Monday, August 4, 2014

Another Tucson Trip for Freeman

There was great drama at High Point on Sunday morning as the Unicorns and Hurricanes battled for the fourth time this season, with a trip to Nationals on the line. The Unicorns were without perhaps their best player, Olivier Le Coz, who was back in France. They'd handled his absence well all weekend, with Gary Chen and Raul Paniagua filling in well in singles.

The three doubles lines finished first, with Thang Pham and Byron Hailey winning quickly. Hunter Emmott and Collin Hodge won a competitive match at line one, and Chen and Kevin Nguyen pulled out line 3 doubles in three for the Unicorns.

Despite the most benign conditions I've seen at Sectionals over the last 20 years or so, cramps played a role in the two singles matches. In both line one and line two, the seemingly fitter guy was victimized. Teenager Biola Kuku's conditioning was tested by grizzled veteran Shishir Mohan, who has a way of extending rallies. The long weekend and hard hitting of Evan Fontenot may have worn down Guage Krask, who fought on gamely after collapsing in pain.

Both singles went to third set breakers almost simultaneously, and the fortunes of both teams ebbed and flowed. Krask was out to a good sized lead (7-3?) and Kuku and Mohan were seemingly always within a point or two of each other. Honestly, it was hard for me to keep track of both courts. Krask may have had a couple of match points. At one point, I think it was 10-10 on one court and 8-8 on the other. This paragraph was a long-winded way of saying: It could have gone either way.

As it turned out, both Fontenot and Kuku won their match points almost at the same time, and the Hurricanes won a 4-1 victory that was much closer than that.

This makes three trips to Nationals for Freeman (and yours truly, record-setting benchwarmer!) in the last four years, truly a record without equal in these (or any?) parts. 

157 comments:

  1. With LeCoz, Unicorns might be the better team. But give Freeman credit for getting his guys to commit. It's not easy.

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    1. Canes were missing two of there top eight players in Tuyen and Alex. With them playing I don't think it's even close

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  2. Did anybody get DQ'ed this weekend?

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  3. Sounds like it was a toss-up and would have been awesome to have watched it on the sidelines.

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    1. Was Beinhart there? That would have been a good environment for him.

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    2. Is that the loud fat idiot? Freeman probably couldn't stand him.

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    3. Actually, rumor has it that the Unicorns were much louder, and the same team won again this year-the better players. Last year the losers were crying that the Hurricanes were too loud, this year the Unicorns were too loud and the Hurricanes still won!

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    4. Rumor has it that you have no idea what you're talking about, scrub. Biola, Colin, and Hunter should all be DQed for being 5.0.

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  4. It's not official, but I believe the Hurricanes did lose one player to "three strikes". I won't mention his name yet, but I will say that I personally wouldn't consider him one of our top five players. It's a loss, but not a crushing one.

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    1. Must be Thang or Bailey

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    2. Can't be Thang he can't win at 4.5

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    3. A number of Hurricanes can't win at 45 but find their games again at 4.0

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    4. Rumor has it that the competition is easier in 4.0. Shocking.

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    5. Not really sine they lose to the same players they laid waste in 4.0. Trying to say no Hurricanes dump their matches?

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  5. The Amarillo 4.5 team should have 3 guys dq. Powell and Omar (singles guys) play on the pro tour and David Wu was top 20 ranked and all american. What happens then?

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    1. What about Hurricanes 4.0? Kuku seems to have had affiliation with Nigeria's national jr team and Hodge played open level doubles in Europe.

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    2. http://www.itftennis.com/procircuit/players/player/profile.aspx?PlayerID=100276527
      So he qualifies for a Futures and is allowed to play 4.5, thanks TTA
      http://www.itftennis.com/juniors/players/player/profile.aspx?playerid=100161627

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    3. Powell is a 4.0 according to mid year ratings. If a small town wins then lets all cry out foul.

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    4. 1:22 Unbelievable......"""Pro Tour"""" playing in tournaments is the pro tour??? Ridiculous..........
      Amarillo Captain George Jennings....8062236704 my number if you want to talk about my players...
      Powell had a flesh eating virus less than 12 months ago....almost lost both feet......kid has a new lease on life.......
      We have been beaten soundly by Freeman last several years, finally got a deep enough squad to compete.....so complain all you want 1:22.....
      By the way, met and spoke with Freeman, very gracious guy, very complimentary, as were all of the Houston players, thought they handled themselves with class and dignity.....

