The Freeman-Benzon Houston Tri-Level team has embarked on its journey to Nationals in the Coachella Valley area in California. Nationals are run in conjunction with the BNP Paribas Open. It's a really fun trip despite the strange format employed.
Good luck to the guys. Hopefully Red, Freeman or Kern will chime in with some stories/results.
If the Tourney blog has truly died I will gladly devote some space to discussion of the upcoming "Coke" tournament. I hope everyone's brackets are doing better than mine.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
The Texas men (Houston) have done really well so far going a combined 5-1 on the opening day of competition. The Texas women (San Antonio) had a mediocre day going 3-3.
ReplyDeleteThe 4.5 line picked up wins by Odion Dibua/Matt Sumrall against Southwest team 6-2, 6-1 and Jason Kern/Matt Sumrall against Pacific Northwest 6-2, 6-1. They are in the semis tomorrow against Southern California.
The 4.0 line picked up wins by Pat Albro/Kris Knutson over Southwest 6-3, 7-6 and Alex Ellingsen/Kris Knutson over Middle States 5-7, 7-6, 10-5 after coming back from two match points down. They are in the semis tomorrow against Southern California.
The 3.5 line picked up an opening round win against New England 6-1, 6-7, 10-8 and Joselito Pangilian/Chad Luhan played a great match but lost to Pacific Northwest 6-0, 1-6, 10-7. They are fighting for 5th place tomorrow.
The team is doing great and representing Houston and Texas very well. I'll keep you posted.
Way to go guys. Way to represent Houston, err....Texas.
ReplyDeleteWow. Amazing the women aren't doing better. That SA team was really stacked. Could someone report back if all of the Women's team made it. The main players, Evonne, Rachel, Becki
ReplyDeleteHouston Coke Tourney. It will always be The Coke to me. Keep on an eye on total applicants. While some events are definitely up, the overall number of entrants are way down. Unless there are a lot of mail-in entries I'd say the USTA has really hurt tourney participation with the new ratings. Normal entries are around 800-900. I just looked and the total number of entrants is just at 593.
ReplyDeleteBy my count there are 75 in the 4.0 singles, 79 in the 4.5 and 7 in the 5.0's so far. That's not too bad.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteTough day for Texas at Tri-Level nationals.
ReplyDeleteIn the 4.5 draw Odion Dibua/Matt Sumrall lost to Southern California 6-2, 2-6, 11-9. They will be playing for 3rd tomorrow morning.
In 4.0 Kris Knutson/Alex Ellingsrn lost 6-2, 6-2 to Mid-Atlantic (on average, the most dominating section at national events). They will be playing for 3rd tomorrow morning.
In 3.5 Joselito Pangilian/Chad Ralls beat Northern California 4-6, 6-4, 11-9. They play for 5th tomorrow morning.
I'm not completely sure how the women have done today. Once I find out I'll let you know.
On a side note I've come to realize 13 of the other 14 sections used 2009 mid-year ratings for their teams. So far every match and every opponent currently has a half-level higher rating than their Texas opponents (at least on the mens side). It would be nice to have a nationwide uniform system but we don't even have a unifotrm rule within Texas as the SA women used 2009 mid-year ratings while Houston men used 2009 year-end ratings. I really can't complain as my 2009 Tri-Level team used a mix of 2008 mid-year and 2008 year-end ratings and it worked out for us.
Anyway, the guys are playing great and representing Texas very well.
Freeman
At last check, Coke is at 614. Still at least couple hundred below average.
ReplyDeletecongrats to Houston. Looked liked a beautiful weekend weatherwise.
ReplyDeletepaul k
Congrats to the winners of the Kingwood tournament this past weekend. Omon Dibua won the 5.0 round robin over Tim Green and Jason Gound. John Patch took out Dave McMullan in the 4.5 final, and Oscar Larrazolo beat the rapidly improving Matt Drake in the 4.0 finals.
ReplyDeletei would have liked to see omon signed up for open at the coke instead of 5.0. with a draw of only 9, there's no glory of winning it. plus, he's playing some great tennis.
ReplyDeleteWhat happened with the Tri Level team in CA?
ReplyDeleteThe Dibuas have been sandbaggers ever since playing 4.0, but they are nice guys.
ReplyDeletethe coke 4.5 singles draw looks pretty healthy at 84 players. How many were in it last year? Any predictions on favorites now that sign-ups are completed?
ReplyDeleteOverall participation is down this year but it looks like the 4.5 draw is actually up.
ReplyDeleteMr Numbers, can you run a comparison of participation for the last 3 years 2008-2010
another b.s. post trying to stir up negative discussion, please ignore these sh1theads.
ReplyDeleteDude, what's negative. It's an interesting topic. The USTA went through the exhaustive effort to even the playing field. How has it affected tournament participation? A while back when those who were bumped up were debating not playing and suggesting this may hurt the USTA purses, "wannabes" were saying, hey we're going to play more now that the "sandbaggers" are out of our level. Well, let's see if that holds true....
