Friday, May 21, 2010

4.5 Tidbits

- Nice win by the Deucebags last night. Clutch performance by Andres Ballesteros and David Huffman pulling out the third set breaker. Another nice win from Hung Nguyen at one singles. Alain Tran is now 12-2 in doubles this year.

- Some nice new 4.5 roster adds this week: Peter Hansen, David Huffman, John Burrmann, David Herr, Murray Fonseca, Adam Kent.

- Was surprised to see Mark Keener in singles for the Black Sheep with Pio Davila in doubles. Keener hasn't played much in 4.5 but it looks like Tommy Ristau has a lot of options.

- We're halfway through the 4.5 season and there's no obvious favorite yet. What would the Vegas odds be for winning citywides? I'll throw some out there off the top of my head for fun (assuming rosters stay as is and everyone plays in playoffs). Rank 'em yourself if you want.

Lakeside 4-1
Black Sheep 5-1
Deucebags 5-1
Copperfield 6-1
Hurricanes II 8-1
Hurricanes III 8-1
Westheimer Indoor 10-1
The field 50-1

I probably underrated Lakeside's chances (4-1 gives them just a 20% chance). The smart money would probably be on Lakeside at those odds.

74 comments:

  1. Lakeside even money to win city

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  2. Is City round robin again this year? That would be great to see again. There would be a lot of really interesting matchups.

    Found it surprising that copperfield lost last night. Like to see the individual scores but Douds is the worst in the city at promptly entering the scores.

    Also didn't expect blacksheep to beat canes 4-1.

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  3. since the team pool in flight1 has 9 teams, i think it would be fair to have the top 3 teams go to city. this would give schwings, gtac, and coaches the incentive to keep playing hard. otherwise, it's already a 99% chance they will not catch up to lakeside and duecebags

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  4. Too bad. Only 2 teams will be coming out of flight 1.

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  5. Every team in 4.5 has 8 chances to make their case for the playoffs. Finish in the top 2 and your in. While there may be 9 teams in Division, 4 of those teams are automatic wins so before the season even started the other 5 teams were 4-0. Its easy, win the big matches and your in.

    Its not over in Division I. Still some big matches left and nothing is ever over with potential DQs hanging out there.

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  6. who are the other potential dq's in div1, that matters.

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  7. The Rolido Boys will finish 4th in their division after starting the season 3-0. How sad.

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  8. zachary has a benchmark rating. nope he is legal. plus he's not blowing away his opponents like borkop

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  9. Lakeside doubles are pretty good. Zachary/Vu,Connell/Wright have been very impressive thus far.

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  10. so let me guess, Rothe, Hall, and Monty each contributed a sentence to the 10:34 post. Nice try guys. Have a good summer off, Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!!!!!!!

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  11. How will the NOHO team impact City? THere are players on that roster that also play for City contenders.

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  12. I've played doubles partnering Hai Vu many years ago over an extended stretch. We had great results together. My games has gone downhill, but people don't really realize just how good Hai really is.

    I spent a couple of minutes and looked up his player record on TennisLink. He is 39-5 in regular 4.5 USTA summer league since 2002. His team has made city playoffs every year since 2003. His teams have made Sectionals multiple times. His record at city playoffs and Sectionals is 18-15. While that is not the record of an elite 4.5 ringer, it is the record an top-notch true 4.5 player.

    Our team played his earlier this season. I warned my teammate that Hai was very good. After the match, my teammate came off of the court and stated "He's not that good, he's got no serve." I let it drop and didn't bother to point out that they had just got crushed by Hai and his partner.

    Anyways, the moral of the story is that Lakeside has a very good team. They will certainly be at cities and probably Sectionals.

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  13. Lakeside has a legitimate chance to make a run at Sectionals. Next weeks match up with Deucebags will answer a lot of questions. Can Borkop beat Hess? Can Quack Bui beat Hung or vice versa?

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  14. David Hall of SSSwwwiiinnnngggMay 21, 2010 at 1:11 PM

    The way we are playing as a team, we don't deserve to be in any city playoffs. I believe that my teammates would all agree with me. We like the format the way it is; only two teams should make it from the division. As another post said, we have 8 chances to make the city playoffs, and we apparently aren't good enough this year. We will still come out to compete. I have a lot of respect for guys like Alain Tran who come out and give it 100% every week. His team plays that way as well being inspired by Alain.

