Team of the Decade?

The names are just starting to trickle in, but Freeman/Benzon may end up assembling the best team this city has seen in quite some time.   On board already are the Dibua brothers, Burmann/Day and Tim Green and whoever...that's a formidable doubles lineup already.  Ted Phoummarath is a very capable number 2 singles guy.  I'm guessing there will be some more studs added to the roster before all is said and done.

Alain Tran's team is poised to add some talent to his roster, supposedly, but at this point most teams should be shooting for that wild card slot, if there is one.

Mike Davis, Alann Torres and Rusty Branch are definitely gonna' be keeping a sharp eye on the Hurricanes....

Signups in Full Swing

Tennis season is finally upon us.  The "Coke" is just weeks away and league rosters are beginning to fill up.  I took an early look at the rosters this morning and saw a few things that caught my eye.   The Kingwood Crush begins its new era under Chantz Chanthanalay and has added a couple of new players in Don Rios and Quack Bui.  Aadrian Hasker has joined the newly formed Sienna 4.5 team which at first glance doesn't figure to be a heavyweight, though Hasker alone will make them dangerous.  An intriguing new name on the Westside team:  Rodolfo Benitez.  I haven't yet googled him, but a quick look at his results include a two and one shellacking of Neil Carpenter and Monty Lindloff in a doubles matchup...I suspect we may have our first ringer.  Time will tell.  Jason Freeman's 4.5 entry Hurricanes 2 appears at first blush to be a nonfactor, composed at this time of all 4.0 bumpups.  

It looks as though Donn Nguyen's Sienna 4.0 team will again make some noise this year. Pennsylvania import Bret Anderson was impressive in HTA season, teaming with brother (?) Brian to beat, among others, teams like James Bui and Andy Diep.   Freeman's team is always one to watch, and has some solid veteran signups already.   It will be interesting to see whether onetime stalwart Phong Hau has recovered from two knee injuries. 

As usual, roster moves will start moving into full swing once the Gallery Furniture Open reaches us.  For those interested in playing in the tournament, I believe the deadline is approaching this weekend.  

Tri-Level Sectionals

Tri-Level Sectionals begin today in Kingwood.  At stake is a coveted spot on the courts next to the pros at Indian Wells.  Houston will be well represented, but the field is stacked.  Michael Tran, Red Benzon, Tim Green, Jason Kern, Scott Foster and Bruce Inting are all part of a talented Houston squad.  Houston opens up with the Dallas wild card team this afternoon.  

AWOL

I have been missing in action for a while now.  Just started looking at some of the results from HTA season and tournaments...nothing earth shattering, but some interesting results for sure.  This weekend will start to shed some light on the upcoming season with a major zone and the tri-level sectionals taking place. 

I just heard a rumor that Jimmy Kilshaw will be stepping down as the Kingwood captain this year. I'm not sure how true it is, but Jimmy will be missed.  Hai Vu and Chantz Chanthanalay are rumored to be his replacement.  I'm sure they will do a great job, but it will surely be tough to match the success that Jimmy's teams have had over the last few years.  

Tennis LIfe

Thanks to Granger Huntress for the mention he gave to the league tennis blogs in Houston, Austin and Dallas in the latest issue of Tennis Life magazine.

Ratings Junkie

Ok, I admit it. I'm a numbers guy, a statistics guy, the type of guy who could tell you how many homers Harmon Killebrew or Carl Yastrzemski had. So I was kind of excited when I came across a thread on the tennis warehouse message boards that explained a "trick" to finding out your exact rating.

As you may or may not know, a 4.5 player has a rating that is anywhere from 4.01 to 4.50. Hopefully you can do the math to figure out where a 3.5, 4.0 or a 5.0 player's rating falls. Anyway, somebody was able to hack a way to find out your correct rating. It involves protesting your rating online and having the USTA email you the results. If you open the email via Outlook, you can then "View Source" on the email contents and embedded in the code is a line that says "ntrp-rating=" followed by your exact numerical rating. This kind of information could be useful to someone like Tim Green or any other player who has been "bumped down" via tournament results, as it would be useful to know how close he is to the 5.0 division and whether he should be careful with his results to avoid "three striking". (The word on the street is that players who recieved a rating via league play (except for mixed exclusive ratings) will not be in danger of "three striking" this year)

Anyway, I'm sure this loophole will be corrected posthaste, but those of you who are curious about your rating may want to try it. By the way, mine came back as a 3.95.

Tri-Level

This weekend the local Tri-Level competition will take place at Lost Forest. Tri-Level teams field three doubles lines, all from different levels. The 3.5/4.0/4.5 tri-level league offers players a chance to qualify for sectional and national championships (nationals are played at Indian Wells during the Pacific Life Open, I believe).

An early look at the rosters would seem to indicate that the local favorites are the "evil Empire" team featuring Red Benzon, Tim Green, Greg Dwyer and Jason Freeman among others.