Arkansas Tennis Blog

 Sounds like once all the rain left Mobile and the courts dried off, AR Teams faired pretty darn well with a couple of teams winning Titles and others being the bridesmaids Winners: 8.5 40+ Men The ironman of joining teams and probably is the one player who keeps USTA Funded each and every year adds another trophy to his collection.  The old guys finished in a tie for 2nd after Round Robin Play going 3-1 with 4-0 NC holding the lead.  AR advanced by virtue of 10 wins to 9 wins for TN In the finals Mesaris and company got revenge on NC from their 2-1 Loss in RR Play Round Robin Match Finals Match Card: In my opinion line-ups for AR was not much stronger in the finals, they did manage to take the 2 MTB's to win it all.  NC played 2 of their same teams from the RR match and just got beat. Could make the case that Lee/JJ were a tad tougher team at #1, but KG/TC are no slouches either; BL/JG are a solid 8.5 team CONGRATS Guys well played!! 6.5 Ladies 18+ Congrats to Meek ...

 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 gol...

 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....

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...

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...

2017 Sectionals for Arkansas Wait was there a season this year, guess so even if I decided to hack my way thru disc courses of the SE. Oh just waiting for the 40s season in 2018 so this old man can get his butt kicked by the over 40s  5.0 players, but anyways who cares about the washed up hacker. With out further adieu, lets look at the divisions 4.0 and above divisions. For those 3.5 and below, don't come complaining, because I don't care. 4.0: So lets see the team I would have thought to win easily in AR, took their lumps but came thru and won the State, I mean come on when you have a bunch of former 4.5 old men and 5.0 level Seniors, you should win. This is loaded by AR standards and consider to be best team at 4.0 level coming out since the 2008 team that took 2nd at Nationals. Big question can the old guys handle the heat? Lots of experience on this team as well with many members having been to sectionals before. Expect Wise"crack"man to try and keep his ...

Ok maybe not popular but for me one request is enough to type up something real quick Good-bye nice to know you in 4.5 land. Casey Garretson, Eddie Bailey, Alex Scharlau, Alex Rivas, and Jay Heflin got the boot to 5.0 UAFS and OBU Junior Pups also saw their fun end going to 5.0 Hey we missed you Award and welcome back to 4.5: Brandon Cox out in WATA. Raul Bermudez finally gets his 5.0 rating, will be tough to beat there. I am sure Wyatt and crew are beating his door for 5.0 and 40+ 4.5 league Super Mario and Baylor Stud Sergio get kicked to 5.5, after dominating 5.0 and 9.0 mixed Those celebrating the new ratings: Adam Zimmerman and Jimbo Ramsey -- Congrats on another year to dominate those poor bastards at 4.0 yet again Drinking Salty Tears yet again: Brandon Kiker, what does the poor man have to do to get to 4.0 again. Is it time to get visual verifiers out again? There are many players who who probably be about 1 level lower, while others need to be higher. Will USTA...

I know I am asshole with such a tease, I'll comeback for more later today or tomorrow, or whenever the hell I feel like it. Will say first glance interesting, but not a lot of excitement For those to lazy to look follow this link and figure it out: http://tennislink.usta.com/Leagues/reports/NTRP/AdvancedSearch.aspx Update 10:43 PM Alright the big man at Burns has requested some knowledge be shed for 2015 season so here goes 1. 5 guys from Ft Smith got the bump to 5.0, damn guess that means UAFS will now win 5.0 leagues 2. Batman and Robin from Little Rock can no longer dominate 8.5, but I hear they may tackle 9.5 now 3. Kiker, Luneau, Robinson, Nordentoft in 2016 beat Marc Nixon, that way you can go down to 4.0 4. Tank You Very Much Award: Papa Murphy 5. Miller, Phelps, Jones and the other 5.0s on the Sectional Team, thanks for not tanking 6. Jonesboro 2016: Rivas is back, but leave the MS guys alone 7. How many teams with the dynamic duo commit to next year, only to...

