Congratulations to Kingwood and the Hurricanes as well as every other team that had a successful season. Every team measures their success differently.
Most of you are already aware of the results from yesterday, so my recap will be brief. Kingwood beat the Hangovers 3-2. The Dibuas swept the singles over Rios and Green. Both matches went to third set tiebreakers. Green and Rios are both fine players, but Omon and Odion will have to step it up a notch in Dallas, as there will be tougher players to deal with than Tim and Don. Hurlbert/Armstrong will be extremely tough to beat in Dallas but Kingwood's other doubles teams were definitely below Sectional level this past weekend. They missed Wright and Pekar but were still able to get the job done.
The Hangovers have to be happy with the Whitsett/Huffman team, who have really been clicking. David B. made his first appearance and won with ease. It'll be interesting to see if he will show up at Sectionals. Believe me, it can often be tough to get these types of players to travel up to Dallas if they don't have a real emotional committment to the team. Grant Murphy has rotator cuff trouble, but showed good team spirit in showing up for his team's matches. If he's healthy, I'd expect him to play in Dallas and the team can definitely use him.
The 4.0 finals were disappointing in that Rice didn't use Bui, Karel or Swartley and the Hurricanes stomped them 5-0. I've not seen the teams in the 4.0 wild card bracket, so it's possible that coach Hunt was content with finishing second. His team would definitely have been underdogs in the finals regardless. Only Strasser and Stasny managed a set in the City Championship match.
Despite the talk of no-ad scoring, third set tiebreakers and the effectiveness of city playoffs in general, I feel that Houston has sent its four best teams in 4.0 and 4.5. I'm certainly rooting for all four of our teams to do well up in Dallas and will give you my thoughts on things up there when I get a chance to analyze the brackets. The selfish part of me, the part that wants to keep my rating low, is hoping that every one of Houston's wins is a squeaker.
This is by no means my last post, but I wanted to take this opportunity to thank some people. Cheryl and Diana deserve everyone's thanks. They put in a ton of hard work, braving the heat and the players' tempers and still always seem to have a smile on their faces. I hope everyone will also thank their captain for all of his effort/trouble. Also, thanks to anyone who gave me any information that I might have used on the blog. Things told to me in confidence remained secret, but there were definitely several people more in the know than I am who filled in some of my gaps.
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What about the 4.5 Black Sheep V. Crush matches? Who and what happened? Scores? Stories?
ReplyDeleteThe USTA/HTA Blog wrap up is kind of lacking detail.
Would someone mind posting a link to the mid year ratings? I'm curious but don't know where to look. Thanks
ReplyDeleteThe ratings can be found here:
ReplyDeletehttp://dps.usta.com/usta_master/texas/doc/content/doc_15_1045.pdf
thanks for the quick response but I can't seem to get the link to work. Any ideas?
ReplyDeleteTry www.texas.usta.com and read the headlines.
ReplyDeleteMany thanks to HTA staff for a well run event in spite of non-cooperative weather.
Best of luck to the teams going to DAL.
Congrats to Kingwood and the Hangovers...both teams compete very well and have the best depth of any of the 4.5 teams they competed against...GOOD JOB GUYS!!! GOOD LUCK in Dallas...from what i hear, Austin is the team to be this year if you want to go to Nationals
ReplyDeleteWild Houston has the Tough bracket with San Antonio and Dallas and Corpus Christi. San Antonio and Dallas have exceptional Teams who will not go down without a Big Fight.
ReplyDeleteSan Antonio has very solid doubles, but not sure who their singles players are. I would have to say that Hilderbrand is probably one of them, but he is beatable by the singles players that the Crush or Hangovers have.
ReplyDeleteThomas Reader from San Antonio is a huge ringer as is Zac Brunsman. That team should be good.
ReplyDeleteThonas Reader is San Antonio's singles "Ringer" I would be very surprised to see him lose at Sectionals. He gave the # 1 player in the state in 4.5's Jochen Moser something to think about on his Website a 6-0,6-1 Beating in the Finals of the Alamo Open Major Zone over the Weekend in San Antonio.
ReplyDeleteZac Brunsman is indeed a ringer, more so than Thomas Reader, however he is not on the SA team that qualified. Reader is an excellent player somehow computer rated down to 4.5 after having some success at the 5.0 level last year. His conditioning could be an issue in the Dallas heat. The SA team will definitely be very competetive as will all the other teams in that bracket if past form holds. Not the best bracket for Wild Houston to end up in.
ReplyDeleteIf the Wild Houston does somehow find a way to get out of their Bracket we could see another Houston and Wild houston match-up. Wouldn't that be something. Alot of Big Matches Day 1 at Sectionals Like Dallas vs.San Antonio then Wild Houston vs. San Antonio. Someone is Gonna be out Friday August 10th.
ReplyDeleteWhat do the mid year rankings mean to teams going to sectionals who have players that are rated up? For example, Red Benzon is rated 5.0 in the mid year rankings. Is he still eligible to play in 4.5 sectionals? Also, when were these ratings published? Were they published before the city playoffs?
ReplyDeleteMid year ratings really only affect those cities who have a Fall USTA league with the winner advancing to the following year's playoffs.
ReplyDeleteI know it's strange because Houston doesn't do it. We piloted something similar a few years back in the men's league but it didn't go over too well. Basically, the fall winner would play the spring/summer winner to determine who goes to sectionals.
Used to be mid-year ratings applied for the combo but not this year. Also, doesn't affect tournament players for the rest of the year either.
They were published on Friday before playoffs. So, playoff results had no bearing on mid-year ratings. However, playoff results do have bearing on any players with red-flags.