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  15. Zachary is much better than Vu

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  16. LOL. Thanks, 1:00pm. Despite all of my bitching about it, it's kinda nice to be back at 4.5. I managed to win the deciding line last night to get our team its first win.

    The whole team almost broke out in the chant "WE'RE NOT THE WORST, WE'RE NOT THE WORST, ..."

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  17. Hai has always been underappreciated. He's not flashy, and frankly, doesn't make people ooh and aah with his shots. Most people leave the court mistakenly thinking they should have beaten him. But he's a fiery competitor and a winner. His enthusiasm during the post-season fires up his entire team. He is one of many reasons that Lakeside will be a tough out.

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  18. IF, and it's a big IF, Lakeside were to lose against the Schhhwings next week, and to the Deucebags the following week, it could make for an interesting finish for 2nd in flight 1. I believe GTAC, Lakeside, and Schhhwings would all end up 6-2.

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  19. 22-3 should help

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  20. The Lakeside vs Deucebags match is inconsequential.

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  21. Even if they all end up 6-2, GTAC is almost certainly dead based on lines won. Schwwwing has a small chance, but would really need to stomp Lakeside heads up to have any chance at all. A 3-2 win by Schwwing wouldn't be an epic upset, but a 5-0 win by Schwwing is highly unlikely.

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  22. Division I is decided. Nuff said.

    Let's move on to divisions II, II and Noho.

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  23. div2 is also decided. nuff said.
    lets move on the div3, copperfield, hurricanes, titans

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  24. The way freeman had added players, I thought the canes would be the favorites in div II. Not sure whether that 4-1 loss means they are not really that good or if the blacksheep are legit this year.

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  25. Before you start cashing in some of the teams above on their odds in Citywide, let's look at how many teams will be affected by the NOHO Super Team. Lakeside, D-bags, Hurricanes, & Westheimer Indoor will all lose 1 or more strong players off their roster. The only 2 mentioned above that do not lose anyone for Citywides are Westside Black Sheep & Copperfield. So, how does this fare for these teams & the odds-makers? Thoughts out there fellas?? Craig Bobo

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  26. Good analyst Craig. Glen Wright-Lakeside, John B-Westheimer Indoor, and ??? So that makes Westside or the D-Bags the favorites in the playoffs.

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  27. S if someone plays city playoffs would they then be inelligible for NoHo at sectionals?

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  28. Yes. you can play in two seperate leagues but must declare for one or the other ahead of any postseason play. And why would anyone of those players risk it with a Houston league team in a city playoff tourney when they can just walk into Dallas on the team favored at Sectionals?

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  29. So what happened in Jedi Knights No Way Out match last night? Did Lock really default or did NWO captain decide to DQ him on his own? And why did Lawton retire?

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  30. I will take Lakeside over the Noho team any day of the week!

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  31. Lakeside has a long way to go before they can challenge Noho. Just remember Noho will have a player from Lakesides roster when Sectionals comes around.

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  32. I doubt Glenn Wright will be a deciding factor for either team. Why does everyone assume these players will pick NoHo? The NoHo team is not as good as Dallas and San Antionio.

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  33. In ranking order around the state I'd have to say #1. San Antonio #2 Dallas #3.Austin #4.Houston/Noho.

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  34. If Glenn wants PT he will stay on Lakeside...Red screws everyone in the end!

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  35. I think that Glenn is a top player in the league. Who are the top doubles teams in the league right now?

    Davila/Colina
    Ballesteros/Huffman
    Tran/Dugas
    Burmmann/Day
    Robbins/Kent
    Vu/Zachary

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  36. Zachary is a sick doubles player!

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  37. Westside Blacksheep is the sleeper team this season. New additions of Waithe,Davila,and fonseca are huge additions.

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  38. Whats the playoff format?

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  39. 4.5 is 6 teams round robin format. Not sure how many teams in 4.0's the are.

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  40. wouldn't be ironic if ballesteros and huffman takes out the hurricanes, for screwing them at last year's nationals

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  41. a lot of hatred on this blog. If ballesteros/hufman win then it's well deserved. With Huffman with new twins, and Andres with a new boy, I think they could care less about tennis.

    while there is a lot of competitive spirit please remember we are just amateurs,just trying to play the game we love.

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  42. What about Sean Lacy Doubles Game?

