Opening day

It's opening night tonight. Many of the rosters appear to be fairly full, but I'm sure there will be some last minute signups.

However, right now there look to be some clear frontrunners in the race to get to Dallas.

The 5.0 division is littered with players from the Met...every team has members and/or players from the Met's tough offseason Thursday night league. David Toney's team has picked up a nice addition in Arun Nanjappa, as there is no Rice 5.0 team this year. Based on preliminary rosters, they appear to be the team to beat, although Hernan's Lost Forest roster is yet to be filled out.

The 4.5 division appears to be a one-horse race. Kingwood came so close to making it to Nationals last year, and has most of their key players (minus Odion Dibua) back. They've added Juan Lopez as well as Brandon Burris, Hugh Burris, Dan Hanley and others. Their division will have some competitive matches as Jason Freeman has put together a very tough team which will be a definite contender for that second spot in Dallas (if there is one). David Yang, Chris Hunckler and Phong Regent are some of the top players on Freeman's squad.

The Mob Squad has also returned from its hiatus, minus several of its former contributors. Still, they have a couple of solid singles guys in Steve Phan and Ted Phoummarath and many of their doubles guys have had success at the Sectional level in the past. They'll have a tough battle tonight with Peter Rothe's team, which is always solid in the doubles lines.

You can almost always pencil the Jedi Knights in for the playoffs, and it certainly looks like they'll be a contender again this year. They've added Ted Erck, who was a big name in Austin tennis back in the day, and who has played a pro tournament or two. I'm not quite sure who their singles guys will be...Ryan Cooper had not yet signed up when this was written. As noted, Copperfield will be stronger this year, but will not be the unstoppable force some people were anticipating. Still, with John Kudrick, David McMullan, Bryan Robins and some others, they'll be solid. It looks like Tommy Ristau has taken over the captaining duties for the Black Sheep. They have a few names I'm unfamiliar with, and will bear watching.

In 4.0, I think it's a two horse race. Freeman's Hurricanes again appear loaded, and Chancellor's has littered their roster with very good players in an attempt to wrest the crown from Freeman. Most of Freeman's Nationals team from last year has been moved to 4.5, but many on his roster had impressive showings at the Coke, and Freeman has a good eye for talent. Chancellor's has some young talent mixed in with some guys who've proven themselves to be quality 4.0 players (I'm sure some would say that's an oxymoron) in the past.