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    5. Freeman IS a class guy. He plays within the system and plays it well. George, congrats on winning sectionals. I love it when a small market wins....its important and is always fun to take down the big pools of talent. However, you must admit that Powell and Omar push the limits of 4.5 tennis. Both have played futures level events regardless of any infections they may have had recently. Lets just be upfront and honest there.

      Good luck at nationals! Bring the title home to Texas.

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    6. that omar naguib guy didn't even seem to win very many matches in his last year of super champs.

      looked up logan powell only back to 16s but seemed like he didn't win much except made a decent run in the consolation of the tx summer grand slam (finishing in the top 128).

      in the finals it seems like naguib played 3 closed sets.

      powell beat cohen who i have seen rated at 4.71 on a site before coming into playoffs (if i understand it correctly).
      so cohen was already playing over level and he got destroyed in the finals, in addition to steam rolling everyone else.

      powell might be out of level but i think naguib is barely within it.

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  6. Tennis Link has only 1 Hurricane, Alexis Narvaez as 4.5.

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    1. They didn't use him in any of their 3 big matches. Not even a top 8 guy.

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    2. I just went through all of the 4.0 and 4.5 rosters of teams that went to Sectionals. I only saw 2 other DQ's: Luis De La Cruz from 4.0 Corpus and Bobby Hagerman from 4.0 Wichita Falls.

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  7. Only one other player has achieved what you have H Town. 3 years of league Nationls in 4 years.

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    Replies
    1. It takes a unique lack of talent to accomplish that feat. Something to be proud of.

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  8. How does Freeman's 4.0 Hurriance team compare to his team in 2011, 2013, that went to Nationals? This team better? Do they have real chance or is it a toss up?

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    1. Without Beinart, they are headed for disaster.

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    2. 2011 had maybe 4 guys who could be really competitive at the upper 4.5 level: Rios, Vu, Yamaguchi and Jones. And then a really solid doubles team in Adrian/Montes.

      2013 had maybe 2 superstars, Rossi and Reeves. A lot of good role players but I don't think that team was at the level of the other two.

      How many 2014 guys could compete at upper 4.5? At least 4. I haven't seen enough of Leighton, but I suspect he also could. Cline would have made 6, probably.

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  9. Unicorns and Chancellors should band together to take down Freeman.

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  10. Good luck with that. That would never happen

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  11. Semi or Finals lineup for those teams below. Obviously some of the 2011 players were better/fitter 3 years ago than they are now.:

    2011

    Vu
    Quijano
    Rios/Jones
    Adrian/Montes
    Yamaguchi/Phan

    2013

    Rossi
    Janek
    Reeves/Leiker
    Patton/Tuyen
    Boarman/Donn Nguyen

    2014

    Kuku
    Fontenot
    Hodge/Emmott
    Pham/Hailey
    Knutson/Howard

    If the 2014 team gets Tuyen and Leighton to Nationals (as well as the others and perhaps a sharp Santesteban) I think they have to be considered the strongest on paper.

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  12. 2011 beats 2014 in a tight one

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  13. 2011 wins 3D. 2014 wins 2S. Kuku looks vulnerable. I'll pick Vu. 1D would be awesome. 2D slight edge to 2014.

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  14. 2011 i think played tougher competition and also had people that could play both singles and doubles. They played 2 different lineups in semis and finals and basically won cities without some of their top players.

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  15. If you play on future tour event why would you want to play4.5. Self rated players can just lie on the question and become any rating they want. Just look up david t wu. Also should be dq based upon the guidelines. Just stop cheating.

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    1. if you were a D1 player and Top 50 in the nation why would you play 4.0 tennis? Goes both ways

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    2. Who's the D1 player?

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    3. Hunter Emmott. Google him. He ain't hard to find.

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    4. For people who are dogging on Hunter, he was in a horrible accident not too long ago and wasn't even able to walk for awhile. He's out there enjoying the game and he will probably move up to 4.5 next year and perhaps 5.0 after that if he gets his movement back. Maybe we should be happy for him instead of calling him a cheater.

