Week Two

Sorry, I haven't had time to do anything more than glance at things this week. Nothing jumped out at me in the way of exciting matchups. In 4.0 Sienna faces Chancellor's in a battle of two teams who have been top contenders in the past few years. With the significant roster turnover it's hard to tell just who will be the team to beat in that division, but tonight may tell the tale.

There were a few roster moves that made me take notice, though many of them are not coming to mind right now. Blake Martin being added to Ssshhhwings is intriguing, I guess. Martin was dominating the 4.0 tournament scene this year. Interestingly, he self-rated as a 4.5, which I guess precludes him from pursuing the top ranking in 4.0 this year. It might open things up in the tournament rankings for Oscar Larrazolo, who was plucked from the Acers roster to join the Lakeside 4.0 team. The Acers actually would have had a dangerous squad with Larrazolo, Romero, Le and Obenrader, but Larrazolo has moved to a team that will almost certainly be in the hunt. Lakeside has got to be considered the second favorite behind Freeman's team, and has added another recent self-rate in Jorge Ferrer that will bear watching.

One roster move in 4.5 that comes to mind was Ryan Cooper moving from the Jedi Knights, where he's been a fixture in the last few years, to the Katy Coaches team. I'm not sure if Cooper is in the coaching business or just lives out in the Katy area. Jedi Knights have struggled for singles players in the last several years and will again probably be very shorthanded in that department. Perhaps newcomer and self-rate Santiago Lock will be the answer. Captain Karl Burford (who does a great job with the usually undermanned Katy High School tennis team in a killer district) will pit Cooper against the Lakeside CC team today in their season opener.

Reminder

Don't forget to pay your HTA dues so we can avoid all of those annoying protests, etc.

Opening Day

In MLB this year we had Red-Sox v. Yankees to open the season. In Houston League tennis, we had No Way Out vs. Black Sheep. Not quite the same.

Captains have been slower than usual reporting their scores. All of the favorites appear to have won their matches. The Hurricane franchise won all of their matches, although the Herb Morton-led 4.5 team (hereafter referred to as "The B Team") looked very shaky in doing so. Lakeside appears to have some solid squads, and word is that SAP squeaked out a win in their quest to return to Sectionals. Hopefully things will get more exciting as the season progresses.

WEAK

Sorry for being so neglectful...for only the second time since '97 I won't be playing in the Thursday night league so I haven't paid it as much attention as I usually do. Despite being on the sidelines I'll still be watching things fairly closely and chatting frequently with friends and contacts in the league.

I took a look at the rosters this morning. Maybe my absence from the tennis scene has skewed my judgement, but my impression is that this is the weakest summer league since the turn of the century. The 4.5 league seems to be missing so many of the big guns from last year, and with perhaps a very few exceptions there don't seeem to be any new studs to take their places. Again, customarily captains try to spring their "surprises" on opponents at the last minute, so there may be a flurry of roster activity on Thursday, but right now I can't see any team that has a remote chance of doing any damage at the Sectional level this year. The league will be competitve, and even some of the 4.0 bump-ups will be able to "hang", but there doesn't appear to be a real quality team out there. Even some of the perennial contenders (Ssshhhwing, Black Sheep, etc.) appear weaker, but still may be good enough to qualify for citywides.

As for 4.0, the number of recognizable names is pretty small, but I would suspect that the captains who annually field contenders (Freeman, Goodwin, Lu, Spoor) will all be in the playoff hunt and will all be trailing Jason Freeman when all is said and done (though Freeman's roster seems to have a couple of head scratchers on it, I'm sure he will be strong by the time the playoffs roll around).

Brackets are out.

Both the 4.0 and 4.5 brackets have been released. At first glance it appears they have done a good job with them. Of course, the strength of the teams is still subject to change but I think the brackets look fairly balanced in both 4.0 and 4.5. Discuss.

Fill out USTA Survey on Mobile use

Hey Folks,

Please take a couple of minutes to fill out this USTA survey. It looks like they are trying to probe their user base to see if it is worth investing in the creation of a mobile app for either Iphone, BB, or Android based platforms (So sorry for your Palm users HAHA - just kidding).

Take a few minutes and complete this and hopefully we will have an Iphone app by 2015!

Rosters are filling up.

I just took a look at the summer league rosters for the first time in a week or so, and there's been a flurry of activity.

Some have pooh-poohed Lakeside Country Club's chances, but I like the recent additions they've made. My old teammates Eddie Perdomo, Hai Vu and Phi Huynh have joined the squad. More intriguing is the addition of Ed Hess, who was a high quality 30's player (and 5.0 league player) back in 2003. If there's not too much rust on him, he'll be a factor. Their team has potential.

We'll see if this weekend produces any other names to keep an eye on.