- Nice win by the Deucebags last night. Clutch performance by Andres Ballesteros and David Huffman pulling out the third set breaker. Another nice win from Hung Nguyen at one singles. Alain Tran is now 12-2 in doubles this year.
- Some nice new 4.5 roster adds this week: Peter Hansen, David Huffman, John Burrmann, David Herr, Murray Fonseca, Adam Kent.
- Was surprised to see Mark Keener in singles for the Black Sheep with Pio Davila in doubles. Keener hasn't played much in 4.5 but it looks like Tommy Ristau has a lot of options.
- We're halfway through the 4.5 season and there's no obvious favorite yet. What would the Vegas odds be for winning citywides? I'll throw some out there off the top of my head for fun (assuming rosters stay as is and everyone plays in playoffs). Rank 'em yourself if you want.
Lakeside 4-1
Black Sheep 5-1
Deucebags 5-1
Copperfield 6-1
Hurricanes II 8-1
Hurricanes III 8-1
Westheimer Indoor 10-1
The field 50-1
I probably underrated Lakeside's chances (4-1 gives them just a 20% chance). The smart money would probably be on Lakeside at those odds.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
Lakeside even money to win city
ReplyDeleteIs City round robin again this year? That would be great to see again. There would be a lot of really interesting matchups.
ReplyDeleteFound it surprising that copperfield lost last night. Like to see the individual scores but Douds is the worst in the city at promptly entering the scores.
Also didn't expect blacksheep to beat canes 4-1.
since the team pool in flight1 has 9 teams, i think it would be fair to have the top 3 teams go to city. this would give schwings, gtac, and coaches the incentive to keep playing hard. otherwise, it's already a 99% chance they will not catch up to lakeside and duecebags
ReplyDeleteToo bad. Only 2 teams will be coming out of flight 1.
ReplyDeleteEvery team in 4.5 has 8 chances to make their case for the playoffs. Finish in the top 2 and your in. While there may be 9 teams in Division, 4 of those teams are automatic wins so before the season even started the other 5 teams were 4-0. Its easy, win the big matches and your in.
ReplyDeleteIts not over in Division I. Still some big matches left and nothing is ever over with potential DQs hanging out there.
who are the other potential dq's in div1, that matters.
ReplyDeleteZachary?
ReplyDeleteThe Rolido Boys will finish 4th in their division after starting the season 3-0. How sad.
ReplyDeletezachary has a benchmark rating. nope he is legal. plus he's not blowing away his opponents like borkop
ReplyDeleteLakeside doubles are pretty good. Zachary/Vu,Connell/Wright have been very impressive thus far.
ReplyDeleteso let me guess, Rothe, Hall, and Monty each contributed a sentence to the 10:34 post. Nice try guys. Have a good summer off, Ha Ha Ha Ha!!!!!!!!!!
ReplyDeleteHow will the NOHO team impact City? THere are players on that roster that also play for City contenders.
ReplyDeleteI've played doubles partnering Hai Vu many years ago over an extended stretch. We had great results together. My games has gone downhill, but people don't really realize just how good Hai really is.
ReplyDeleteI spent a couple of minutes and looked up his player record on TennisLink. He is 39-5 in regular 4.5 USTA summer league since 2002. His team has made city playoffs every year since 2003. His teams have made Sectionals multiple times. His record at city playoffs and Sectionals is 18-15. While that is not the record of an elite 4.5 ringer, it is the record an top-notch true 4.5 player.
Our team played his earlier this season. I warned my teammate that Hai was very good. After the match, my teammate came off of the court and stated "He's not that good, he's got no serve." I let it drop and didn't bother to point out that they had just got crushed by Hai and his partner.
Anyways, the moral of the story is that Lakeside has a very good team. They will certainly be at cities and probably Sectionals.
Nice post Joe.
ReplyDeleteLakeside has a legitimate chance to make a run at Sectionals. Next weeks match up with Deucebags will answer a lot of questions. Can Borkop beat Hess? Can Quack Bui beat Hung or vice versa?
ReplyDeleteThe way we are playing as a team, we don't deserve to be in any city playoffs. I believe that my teammates would all agree with me. We like the format the way it is; only two teams should make it from the division. As another post said, we have 8 chances to make the city playoffs, and we apparently aren't good enough this year. We will still come out to compete. I have a lot of respect for guys like Alain Tran who come out and give it 100% every week. His team plays that way as well being inspired by Alain.
ReplyDeleteZachary is much better than Vu
ReplyDeleteLOL. Thanks, 1:00pm. Despite all of my bitching about it, it's kinda nice to be back at 4.5. I managed to win the deciding line last night to get our team its first win.