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    5. Do we have to choose?

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    6. Hunter would have had very little problem in 4.5 and you know it.

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  16. What happen to Faraaz Ahmad Malik on Freeman's 4.0 team? Did he just quit the team? Didn't see any more matches for him on that team.

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    Replies
    1. He became a professional bodybuilder.

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    2. Got fat eating bon bons

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    3. Heard that was Tuyen Nguyen

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  17. i think there's no question that in order to succeed you're gonna need some controversial borderline strong self rates

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  18. Maybe we could have a poll. Who is dirtier... Hurricanes or Unicorns? I know a lot of players on both and each say the other. The funny part is neither deny being dirty.

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  19. Unicorns will CRUSH the Hurricanes in 40+ !!!! We will beat those cheaters.

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    1. Unicorns have too much, I tend to agree.

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    2. I'm not sure but if the Hurricanes win I bet the Unicorns get the crap kicked out of them in the next match. Lakeside and Unicorns will have a dump off.

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    3. Hurricanes cheaters? Half of the unicorns team are made up of the same people from last year. Unicorns doing the trash talk when they need to take a look at themselves.

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    4. So that is one vote for the Unicorns being dirtier.

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    5. Hyung Kim is a dick. Watch him closely.

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    6. He is but most of the Hurricanes are as well. When you tank for 2 years to be on the team you are a dick

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    7. Kim is the Asian equivalent of Phil Kerig

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  20. Both the Hurricanes and the Unicorns tank. That is why they both ended up at Sectionals two years in a row. Nothin but a bunch of dicks representing H-town.

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    1. Unicorns and Hurricanes were the best teams in the state last two years. Methods are questionable but results are unquestioned.

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    2. Unicorns over the Hurricanes in 40+, After we smoke those whiteys from Lakeside we will rule sectionals.

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    3. I heard Freeman played his JV

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    4. You gotta be fucking kidding me. "Those whiteys"? When is this shit going to stop?

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    5. Next time I see Kim I am going to kick his ass.

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    6. Playing your JV team in the city playoff when there's only 3 teams? Did they win?

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    7. Freeman don't care about 40+. Thang Pham and Byron Hailey didn't even suit up.

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    8. Defaulted a singles line. Definitely just throwing the Eunuchorns a bone.

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    9. There are players joining the Hurricane hoping to make it to sectional & national, and the captain doesn't care & throw a single line away?
      Now that's not cool.

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    10. Why "Thang Pham & Byron Hailey didn't even SUIT up"? Suit up for what? Are they having a hot date with one another?

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    11. They did not throw a line. One of their guy went to Memorial Park when the match was at LLTC.

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    12. Pham won't play because he is a 4.0A and doesn't want to risk a DQ before 18s nationals

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    13. Unicorns beat Lakeside's top team 5 - 0. Are they good enough to win sectionals?

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    14. The only team that could beat them won't be there so yeah, they are good enough to win sectionals.

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    15. Yeah, this will be a nice consolation prize after losing in in the finals of real sectionals.

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    16. Of course the gaycorns demanded the default in singles when they found out that one of the canes ended up a memorial park.

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    17. Sympathy go out for those non-hurricane members joining the hurricane this season hoping to go far, but ended short because the captain decided to hold back his top players for a different league. Unlike the Unicorn, they played their heart out every match trying to win ... and they did.

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    18. Gaycane has 8 players on site, but would rather has that 8th player on the sideline and play with himself than actually play him. Slim chance or no chance, you must play him. You must make every opportunity count, defaulting a single line with a player sitting on a sideline is a rough choice for him. I hate to be that guy.

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    19. I doubt that. Who was the eighth player? Freeman wasn't on the roster and he may not be 40.

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    20. I agreed with that the Hurricane did have 8 players because I saw both of the Fleming twin brothers there. Perhap they look so alike that the captain thought they are just one person and miscounted his players.

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    21. The gaycorns captain demanded the default as one of the canes were late.

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    22. What a lame excuse. Just ask the Fleming brothers. After what has happened, I don't think that they will ever play with the Hurricane again.

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    23. Originally from Sienna so they must play with themselves.

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  21. When you whiteys become the minority

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    Replies
    1. We're in Houston. We already are.

