Arkansas Tennis Blog

 Well now that the gnashing of teeth or whining is starting to subside on the dreaded ratings day, guess what Mobile and their 60 cts is hopping with sandba.... I mean Sectional Combo Tournament.  A Thursday Start!?!? Guess they want to make sure no one misses SEC Games this weekend. No my idea of fun missing 3 days of work to play tennis for matches that do not count, but I hear the towels are nice 9.5 Combo No AR teams in Women's and the Men's team appears to be a no show, so just a 2 state race in each division, oh well who cares now 8.5 Combo Repping from AR at the 8.5 Level is the bionic captain Lee Mesaris and his team led by the consistent 5.0 Casey G. glad marriage and real life not slowing the kid down.  1st Match against MS: 2-1 win with Casey/Daniel winning at #1, Lee/Kyle (no longer the 4.0 King) at #3 Hendrix kid Kristin and his Partner lost to a solid team at #2 in 3 sets.  2nd Match: against SC: lost 2-1, Hendrix Kid and partner won at #2; The disc golfers took a

 So someone called me out and wants to know about ratings .... hmm To Be Continued as I try to decipher what the USTA has been doing, you know helping Intermountain (UT) dominate 4.0 Men's Tennis with all their 12 self rates bumped to 4.5, but hey the machine has won 3 straight National Titles, guess bragging rights are big in SLC.  Glad to know taking off 2022 League Year did not diminish anything.  Brandon Kiker I blame you if this goes sideways :) ** WINNERS of the NTRP Ratings Hate Me ** Got a daily double to go along with the first heading: Head up to Jonesboro and once again Gary J. and Alex A. get the old man bump to 5.0!! AGAIN!!! Who did you guys piss off?? Well done boys, well done, thought I was the only one who could piss off USTA.  4.5 to 5.0 (Poor Bastards, 2024 will be a better Year) Special Note: Edson Abrao, sorry my man, you're still a stud welcome to 5.5 and the Pro Tour Lite; for those who do not know, Edson was a stud when he played at UALR.  No one else

Welp it is that time again for the Annual "I Got Screwed" Ratings Awards. I woke up this morning and saw the ratings and the only words I have for it are Holy S#*$!! Southern Section took one on the chin, I have never seen this many bump-ups in one year. Let's have some fun: Welcome to 5.0 to all of the old geezers Bailey, John Stanley  again;   Hunter, Scott  again;  Jones, Matthew  again;  Matthews, Bynum  again; Geez anyone seeing a pattern already!?!?!    Murphy, Joseph  again;  Rush, Lee  again;  Steed, Scott  welcome to purgatory;  Wallis, Donnie  again;  Humbert, Ralf  again;  Smith, Stephen  again; The special "I got screwed Rating" goes to  Prasad, Kiran  WTF did he do to deserve this rating!?!?!? Now to the younger crowd, welcome to 5.0  The "About Time, Damn it the Appeal button is broken" goes to  Garretson, Casey   Sorry buddy but it was bound to break after all these years Berardi, Robert  who did you piss off?!?! Church

Hmm so ratings came out late Wednesday Night and some Chenal Pro seemed very giddy about it, not sure why his butt is still at 4.5, guess that Nationals Experience has lifted his abilities up, beyond the horse whisperer or is the Donkey Whisper So without further adieu. The Bailey Boys once again get the bump, although Lil Ed finally got to 5.0, congrats, bring plenty of water since it is a desert. Stephen Smith found an Oasis and got back to 4.5, congrats I hate playing you in doubles. Casey Garretson apparently marriage has slowed him down and he remains 4.5 Synco goes back to 4.5, hopefully no appeal this time, are you listening Southern..... Well nevermind Poser goes back to 4.0. Hey 4.5 is not that bad once you get tired of beating up on the old guys at 4.0 Another player also got bumped to 4.5 but Posed back down to 4.0, you know who you are, guess 7.0 MXD is to much fun to play with the big boys. Big Lee and his 100+ matches got bumped to 4.5 TreDay goes back to

New ratings came out 2 weeks ago, but my lazy ass did nothing but look over and peek. No real surprises to be honest although there was a certain 4.5 player that appealed down to 4.0 somehow, guess competition was too tough after going 3-1. Thanks USTA Clowns. The 4.5 Chasm has gotten much bigger now with several bumps from 4.0 to 4.5, no real moves from 4.5 to 4.0 other than the appeal. Few older statesmen got appeals from 5.0 to 4.5 (Welcome back Alex and David) and a couple of 4.5/5.0 players will be joining the 40+ gang this coming year. The Suck It Award goes to Kiker and Nordentoft for about the 4th straight year, guess USTA just hates these guys and refuse to let them back down to 4.0 even with the losses mounting. The Wiseman comes back to 4.5, Big Red makes his debut at 4.5, a Baptist Pastor also makes a return 4.5, while doubles prodigy remains 4.0, and Big Lee gets to stay at 4.0, ATA's favorite son remains a 4.5, while 55+ gang get bumped to the desert called 5.

Well the youngsters finished Sectionals last weekend and well my predicitions kinda sucked. AR 4.0: 2-2, but could have been 4-0 with 2 MTB wins. No Wiseman, no Kaliki probably hurt, but it is what it is. Not sure who gets bumped to 4.5 next, although have to assume, Zimmerman, Meredith, Wiseman are likely candidates. AR 4.5: 0-4, not wholly unexpected, this was more of a 40 and over team, with a couple youngsters to feed to the brutal heat. Good fights but not their year. Believe Casey G. saved himself a bump with a few losses at Sectionals. AR 5.0: 0-4, pretty disappointing result, this team was pretty stacked, but without a Kajevski and Martinex would have been tough but with a few of the guys though would have done better. 40 and overs started today and the 4.5 Men got a big win over GA (A). . Good luck the rest of the way for the 4.5 guys. With a dominating 5-0 win over SC the men play the Finals this morning, I would think they would be the favorites against NC. Single