The big matchup in 4.5 last night was between the Hurricane "A" team and Sugar Creek (oops...Westheimer Indoor). Last year Antoine Ford played four singles matches and lost three of them in third set tie-breakers...against Aadrian Hasker, Omon Dibua and Odion Dibua. Yesterday he went down to Bharath Gururaj in straights. 'Nuf said. The big decisive line one doubles match in a fairly important regular season matchup was won by Ayman Abouelchabob and Richard Perreras over Stephen Epstein and Lito Diano.
The season thus far has been fairly uneventful, but I think we'll have a little drama on the horizon in the coming weeks. With only two or three weeks into the season, the playoff picture is fairly clear already in 4.0, unless I'm reading too much into these results. I'm assuming two teams from each division will qualify for Citywides.
4.0 I: Lakeside and Gleannloch/Ace Makers
4.0 II: Phoenix and SAP
4. 0III: 2 of the 3 Cinco Ranch teams
4.0 IV: Hurricanes and Rolido Boys
4.0 V: Sienna and Chancellor's
4.5 is actually still quite competitive, perhaps the most competitive it's been in quite a while. The Hurricane/NWO result has not been posted yet, but the winner will have a big leg up on a playoff berth in Division II. Division I still has at least four teams vying for the two spots. Hurricanes, Titans and Lobsters are all in the hunt in D III.
5.0 appears to be a runaway. David Toney's Met squad is nowhere near as loaded as Houston's top 5.0 team last year, but appears to have things well in hand, although Willow Fork has the talent to make a push for the title.
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nice to see Freeman up to his old tricks. He had Gururaj self rated at 4.0 going into season then the guy rips off wins vs 5.0 players in Spring and Freeman bumps him up to 4.5 to take the spotlight off him. Looks like the guy really should be 5.0 with that win vs Antoine.
ReplyDeleteDid No Way OUt win last night?
ReplyDeleteIn Division II the Hurricanes beat NWO 4-1.
ReplyDeleteWho won the biggest match of the night between GTAC and Sswshing? The winner has a leg up on a playoff birth.
ReplyDeleteBharath vs Antoine last night was a treat to watch. DAMN!
ReplyDeleteThe 4.5 teams made up of 4.0 bump ups are terrible. Ball Hawks, Chancellors, JCC, Sienna Plantation and Lost Forest need to be back down.
ReplyDeleteWow. After all the talk about Lock and his likely DQ, he played singles again last night for the Jedi Knights. Got to admire their determination. Too bad it was a 3-2 win that will now likely be reversed.
ReplyDeleteHow long does the protest/DQ process take?
UPSET ALERT IN 5.0... Not posted yet, but heard through the grapevine that Allen Teague's 5.0 Team upset Willowfork last night 2-1. Carpenter beat Heidari in singles. Farrell/Bryan Taylor beat Teague/Ballesteros, but the real shocker was Krosby/? beating Otis Sadler/Laurence Sombito to break the 1-1 tie and bring home the win for Teague.
ReplyDeleteHey, 10:47am! I'm the captain of one of those teams. Do you think that we are playing 4.5 voluntarily?
ReplyDeleteThe freaking USTA decided to bump our entire team (which couldn't even make city playoffs at 4.0) to 4.5. So now we have a choice of sitting out of USTA or getting our asses handed to us every Thursday.
So my advice is STFU and enjoy the easy wins. The real cause of this situation are the dumb asses at USTA. You hear that, Tosha?????
How does someone confirm that Locke has been protested? I'm suspicious that the folks that are saying that they have protested Locke may be just bullshitting everyone in hopes no one will protest.
ReplyDeleteNeed to call one of HTA folks. Darryl @ HTA would be a good start. htadaryl@houstontennis.org
ReplyDeleteStrangely, the Jedi Knights don't have a listed captain.
You have to be a captain to protest someone. Average Joe's can't file a protest.
ReplyDeleteJim Patton has been the Knight's captain since the Stone Age.
ReplyDeleteGTAC beat Shwwing 3-2 last night.
ReplyDeletewho where the winners and loser from gtac vs schwingers
ReplyDeleteHurricanes B beat NWO 4-1
ReplyDeleteBharath beating Antoine Ford does not make him a 5.0. Checking out Antoine's record the past few years shows that he is a very good 4.5. However, it also shows that he has a number of losses, singles and doubles, to 4.5 regulars. He is not unbeatable.
ReplyDeleteGTAC beating Swing makes things very interesting in Division I.
ReplyDeleteAntoine's three-set losses to the Dibuas mean nothing. The Dibuas regularly tank games and sets to stay at 4.5.
ReplyDeleteHey 10:47, what does back down mean?
ReplyDeleteDoes that mean stop playing so that the people that are really 4.5's can enjoy competitive matches? Does that mean give up in the middle of the season so 4.0's who were cornholed by the USTA won't infect the 4.5's league? Should I just roll over and die because the USTA sucks and bumped a bunch of people that were perfectly happy playing in the league that they were. Hell no!!! I'm going to play out this season, get my ass handed to me every Thursday night and hope the USTA comes to their senses and moves me back down to the level I really should be playing.
Just the way the USTA had it envisioned in their master plan.
to all 4.0 bumpups. we've all been there. losing is part of the process. however, it will just make you a better player for future matches. if you were a top 4.0 player, you have the capability of being a top 4.5 player.
ReplyDeleteTo 12:46, I appreciate your thoughtful tone.But I have a simple question: How old are you? My guess is that you are in your 30s where you best tennis is ahead of you.