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  22. Eunuchorns didn't even get out of their flight. Pretty funny

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  23. And the rest of y'all didn't get out of city. Pretty funny

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  24. Unicorns WILL rule again in 2015.

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    1. Rule again? Don't you have to rule before to actually rule again? The Eunuchorns are the biggest blowhards.

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    2. Gaycorn captain Kim is a dick

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  25. Looks like a bad lineup in the pivotal match against Wild Dallas. Where have we seen that before?

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  26. We are grateful to have the Missouri City & Sienna teams ran with us. Some time you win & some time you loose. It's not the end of the road, we'll do it again.

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    1. Yeah, thanks for ranning with us

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    2. We will not loose next year

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    3. We want to nguyen this year in 2015, not loose like last year. Who can we ran with. Iam waiting four the call.

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  27. Does anyone know the difference between loose and lose?

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    Replies
    1. You mean theirs a difference? Its probably not a big one.I'll aks one of my friends.

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  28. Three more Houston area teams (55+ age group) are Nats-bound. 8.0 Houston women (who breezed through without dropping a line), 9.0 Houston men, and 8.0 NOHO men. Congrats to all, and somebody please bring home the bacon!

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  29. It's so great that the HTA has the draw ready for viewing so people can make plans for Friday.

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  30. Impressive since it starts tomorrow.

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  31. Those posts are funny but really ripe with sarcasm. At least Dwyer doesn't rip his own city like their blogger. Their blogger is much funnier and more active.

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  32. This comment has been removed by a blog administrator.

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  33. Hurricanes 4.0 team is in the finals at Nationals against Southern Cal...could this be Freeman's first title?

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  34. Nope. Lost 3-2. Awesome run though. Where was Kuku? And Knutson? Something about the Ks?

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  35. Houston 4.0 men get 2nd at Nationals. Texas 4.0 Dallas women won Nationals. Nice representation

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  36. At last a 2014 National Championship for Houston (area). The NOHO 8.0 55+ Men, led by Mike Spearman, just completed the task, with 6-0, 6-0 and 6-2, 6-2 wins in the final. And the 8.0 55+ women are in the final as well.

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  37. Tri-Level is this weekend. I see Freeman put a certain Paul J-P Robinson from Spring, TX that self rated last year as 3.5. I wonder if he is related to Paul J. Robinson that had a 4.0M rating in 2004?

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  38. I heard Paul J. Robinson wasn't all that good. In the tri level 3.5, when he played with Fat Freeman they lost 3 and 1 against the X-Men team. When he played with David Lavesy they lost 3 and 4. What is that tell you? Fat Freeman 3.5 team supposed to be the best team in Tri Level. I guess they were not.

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  40. Year end ratings are out, any surprises? Let the recruiting begin...

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    1. Link please? All I see is early year rating from July - http://goo.gl/MfbQL4

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  41. Houston 4.0 Team had 3 5.0 rated guys playing in the finals, good grief if that is not great sandbagging.

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  42. Anyone ever tried to get a medical bump down?

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  43. Yes, Hunter Emmott got one last year and is now a 5.0.

    He might have wrecked for anyone from HTown for a few years.

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  44. Anyone win their appeal?

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  45. The So Cal 4.0 team they played had 4 5.0 players. Freeman was out sandbagged.

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  46. Is there a reason why I see more computer ratings year end and less bemchmark ratings?

    In the past most teams who advanced to sectionals/nationals end up bemchmark year end.

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  47. they have gone away from the "B" rating but if a "B" were to appeal it would flag that they are benchmarked even though it shows a "C"

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  48. So can a computer rated year end player get dq'ed during regular league play now?

    Assuming they dont have strikes against them already.

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  49. Does anyone ever win the computer appeal?

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    Replies
    1. I won my appeal! Now 5.0 when I was 4.0.

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  50. http://tennislink.usta.com/Leagues/reports/NTRP/SearchResults.aspx?Search=TreeNode&update=1&NationalNodeID=4443858&CYear=2014&SectionNodeID=4443875&DistrictNodeID=4443960&SubDistrictNodeID=4444286&DivisionNodeID=&FlightNodeID=&GenderCode=M&NTRPRating=

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  51. Only one player out of Freemans 18 man 4.0 nats team roster was saved from a bump up. That has to be a first...

