2014 USTA League 40 & over 4.0 Men's Nationals Day 1 Update

I wrote a preview of the 40 & over 4.0 Men's Nationals last night, and with day 1 in the books, here is an update on how things went.

The first flight with 5 teams had:

• Southern Cal beat Midwest 3-2
• Texas beat Caribbean 4-1
• Southern Cal beat Caribbean 5-0
• Texas beat Eastern 3-2
• Midwest beat Eastern 3-2

In the post last night I'd handicapped each team and each one of these matches went as expected.  The key match tomorrow will be Southern Cal vs Texas, but Midwest vs Texas could be a good one too as that is Midwest's only way to get back in the race.

The second flight had:

• Mid-Atlantic beat Florida 3-2
• Intermountain beat Southern 3-2
• Southern beat Florida 3-2
• Mid-Atlantic beat Intermountain 3-2

Close matches all around, but again, all went as predicted.  The ratings go 9 for 9 thus far.  Mid-Atlantic appeared to be the class of the flight and appears to have a stranglehold, but with all the matches going 3-2, Southern still has a shot to get in the mix if they could pull off the upset.

The third flight had:

• Pacific Northwest beat Middle States 4-1
• New England beat Northern Cal 3-2
• Middle States beat New England 3-2
• Pacific Northwest beat Northern Cal 4-1

The first upset of the day occurred when New England beat Northern Cal, but otherwise these all went as predicted.  12 for 13 on predictions.  And PNW appears to have this all but wrapped up having to just play New England that is 5-5 on courts while PNW is 8-2. A loss where they win 2 courts has them advancing to the semis.

The last flight had:

• Hawaii beat Southwest 4-1
• Northern beat Missouri Valley 3-2
• Hawaii beat Northern 4-1
• Southwest beat Missouri Valley 3-2

This flight had 2 upsets in the second 2 matches, Hawaii and Southwest showing they were perhaps underrated.  Southwest needs help though as they already lost to Hawaii, and in fact Hawaii just needs to win 1 court tomorrow to wrap up their semi-final slot.

So the predictions finished up 14 for 17 on the day.  Certainly not any reason to not play the matches, but things playing out pretty much true to form.