Hmm for some reason some clowns still like to view this site on occassion, must be bored or have a 5th grade reading level for this drivel. So anyways after hearing about 1 person's interest, let's discuss that beast of a format called Combo, in particular 8.5 combo. Whoa!! Hold on to your butts, saw everything from 4.5/4.0 combos, to a 5.0/4.5 combo (well ok will be in about 3 weeks), then there was a 5.0/3.5 popular and what about that 5.5/3.0 line winning a match. So in the end the tennis player, turned farmer/rancher Kiker led his band of goons to the title, while texting non-stop and never stepping foot on the court, well done. Hoffmann/McDaniels won the clutch matches, although they must have been bored as they actually lost a match to Rogers or still pissed about forgetting a sign-up deadline ATA's favorite son and Burns Park superintendent won everything this weekend As for the other teams: Rogers as usual showed up for one day, then said fuck it, let...

4.0 Men: Thought I would know more of these guys but truly don't recognize many of them. Rogers/Scott appears to be the clear favorite and with their toughest competition not allowed into the tournament they should roll pretty good. Expect Synco holding down the singles lines, David Lord playing top of the Doubles with multiple partners. Appears toughest match will be the first one against NWA. Fort Smith has 2 teams (3 team league) NWA has 2 teams (1st and 3rd Place) CLR only 1 Team WTF!!! Where the hell is Jonesboro who are always staples of 4.0 State? No Mid-season hurt CLR this year as they only got one team in even though their 2nd Place team is better IMO than the other teams outside of Rogers/Scott. Of course no mid-season also meant no late season tanking could be done, see their is a benefit. So predict: 1: CLR: Rogers/Scott 2: WATA: Nelligan 3: NWA: Harris 4: WATA: Tran 5: NWA: Baird 4.5 40+ Men This is easily Birch's to lose, would take a miracle or ...

May do some chatting in the neat future and see what I can do to make the few fans happy. Will start with 4.5+ 40&U and 5.0 Divisions 4.0 18's Tournament, will be fun Then the College Division .. sorry the 18+ 4.5 Division As for the other divisions, sorry I really just don't give a .... Once written please know I don't care what others think about what I type and if it hurts your feelings I will buy you a handkerchief to wipe away the tears. Will start posting come Wednesday or so.

Well what a time and the upsets have started. Congrats to Byron Cato and Jonesboro on winning State Championships and the Berth to Sectionals, now how are you going to fare once you lose your stud singles player within the next 48 hrs once the numbers are run. Also great playing by Ft Smith as well did not expect them to finish 2nd, congrats guys was fun to play you guys, Jim Anderson was a good representative of your team Jonesboro won the big match-up against Miller/Fairley winning 4-1 behind singles play and taking 2 MTB's in doubles. Jonesboro then beat Ft Smith 3-2 on Sunday to clinch winning both doubles, although #2 Singles with Bolds was much much closer than expected. They then took #1 Doubles in MTB, while losing MTB at #2 and being blown out at #3. Cato did a masterful job in the doubles mixing up team placement each match to keep teams guessing Arkansas 4.5 Men's Results Miller/Fairley 2-0 after Day 1 then the underdogs do it again with Ft Smith taking...

So old days the biggest complaint has been the guys having to play a match on Friday and missing work because of a match schedule at noon and then nothing until Saturday, well the higher ups at ATA decided to go one further and scheduled not "1" but "2" matches on Friday. Should make for interesting line-ups on Friday So matches: Friday Noon: Birch v Cato Fairley/Miller v. Humbert/Stursma 4:30: Laster v Humbert/Stursma Fairley/Miller v. Birch Saturday 11:00 AM Humbert/Stursma v Cato Fairley/Miller v. Laster 5:00 PM Fairley/Miller v Cato Birch v. Laster Sunday 11:00 AM Humbert/Stursma v Birch Cato v. Laster Good luck to all and have fun on the courts

