just 1 important match, then who cares if that person gets flagged since there's no DQ in MXD? Wouldn't make much sense, but then again NTRP doesn't either.

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  77. Here is a link to a sheet that has the data parsed for those who want to look at it across city, etc.

    It took me about an hour, would have been about a 20min exercise but there were a few people with middle names, four names, etc and that took me a while to work through.

    http://tinyurl.com/Men-Rating

    You want the tab called 'Cleaned_Data". The other tab has the text parsing in it.

    This is on dropbox. You should be able to get to it open right from the link in excel.

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