If I'm not mistaken, I think mid year ratings don't actually affect whether they are eligible for playoffs or not. I think the eligibility only comes when the computer catches up and that's only twice a year (summer, winter).
ReplyDeleteI would like to be the first to welcome Brian Goldberg and Greg Dwyer back to 4.5. I would like to also welcome Jorge Cuesta, Will Taylor and most of all MARLON MAZIQUE. I guess the Dibuas will no longer have the biggest serves.
ReplyDeleteCongrats to all who are going to Sectionals.
Yes, to answer the original question. Mid-year ratings have no bearing at all as to whether or not you can play in playoffs or sectionals. You stick with the rating you had at the beginning of the year.
ReplyDeleteDon't hold your breath on the mid-year ratings as far as whether or not the mid-year ratings hold for the year-end rating. I've seen it go both ways. Mid-year bumps get bumped back down at the end of the year, and mid-year non-bumps get bumped. It really boils down to how you perform at Sectionals and then how the section does at Nationals.
Mazique can't be that good he got killed by Nanjappa twice.
ReplyDeletedoes anyone know the scoop on the Jegede's (Sunday and Rotimi) default in open doubles semis in SA over the weekend. On the draw it has their opponent winning 2-0 def (ref)????
ReplyDeleteTo the comment above: Nanjappa is not shabby on the court. He may not be flashy, but he is a very smart and consistent player. If he wasn't, then i doubt he would have been the topic of the 5.0 conversation.
ReplyDeleteCan we get scores of the 4.5 Black Sheep V. Crush matches posted in here?
ReplyDeleteThey were posted somewhere in other comments section. Kingwood won 3-2. Details are on tennislink.
ReplyDeleteMatch Winner Home Team: WSTC-Black Sheep
ReplyDeleteTeam ID: ***** Vs. Visiting Team: MPTC-Kingwood Crush
Team ID: ***** 3rd Set Tie-break
#1 Singles WSTC-Black Sheep is the winner. Lukas Jendek
Completed Vs. Ricky Y. Barrera 6-0
7-6
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#2 Singles MPTC-Kingwood Crush is the winner. Humberto Alzate
Completed Vs. Odion Dibua 6-4
6-2
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#1 Doubles MPTC-Kingwood Crush is the winner. Elias Gumpel
Michael R. Hansen
Completed Vs. Brandon Stevens
Hai Vu 4-6
6-3
1-0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#2 Doubles MPTC-Kingwood Crush is the winner. Milos Dimitrijevic
Tommy Ristau
Completed Vs. Gary Armstrong
Timothy Hurlbert 6-1
6-3
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
#3 Doubles WSTC-Black Sheep is the winner. Chad R. Shaw
Toshi Mochizuki
Completed Vs. Omon O. Dibua
Adam Paschal 6-1
3-6
1-0
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
To whoever is writing the blog this season, good job. I enjoyed reading your well-written thoughts.
ReplyDeleteFor those of us who don't play much more than league as they grow older, I appreciate the chance to hear the latest gossip. Perhaps an update on the results in some of the bigger local tournaments might keep the local tennis discussion going in the fall and the spring.
I hope you keep up the good work in the future. I know I'll be checking in regularly to see what you have to say.
I'm pretty sure the blogger will be at Sectionals to give us a little insight on some of the Matches. good luck to his team at Sectionals.
ReplyDeleteBlogger, nice job. This blog had plenty of traction this summer...most league participants read this and commented on it regularly, they just did't post. Maybe more people will get involved next year.
ReplyDeleteAs a captain and player moving on to Sectionals I truly hope the banter and insights keep rolling in. I'll keep checking. Plus, if anyone has any insight into any of the 3.5 and 4.0 teams that will be in Dallas I would greatly appreciate it :)
Congrats to Jimmy and his entire Kingwood Crush team. The Dibuas are a good 1-2 punch and Hurlbert and Armstrong are as good a doubles team as I have seen all year. I for one though, don't understand all the whining I have seen about these guys on this blog during the year. I certainly hope they stay in 4.5 so that I can get another shot at them next year. Best of all, while watching the Crush play on Sat and then playing against them on Sunday, all I witnessed was strong play and good sportsmanship from the entire team. Good Luck in Dallas. Also, thanks to the Blogger for all the work during the year. It has certainly been entertaining.
ReplyDeleteI was thinking about maybe doing a tournament blog along the line of this league blog but don't want to waste the effort if no one cares. Anyone could post about any level but I personally won't waste time on anything other than 4.5 and 5.0 as that is what I know. No offense to 4.0, 3.5 or whatever but I really don't know any of the players and I definitely don't care to watch 3.5 or 4.0 matches. Don't take that the wrong way as I don't care to watch open level matches. If they are not relevant to the level I am playing at a specific tournament then I don't waste time as I have plenty of more exciting things to do than watch guys other than myself playing recreational tennis. Besides that, talking about tournament play will give everyone a chance to keep ragging on eachother while shifting the focus away from the league only ringers and sandbaggers that don't take part in the tourney scene. Any interest?
ReplyDeleteTopspin,
ReplyDeleteNo need. Not trying to rob you of your idea but I kinda did as I just set one up at: www.houstontourneytennis.blogspot.com. I had been meaning to do this but have dragged my feet, so you scared me into beating you to the punch.
good idea. let's have a blog covering the whole adult tennis scene and not just the summer league.
ReplyDeleteWas wondering - did the Hurricanes ever practice with the Hangovers or Crush? There was a lot of debate there for a while as to how they would hang.
ReplyDeleteIt would be a joke. 4.0 can't hang with 4.5
ReplyDeleteI would not say a blowout, but the doubles teams might have some good matches. The Hurricanes would not win a match, but they could be competitive. The singles would be a blowout, except maybe Sarosh.
ReplyDelete