League Play has Finished and let the Games begin Assuming there will be a 5 Team Royal Rumble the weekend of June 6-8th Five Teams Fighting to Go To Sectionals Miller/Fairley: Cato/Jonesboro: Bolds has been DQ'ed to 5.0, believe it was a Dynamic DQ and not grievance Stursma/NWA: Laster/WATA: Birch/CLR:  Should be interesting will the 4 teams have their full line-ups for that inevitable Friday match that ATA loves to play on Friday for the guys at 11 AM or will the guys get lucky and get a 4PM start or later. Rumor: of 2 more players from unknown teams are currently being looked at, so teams could change some more. Also can anyone find the current DII signee on one of the teams. Any captains want to write their bio send a message, have some fun but nothing offensive

It appears the State Championships lineup is taking shape: Mid-Season Winner: Miller/Fairley is in NWA: Humbert-Stursma/Bella Vista/BV CLR: Miller/Fairley and Birch will fight it out this week, but both teams should advance into State -- Teams Split matches to finish season, good hard fought matches on both sides  NEA: No matches played, Cato added to 2 Memphis Players, which seem suspect at best but appear in rules as long as Bolds has not played College, although the 4.0 rating is an absolute joke. The 2nd team has more 4.0 players than 4.5, need a rule made that team requires 2/3 of players to be at level so jokes like this don't happen. Still need to play 3-4 matches by Monday WATA: Same as Jonesboro, Laster set to win but second team has more 4.0 than 4.5 players, another joke league. Still need to play 3-4 matches by Monday Independent: Kiker second team setup but 1 player signed-up, not sure I see how they will play 3-4 matches in this league to get qualified ...

Central Little Rock Well season finally winding down, 1 team is eliminated from contention now. Robinson sits at 0-4 and out of any chance of going to State Tournament after dropping Robinson dropped 2 5-0 decisions to Miller's Team Miller also defeated Kiker 3-2 losing the 2 singles matches before sweeping the doubles. Kiker is now on the ropes for a standing 8 count on their chances to make State out of CLR. They have a big match against Birch Thursday Night. A Birch win knocks Kiker out of the running and all but clinches a spot at State for Birch with 3 more matches to complete. There were a few additions over the last few weeks and subtractions. Birch: lost Hudson and Edens back to Jonesboro, even though Jonesboro still only has one team filled, the second team still has not registered any players, I hate this right now because it should throw up many red flags, the same thing is happening in Hot Springs as well. WATA is not much different with no matches being played. ...

Well not much to say other than Miller/Fairley dominated going 15-0 this weekend, very dominating. They were money in MTB going 5-0, including 2 in the Birch match and 2 in the Kiker match Birch took 2nd squeaking by Robinson in final match with MTB win at #3 doubles after dominating the singles lines. MVP for the weekend: Matt Ridgeway Jones 3-0 in dominating performances with the best win being a straight set shellacking of Guy Gilliland/Brent Herring, probably equals strike #1. Bynum Matthews as always solid in doubles winning with 3 different partners. Otto Fry also appears to be recovered from calf injury and put together 2 solid singles wins over the weekend beating Kyle Clem and Kevin Luneau handily. Eddie Bailey showed he is one of the best singles players in the state and puts any injury issues to rest for now. Interesting result was the Luneau/Toliver doubles team beating a solid Taunton/Martin team and then nearly clinching a win over Gilliland/Herring tandem. 2n...

Well the annual tradition of playing a Mid-Season Tournament continues in Arkansas with the 4 Central Little Rock Teams being the only representatives this year, guess NWA and WATA decided to save their $150 and play with each other back home, more like beatdown their weaker step-brother to advance to State. So with that said lets look at matches: Match #1 2:00 PM Saturday Birch v. Kiker: Already played one full match with Birch winning 4-1, think will see the same score, Kiker may have a few more of their players this time, but so will Birch. 1st match Birch did not have a few big guns playing, such as Hoffmann, Gilliland, and Byrd. Expect them both to play as well as the addition of Herring who appears to be eligible by the skin of his teeth. Just do not see Kiker having any chance to pull this out. Doubtful the team will miss Lyon, Hudson or Edens for this match Miller v. Robinson: Much like the other match-up, see this one going 4-1 as well for Miller. Just do not see where Rob...