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  52. Sorry to hear that fellow "Anonymous" tennis player/poster. Found this video on Twitter, I now want to send Todd Reed a fruit basket. The appeal process or lack thereof makes no sense. http://tennislink.usta.com/leagues/HelpTutorials/ac050000.html

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  53. Did dallas or san antonio get hit as hard as Houston

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    Replies
    1. Dallas harder than San Antonio. Yes, both took it pretty hard too.

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  54. Austin took a big hit as well. League tennis is going to be down next year.

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    1. Austin 40s got to play with mid-season ratings. They should roll!!!

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    2. Usta Texas pressures the cities to move to hear end ratings for 40s then the only ones that don't happens to be Austin?

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  55. I like the new weighted point system used by HTA for the 2015 Fall and Spring leagues. It takes out some of the strategic line manipulations, but makes for more balanced match ups. Even better is that the Fall and Spring leagues don't count toward ratings, because it removes the motivation for tankers.

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    1. Removing tanker motivation was a great move. The city still has a huge problem with cheaters, but the change was a step in the right direction.

      I think the points system is a good idea, but as it is it weights line 1 too heavily. I think a superior system would be 1st - 8, 2nd - 6, 3rd - 4, 4th - 2. Then you could have ties or ties broken by games/sets which I think is a nice dynamic.

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  56. Did anyone get out to see the Coke matches? The draws looked smaller than in the past years.

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  57. Hurricanes at Homer Ford????

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    1. We all love to beat up on the hurricanes but this isn't really a reason.

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  58. No preview to the season?

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    1. There hasn't been a post since August.

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  59. Too bad this blog is inactive these days. Houston Tennis is at an all time low and Freeman, Benzon, Rizarri, Tran and Patton are a disgrace. I don't need to provide any more details - they know the shit eating scum bags they are. Is your mental disorder that out of whack that you want to win at any and all costs????

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    1. Who is freeman and why does he captain a team that he doesn't even play on? And why are high schoolers playing adult tennis.

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    2. Completely agree. These cheaters bring shame upon Houston. Their cheating ruins Houston tennis leagues for everyone.

      USTA is unable to effectively police the situation. I encourage captains to do 2 things:
      1) Refuse to field a team during league play when facing these teams. Captains need to ban together before league play starts.
      2) Do not add any of these cheating players to your teams - ever.

      If you do these things, the problem will work itself out. If not the same thing will happen every year.

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  60. Get a life you hater.

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  61. Like I said - EXTREME mental disorder. Like Rizarri playing in Beaumont so he can tank matches to get a 4.0 rating. What a bunch of cheating losers. Does winning even mean anything if you have to cheat to get there.

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    1. Rizzarri is a terrible player. Would not be a ringer at 3.5. One out of 3 shots goes in.

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  62. No teams will take Rizarri here. He just wants to get some exercise. He is a nice guy and very well liked in Beaumont.

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  63. Do we think Houston would beat NOHO. Some of the same players? WOOOsies

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  64. NoHo is just a sham league for those that are so mentally disturbed that they want to live at any cost. The joke of it is that they don't even play in the league. They just write in the scores to get their ratings knocked down. YAY Freeman - oooh you so cool - you have all these awesome teams that make it to Nationals. You cheating slime!!!!

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    Replies
    1. Are you mad because you can't make the cut to play for either the Hurricanes or NOHO?

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  65. So typical these days. People break the rules, cheat, lie, steal - and it's those who call it out and question it who are vilified. No wonder our political system is so fucked up.

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  66. The write in the scores and don't even play the matches w the noho team. What bs. U can't do that? How does he get away w that.

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  67. If you're missing your Freeman posts you can check out the Dallas blog. He shows up there quite a bit around sectionals time.

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  68. Shout out to Tran and Freeman. Finally cheated your way to a National title. Congratulations boys, you should be real proud of yourselves!!!

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  69. What, no write up about this year's playoffs? It was a fun and interesting playoffs without Hurricanes and the additionally wild cards.

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  70. How can the Houston tennis association allow writing in scores with out playing them? If you want to cheat you at least have to play the match and deal. WTF?

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