ReplyDeleteThe whole team almost broke out in the chant "WE'RE NOT THE WORST, WE'RE NOT THE WORST, ..."
Hai has always been underappreciated. He's not flashy, and frankly, doesn't make people ooh and aah with his shots. Most people leave the court mistakenly thinking they should have beaten him. But he's a fiery competitor and a winner. His enthusiasm during the post-season fires up his entire team. He is one of many reasons that Lakeside will be a tough out.
ReplyDeleteIF, and it's a big IF, Lakeside were to lose against the Schhhwings next week, and to the Deucebags the following week, it could make for an interesting finish for 2nd in flight 1. I believe GTAC, Lakeside, and Schhhwings would all end up 6-2.
ReplyDelete22-3 should help
ReplyDeleteThe Lakeside vs Deucebags match is inconsequential.
ReplyDeleteEven if they all end up 6-2, GTAC is almost certainly dead based on lines won. Schwwwing has a small chance, but would really need to stomp Lakeside heads up to have any chance at all. A 3-2 win by Schwwing wouldn't be an epic upset, but a 5-0 win by Schwwing is highly unlikely.
ReplyDeleteDivision I is decided. Nuff said.
ReplyDeleteLet's move on to divisions II, II and Noho.
div2 is also decided. nuff said.
ReplyDeletelets move on the div3, copperfield, hurricanes, titans
The way freeman had added players, I thought the canes would be the favorites in div II. Not sure whether that 4-1 loss means they are not really that good or if the blacksheep are legit this year.
ReplyDeleteBefore you start cashing in some of the teams above on their odds in Citywide, let's look at how many teams will be affected by the NOHO Super Team. Lakeside, D-bags, Hurricanes, & Westheimer Indoor will all lose 1 or more strong players off their roster. The only 2 mentioned above that do not lose anyone for Citywides are Westside Black Sheep & Copperfield. So, how does this fare for these teams & the odds-makers? Thoughts out there fellas?? Craig Bobo
ReplyDeleteGood analyst Craig. Glen Wright-Lakeside, John B-Westheimer Indoor, and ??? So that makes Westside or the D-Bags the favorites in the playoffs.
ReplyDeleteS if someone plays city playoffs would they then be inelligible for NoHo at sectionals?
ReplyDeleteYes. you can play in two seperate leagues but must declare for one or the other ahead of any postseason play. And why would anyone of those players risk it with a Houston league team in a city playoff tourney when they can just walk into Dallas on the team favored at Sectionals?
ReplyDeleteSo what happened in Jedi Knights No Way Out match last night? Did Lock really default or did NWO captain decide to DQ him on his own? And why did Lawton retire?
ReplyDeleteI will take Lakeside over the Noho team any day of the week!
ReplyDeleteLakeside has a long way to go before they can challenge Noho. Just remember Noho will have a player from Lakesides roster when Sectionals comes around.
ReplyDeleteI doubt Glenn Wright will be a deciding factor for either team. Why does everyone assume these players will pick NoHo? The NoHo team is not as good as Dallas and San Antionio.
ReplyDeleteIn ranking order around the state I'd have to say #1. San Antonio #2 Dallas #3.Austin #4.Houston/Noho.
ReplyDeleteIf Glenn wants PT he will stay on Lakeside...Red screws everyone in the end!
ReplyDeleteI think that Glenn is a top player in the league. Who are the top doubles teams in the league right now?
ReplyDeleteDavila/Colina
Ballesteros/Huffman
Tran/Dugas
Burmmann/Day
Robbins/Kent
Vu/Zachary
Zachary is a sick doubles player!
ReplyDeleteWestside Blacksheep is the sleeper team this season. New additions of Waithe,Davila,and fonseca are huge additions.
ReplyDeleteWhats the playoff format?
ReplyDelete4.5 is 6 teams round robin format. Not sure how many teams in 4.0's the are.
ReplyDeletewouldn't be ironic if ballesteros and huffman takes out the hurricanes, for screwing them at last year's nationals
ReplyDeletea lot of hatred on this blog. If ballesteros/hufman win then it's well deserved. With Huffman with new twins, and Andres with a new boy, I think they could care less about tennis.
ReplyDeletewhile there is a lot of competitive spirit please remember we are just amateurs,just trying to play the game we love.
What about Sean Lacy Doubles Game?
ReplyDeletewho?