ReplyDeleteAnother thought is there may be less players playing dual levels. Players will be less willing to play up a level out of fear for getting bumped.
ReplyDeleteMy 1:24 posting was directed to a comment on Sarosh, that has since been deleted.
ReplyDeleteI agree with 1:08 and would like to see a comparison on the overall participation over the recent years, if the NumbersGuy has time to do it.
In California, the Houston men finished 3rd in 4.5, 4th in 4.0 and 6th in 3.5. It was a great weekend. Congrats to Red and Freeman for guiding yet another Nationals trip.
ReplyDeleteKern
I’m seeing the following, if I’m looking in all the right places:
ReplyDeleteTotal entrants
2008 892
2009 841 (6% less than 2008
2010 701 (17% less than 2009)
Total events entered
2008 1227
2009 1162 (5% less than 2008)
2010 962 (17% less than 2009)
No question participation is well down this year.
A few specific divisions:
2008 2009 2010
NM3.5d 34 44 2 (is this possible??)
NM3.5s 69 70 45
NM4.0d 94 68 60
NM4.0s 114 115 83
NM4.5d 36 56 68
NM4.5s 63 77 86
Yes, 4.5 up a bit, maybe those bumped from 4.0 to 4.5 are just tournament junkies.
Thank you again NumbersGuy for the great stats. It looks like the Coke participation is down this year, with Men's 4.5 being the exception.
ReplyDeleteI think that economy is the major contributor and the ratings bump is secondary.
The real test will be USTA League.
ReplyDeleteIf you look at the numbers nationwide, the truth behind the bump ups was not equalizing play, but replenishing a dwindling pool of 4.5s.
ReplyDeleteLots of 3.5s -> 4.0, lots of 4.0s -> 4.5, but very few 4.5s ->5.0. The tournament draw numbers reflect that reality with decreased 3.5 and 4.0 draws, but increased 4.5 draws.
The real question for 4.5 will be next year after the wide disparity in talent levels at 4.5 becomes apparent. After a summer of having their brains bashed in by the top 4.5s, a lot of those bumped 4.0 tournament junkies won't be so excited about USTA tennis.
Agreed.
ReplyDeleteIf you ever played a major zone outside of Houston, you will know that the HTA Houston Open is the worst major zone in Texas by a long shot. It is no surprise that first Coca-Cola and then Gallery Furniture dropped the sponsorship. The unnecessarily increased entry fees are not helping either.
ReplyDeletePart of the problem is due to it always being over Easter weekend.
ReplyDeleteHow do you guys feel about the City Playoffs that have been added to the Spring and Fall seasons?
ReplyDeleteIn what way is it worse than the other major zones?
ReplyDeleteIf it were more organized it would be better. They are relying on the captains/teams to schedule it, pay for balls, and court fees. Too much trouble. My team opted out.
ReplyDeleteThe Coke is and always has been the largest and best Major Zone in the state. I used to play every MZ, get a state ranking, etc.
ReplyDeleteLots of the tourney grinders that travel around the state hate the Coke b/c so many of the good league players play just that one tourney and usually do pretty well. The griping on the tourney blog last year was amazing.
ReplyDeleteThe Coke is a great tourney b/c so many players participate. That being said, the 4.5 men being stuck at Homer Ford is AWFUL!!
Have the sites been posted?
ReplyDeleteno, just commenting on last year. I just assume that 4.5 men will be stuck at HF or worse, LLC.
ReplyDeleteLOL. Homer Ford. I'd rather play on the concrete city park courts in my neighborhood with chain link nets. Seriously.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame a city the size of Houston doesn't have a first class public tennis center. Waco and Las Vegas have first rate facilities, just to mention a few.
ReplyDeleteDallas/Fort Worth have first class facilities as well.
ReplyDeleteThe Coke has always been the best-run MZ.
SAPTA is the best MZ by far facility wise
ReplyDeleteRegarding the poorer than expected performance by the San Antonio Women's Tri-Level team that accompanied the Houston men to Indian Wells week before last, several of the top players on the San Antonio team couldn't make the trip. Both Becki Pollock and Jan Struas had conflicting Spring Break plans and Rachel Kensing was disqualified from the competition having received her final flag during Tri-Level Sectionals. Funny how Rachel was disqualified and then the Texas team of Tammy Crawford and Evonne Allerkamp was blown off the court by the Souther Cal team. It only seemed fair that Rachel should have been allowed to play against such stiff competition.
ReplyDeleteI figured that's what happened. SA had a very good team. It's too bad they couldn't compete at full strength. It was a joke that Rachel Kensing was ever dropped to a 4.5 to begin with. That being said, I agree. If your "system" allows a player at that level at least let them go with the team to Nationals. SA needs to learn to protect their players better.
ReplyDelete