Agassi and Sampras don't like each other

Here's the video of their charity match.

Lakeside

As usual, signups for summer league are slow until the deadline approaches. I did find it interesting that Lakeside Country Club is fielding a summer league 4.5 team. With Tommy Connell, Quack Bui and Stephen Ash they have a solid foundation to build upon. Hopefully we will have another competitive team in a year which looks to be wide open.

Help me out.

Friends of mine are asking me to recommend someone to teach their 7 year old son tennis. I feel like I should know who's a good pro for juniors, but I really don't have an educated opinion. Can someone with a ringing endorsement post it or email me at houstonleaguetennis@gmail.com? Thanks.

Tri-Level

Tri-level Sectionals were held this weekend at Kingwood Country Club. As expected, the finals came down to Houston versus Dallas with Jason Freeman's team squeaking past Bob Bender's Dallas squad 2-1.

Freeman had a deep lineup of 4.5 players to choose from: Matt Sumrall, Odion Dibua, Jason Kern and Red Benzon. Pat Albro, Kris Knutson and Alex Ellingson were the 4.0's and Chad Luhan and Troy Ralls played the 3.5 line. The team advances to Palm Springs for Nationals, which is played in a strange format.

Tri-Level is a lot of fun, but the participation rates are abysmal. Let's face it, 3.5 players and 4.5 players rarely travel in the same tennis circles. I would think there will be or has been some discussion in USTA circles about getting rid of it.

Event this weekend.

There will be some good tennis going on at the Met this weekend. Friday at 6PM features a match between Texas and Texas A&M, who meet annually for the Texas Cup in Houston. It will be some elite tennis from two top programs.

Also, in conjunction with the match, the Met runs the "Alumni Challenge" doubles tournament. The Championship division features elite/professional players like Tommy Ho, Graydon Oliver, Jack Brasington, the Barker twins and many others. Play in the Championship division will begin immediately prior to the Aggie-Longhorn match. There are other divisions of play and several 4.5 league players have already entered the A division. Anyone interested in playing can contact Keith Christman at 713-652-0700.

Hook 'em!

Spam reduction

In an effort to decrease the level of spam on the blog I have enabled that you verify you are a human and not a meat popsicle before submitting a comment.

If this becomes too cumbersome and everyone doesn't mind a few viagara offers please LMK and I can disable this feature.

~Chris

PS - A free can of slightly used tennis balls to the first person that gets the movie reference correct.

WTT shines despite the lack of sun!

Warm weather, cloudy skies and a lot of amazing matches highlighted this past weekend in the WTT event held at Copperfield Racquet & Health Club. In the 4.5B bracket, the WTH team captained by Michael Le Tan and the BushWood Country Club led by Brian Smith cruised through the first two matches setting up a clash for these Titan teams. In a tightly contested women's doubles match, Abbe Ulrich and Emily Jacobs (WTH) were able to defeat Crystal Bryant and Sandi Pike (Bushwood), 6-4. Brian Smith and David Wanja (Bushwood) teamed up to defeat the Dibua brothers (Omon, Odion from WTH), 6-3. This match consisted of some awesome serves, amazing volleys and a lot of balls flying over the fences. The singles event for the ladies featured Nancy Nguyen (WTH) and Crystal Bryant (Bushwood) won by Nancy, 6-3. On the men's side, Brian Smith (Bushwood) was able to defeat Omon Dibua (WTH) 6-4 in another high powered match. Both teams were tied entering into the all important mixed doubles matches. Omon Dibua and Emily Jacobs (WTH) defeated Brian Smith and Sandi Pike (Bushwood) in the first mixed match 6-4. David Wanja and Crystal Bryant (Bushwood) took out Odion Dibua & Abbe Ulrich (WTH) in the deciding match, 6-3, leading Bushwood to a one point victory!

In the other bracket, the Hook'em team captained by Betsie Hollis and Mason Creek captained by Monty Lindloff collided in the last match of the day as both of their teams were undefeated in the first two matches. Dawn Tollefson and Erin Keys (Hookem) took down Dustin Sadler and Julie Tolbert (Mason), 6-5 in the ladies doubles. Neil Carpenter and Peter Rothe (Mason Creek) teamed up to defeat Tim Green and Ted Phoummarath (Hookem), 6-4 in the men's doubles. Erin Keys (Hookem) played a very strong match and beat Dustin Sadler (Mason Creek) 6-2 in the ladies singles round. Neil Carpenter (Mason Creek) took on two different opponents in Ted Phoummarath & Robert Plummer (Hookem) and defeated the combo 6-5. That gave a 2 game edge to the Hookem team entering into the mixed doubles round. Tim Green & Dawn Tollefson (Hookem) took care of David & Daryl Hall (Mason Creek) 6-1 and Robert Plummer/Kaye Estrada (Hookem) defeated Monty Lindloff/Julie Tolbert (Mason Creek) 6-2 to give Hookem the victory.

Here is a list of the champions at each level:

3.5A Cinco Ranch Cinco Seis (3-0)
3.5B Tomball Fireants (3-0)

4.0A San Antonio Party Animals (3-0)

4.0B MPTC Fried Twinkies (3-0)

4.0C Copperfield Super Smash (3-0)

4.5A MPTC Hook'em (3-0)

4.5B Copperfield Bushwood Country Club (3-0)

The next WTT event will be held the weekend of June 12th & 13th. The schedule will be as follows:

Saturday, June 12th

3.0 (8 am, 12 pm and 4 pm)

4.0 (10 am, 2 pm and 6 pm)

Sunday, June 13th

3.5 (8 am, 12 pm and 4 pm)

4.5 (10 am, 2 pm and 6 pm)

Get a team together and participate in this unique event! For more information, go to http://www.wtt.com/ or contact Lance Loken at lance.loken@woodgroup.com

Check out the wtt event this Wednesday (January 27th) at the Australian Open. The Australians, featuring Pat Rafter, Pat Cash, Nicole Bradtke and Alicia Molik wil take on the International team of Tracy Austin, Goran Ivanisevic, Todd Martin and Mary Joe Fernandez!