ReplyDeleteI was a good 4.5 tournament player in 90s. My strokes are as good as ever, but 20 years of age was slowed my mobility to the point where my match record in 2008-2009 4.0 USTA play was 7-7. Despite this, the USTA bumped me up.
I've played with and against the top 4.5s many times over the years. Most of them are younger, faster and more athletic than me. I'm not going to magically recapture the athleticism of my youth by getting repeatedly hammered by them. So, my upside is very limited unless I start doing HGH or rhoids.
The USTA main office is spinning this year's bump up as an attempt to weed out "sandbaggers". I personally find that offensive. I haven't been to sectionals in nearly 20 years. My team wasn't a particularly elite team.
In my opinion, this bump up (which done by ignoring USTA's sacred computer rating methodology) was about replenishing 4.5 without giving much of a damn about competitiveness. The previous comments about the weakness of the 4.0 bump up teams bear out my observation.
So, please get back to me when you turn 50 and just got bumped up to 5.0 so that the local 5.0 league can have more players.
^^^Exactly right. And you're not alone. I personally know others in this exact same situation. I really think they should have omitted seniors (about 45 and older) from the bump-up. However, for the subset of seniors 45 to 55, I think you should still be included in the bump-up if you have a senior ranking of top 5 in the section, or top 40 in usta.
ReplyDeleteGREAT match up this week:
ReplyDeleteGTAC vs Duecebags--- GTAC 3-2
Copperfield vs Hurricanes--- Copperfield 3-2
Why not just take it a step further. If you've beaten me, you get bumped up. If I've beaten you, you are ok, unless I think you might play better next time.
ReplyDeleteWhy not stop acting like an a-hole and acknowledge that they have a point?
ReplyDeleteThe USTA bumped a whole crap load of people at one level (4.0) into another level (4.5) while hardly moving anyone at the upper level up. Of course there are going to be uncompetitive matches.
LOL. Sucks to be them. At least, I'll have a winning record at 4.5 now.
Amen to the old people observation. I am going to go eat some Bon Bons now.
ReplyDeleteSeniors would include
ReplyDeleteFoad
Schmucker, how old is this dude he looks 50.
Danny Vu and Greg Dwyer got smoked in league by a couple of 4.0 guys. Greg and Danny could play Wedekind and Jacob a hundred times and not lose a game, but some how they lost 6-2, 6-3. HMMMM welcome back to 4.0s
ReplyDeletesign
Watch Dog of Tankers.
next 3 weeks are going to be crazy in flight 1:
ReplyDeleteschwings, duecebags, gtac, and lakeside will all duke it out.
As on old guy, I need whatever kind of performance depressants that Vu and Dwyer are on. I get bumped to 4.5 and vow to tank my way back to 4.0. Then I go and get involved in a pissy league match with two young guys and end up going all out and winning.
ReplyDeleteNow, I'm gonna be stuck at 4.5 till I am eligible for Social Security. At least, I had the satisfaction of one of the young guys yelling "HOW THE %$#* DID I LOSE TO THOSE GUYS!" and breaking his racket after the match.
:)
In your 40's things quit working properly like they used to. In your 50's things quit working all together. In your 60's things just start falling off. In your 70's, you are numb and don't care anymore, and in your 80's you just can't remember.
ReplyDeleteI am just happy to see so many of you AARP guys using that fang-dangled interweb. How's AOL treating you guys these days??
ReplyDeleteI still use Prodigy on my Amiga.
ReplyDeleteLakeside seems to have too much depth on paper. Deucebags look like they could give them a run for their money though. Problem is Deucebags goota bring strong line ups out the next 3 weeks or they are out of contention.
ReplyDeleteDon't sass me, boy! I invented the "interweb" when you were in diapers.
ReplyDeleteAnd BTW, I'd still own you on the tennis court if you would just politely refrain from hitting the ball where I can't get to it.
Alan Tran is notorious for playing his friends instead of the best lineup. Deucebags are sunk.
ReplyDeleteDeucebags were the laughing stock of Sectionals last year. This year they will be underdogs to get into the playoffs.
ReplyDeleteDeucebags should go douche in something they are familiar with. Lakeside all the way!!!!
ReplyDeleteWow, that's a brilliant comment 9:43! Is that all you could come up with? Didn't know Lakeside had high school sophmores on their team.
ReplyDeleteaawwee Deucebags-haters.. I love it. They're all gonna eat their words at the end of the season *just like last year
ReplyDeleteduecebags have other teams other then lakesite to worry about.
ReplyDelete- they have to play gtac this week, so they have to find a way to win 3 out of 4 lines, cuz line #1 singles secured by moser.
- next they have the schwings who barely lost 3-2 to gtac, with lindloff and kim not playing.
When did Lindloff and Kim become considered good all of a sudden? They are a bottom tier 4.5 team at best.
ReplyDeleteMoser is by no means a secured victory for GTAC. Granted he's not easy to take out, but he can be, and has been before. Let's just see what happens on Thursday when the "fit hits the shan".
ReplyDeleteI'm sure I miscounted, but I have Lindloff/Kim at 7-2 in regular season USTA league matches and 14-11 in HTA matches. Not elite but not bottom tier either.
ReplyDeletelooks like patterson wasn't in the line up against gtac. this may come back and haunt them. why would you not play your top 3 players against a formiable team?
ReplyDeleteCould it be lack of people available to play? Could it be that some that played were in their first match since having surgery along with others unavailable to play? Re: SSSwwwiiiinnngg.
ReplyDelete