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  43. Nice rankings. #1. San Antonio #2 Dallas #3.Austin #4.Houston/Noho. Each of these teams are always in the running and all are so close. We were not favored in '08 when my NOHO Team won Sectionals and made it to Nats... we won each round 3-2. Every team was tough. Many of you are doubting the debt of this team. Odion/Burrmann, Sumrall/Benzon/Ford, Mills/Vernon, & Wright/Pekar/Lopez/Vu. At singles they have a stud in Gururaj, that no one really know's much about yet, plus good depth in Antoine Ford, Matt Sumrall, David Guy, & a big time TBA. Once you look at NOHO's current roster, coupled with the last 2 pieces that will be added soon, they clearly will have a shot at making it back to Nationals. IMO I don't think any team in H-town (HTA) has the depth or firepower to beat NOHO. Greg or Chris... Will HTA have (2) 4.5 HTA Teams this year at Sectionals or only one HTA plus NOHO? Explain the Wild-card situation please if you are in the know. Thanks. Craig

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  44. Sean Lacy is a good doubles player. He/bradley were a top team last year. Not sure who he'll be partnered with this year.

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  45. The Wild Card situation for 4.5 has not been determined yet. It always depends on how many 4.5 leagues there are across the state. I think Freeman told me there are 12 or 13 4.5 leagues this year, in which case there will probably be 16 teams invited to Dallas, or three wild cards. Each city gets one name "in the hat" for each 4 teams that they have in their league in the wild card drawing. Dallas will have the best chance for a wild card, with Houston probably having the second best chance, but SA, Austin, Ft. Worth could all get Wild Cards ahead of Houston if they get lucky in the drawing.

    I agree with Craig...the Noho team is not the favorite to make it to Nationals. I think I might put Dallas number one myself.

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  46. The NOHO stud players last name that has not signed up yet is B______g.

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  47. The NOHO teams is the reason players like Htown is so upset that he got bumped to 4.5s. Clearly every player on that team can beat the average 4.5 player 6-0, 6-0.

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  48. Nah, Borg's too old. Freeman would just sit him at Sectionals.

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  49. i guess i am not an average 4.5 then...Noho is weak

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  50. Why all the talk about Noho? Funny thing about Houston league is that people in Houston that are hating on each other just don't know how strong Houston is as a city. If you look at the other cities Dallas,Austin,San Antonio they are all gunning for Houston teams. When the other cities form teams they know that to get to Nationals they'll have to get past a good Houston team. Houston has been a very strong City when it comes to faring well at Sectionals. Lots of Sectional champions have been out of Houston in recent years.

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  51. What's Noho's strongest line-up?

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  52. Noho is weak like everyone is saying. They don't have a strong line up. It's average at best.

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  53. I think it's fair to say that NOHO is somewhere in between the greatest team in the history of the world (every player can beat an average 4.5 0&0!!)and weak/over-rated (they are NOT weak).

    That being said, why the hell are we discussing them right now? The NOHO league is seperate, has no playoff and was decisded before the first toss. We can talk about them come Sectionals time.

    The Houston league has a lot going on and leads in to the GREAT new round robin City tourney. There should be plenty to discuss.

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  54. I'd say that the Top 3 teams in 4.5 are

    1.Lakeside CC
    2.Deucebags
    3.Westside BS

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  55. who are the top teams in 4.0?

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  56. "Who cares?" <--Sounds like someone has some losses this year.

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  57. or are 4.5's and actually don't care

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  58. That's OK we don't care about them either. How wonderful for both of us.

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  59. Just looked on tennis link and saw there are a lot of 4.0 teams.

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  60. any DQ's today? Lock? Or anybody of interest?

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  61. Lakeside 4.5 added Alfredo Tellez

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  62. nice pickup. tellez is an all court player. definitely top 3 for lakeside.

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  63. Any other good adds this week on contending teams? Seemed like there were a few last week.

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  64. duecebags- huffman
    lakeside- tellez
    hurricanes B- martinez
    blacksheep-moss
    lobster-kent

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  65. Moss is a good pick up if he actually plays for them.

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  66. Moss is an exceptional doubles player. He played for ATM back in the days. He makes BS doubles line up very strong. Looks like Ristau has done some good recruiting this season.

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  67. D-E-U-C-E-BAGS....DEUCEBAGS!

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  68. Moss has had mediocre results in last few years. Not a big deal if you ask me.

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