ReplyDeleteNice rankings. #1. San Antonio #2 Dallas #3.Austin #4.Houston/Noho. Each of these teams are always in the running and all are so close. We were not favored in '08 when my NOHO Team won Sectionals and made it to Nats... we won each round 3-2. Every team was tough. Many of you are doubting the debt of this team. Odion/Burrmann, Sumrall/Benzon/Ford, Mills/Vernon, & Wright/Pekar/Lopez/Vu. At singles they have a stud in Gururaj, that no one really know's much about yet, plus good depth in Antoine Ford, Matt Sumrall, David Guy, & a big time TBA. Once you look at NOHO's current roster, coupled with the last 2 pieces that will be added soon, they clearly will have a shot at making it back to Nationals. IMO I don't think any team in H-town (HTA) has the depth or firepower to beat NOHO. Greg or Chris... Will HTA have (2) 4.5 HTA Teams this year at Sectionals or only one HTA plus NOHO? Explain the Wild-card situation please if you are in the know. Thanks. Craig
ReplyDeleteSean Lacy is a good doubles player. He/bradley were a top team last year. Not sure who he'll be partnered with this year.
ReplyDeleteThe Wild Card situation for 4.5 has not been determined yet. It always depends on how many 4.5 leagues there are across the state. I think Freeman told me there are 12 or 13 4.5 leagues this year, in which case there will probably be 16 teams invited to Dallas, or three wild cards. Each city gets one name "in the hat" for each 4 teams that they have in their league in the wild card drawing. Dallas will have the best chance for a wild card, with Houston probably having the second best chance, but SA, Austin, Ft. Worth could all get Wild Cards ahead of Houston if they get lucky in the drawing.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Craig...the Noho team is not the favorite to make it to Nationals. I think I might put Dallas number one myself.
The NOHO stud players last name that has not signed up yet is B______g.
ReplyDeleteThe NOHO teams is the reason players like Htown is so upset that he got bumped to 4.5s. Clearly every player on that team can beat the average 4.5 player 6-0, 6-0.
ReplyDeleteBjorn Borg???
ReplyDeleteNah, Borg's too old. Freeman would just sit him at Sectionals.
ReplyDeletei guess i am not an average 4.5 then...Noho is weak
ReplyDeleteBorg?
ReplyDeleteWhy all the talk about Noho? Funny thing about Houston league is that people in Houston that are hating on each other just don't know how strong Houston is as a city. If you look at the other cities Dallas,Austin,San Antonio they are all gunning for Houston teams. When the other cities form teams they know that to get to Nationals they'll have to get past a good Houston team. Houston has been a very strong City when it comes to faring well at Sectionals. Lots of Sectional champions have been out of Houston in recent years.
ReplyDeleteWhat's Noho's strongest line-up?
ReplyDeleteNoho is weak like everyone is saying. They don't have a strong line up. It's average at best.
ReplyDeleteI think it's fair to say that NOHO is somewhere in between the greatest team in the history of the world (every player can beat an average 4.5 0&0!!)and weak/over-rated (they are NOT weak).
ReplyDeleteThat being said, why the hell are we discussing them right now? The NOHO league is seperate, has no playoff and was decisded before the first toss. We can talk about them come Sectionals time.
The Houston league has a lot going on and leads in to the GREAT new round robin City tourney. There should be plenty to discuss.
I'd say that the Top 3 teams in 4.5 are
ReplyDelete1.Lakeside CC
2.Deucebags
3.Westside BS
who are the top teams in 4.0?
ReplyDeletewho cares
ReplyDelete"Who cares?" <--Sounds like someone has some losses this year.
ReplyDeleteor are 4.5's and actually don't care
ReplyDeleteThat's OK we don't care about them either. How wonderful for both of us.
ReplyDeleteJust looked on tennis link and saw there are a lot of 4.0 teams.
ReplyDeleteany DQ's today? Lock? Or anybody of interest?
ReplyDeleteLakeside 4.5 added Alfredo Tellez
ReplyDeletenice pickup. tellez is an all court player. definitely top 3 for lakeside.
ReplyDeleteAny other good adds this week on contending teams? Seemed like there were a few last week.
ReplyDeleteduecebags- huffman
ReplyDeletelakeside- tellez
hurricanes B- martinez
blacksheep-moss
lobster-kent
Moss is a good pick up if he actually plays for them.
ReplyDeleteMoss is an exceptional doubles player. He played for ATM back in the days. He makes BS doubles line up very strong. Looks like Ristau has done some good recruiting this season.
ReplyDeleteD-E-U-C-E-BAGS....DEUCEBAGS!
ReplyDeleteMoss has had mediocre results in last few years. Not a big deal if you ask me.
ReplyDelete