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Truth Bomb: The USTA Hates Senior Tennis

On By Teresa Merklin

At the Cotton Bowl tournament over the holidays, I had an interesting conversation with someone who is a “near sider” to the USTA organization. That person dropped this truth bomb on me: The USTA thinks that the lack of participation in the 20-40 year old demographic is because younger players don’t want to play with older players. That’s right Seniors… the USTA is blaming you for the historic lack of participation in the younger demographic.

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Newk: Life On and Off the Court

On By Teresa Merklin

John Newcombe is a striking figure from the golden era of Australian tennis. The Aussies were also well known for on court achievement and even better known for having a great time off the court. It was an era of sportsmanship and camaraderie that may never exist again. Newcombe’s autobiography, Newk: Life On and Off the Court was published in 2002, but still feels current and relevant to this day.

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Rethinking No-Man’s Land

On By Teresa Merklin

Tennis players don’t spend enough time training for mid-court play. It is a profound truth expressed by Tom Gullikson last November in the “Compete Like a Champion” podcast interview. Tennis coaching and training focuses almost exclusively on play from one of two primary areas, the baseline or the net. My junior tennis days were punctuated by loud exhortations to avoid “no-man’s land” at all cost.

Leveling Up: Sectional Championships

On By Teresa Merklin

ONE thing you can learn from the USTA official landing page for the Adult tournament structure is that ONE is a very important concept. That page touts that there is ONE nationwide structure of tournaments. ONE nationwide points-per-round ranking system. ONE standings list. That very same page later pivots sharply into a series of statements that describe areas where USTA Sections have latitude to make decisions to “best meet the needs of their adult players.” Unfortunately, the early implementation of those decisions has revealed that a little more rigor is needed in order to preserve the integrity required to truly have ONE working system.

My Failure to see the Four-est for the Trees

On By Teresa Merklin

I had expected to start off this weekend talking about the distribution of USTA National NTRP Level 5 tournaments. In the interim, I discovered that I was completely misreading something in the tournament regulations that is infinitely more impactful. Today we are examining the number of Level 4 events that each section can sanction and taking a look at how NTRP tournaments at that level were scheduled for 2021. Depending on how you look at it, there is either an insane error or a loophole within the USTA Adult and Family Tournament Sanctioning Regulations.

Barty: Much More Than Tennis

On By Teresa Merklin

Long time readers of this site will be aware that I generally shy away from books about tennis players who are still actively competing. Such books tend to be public relations efforts to polish an athletes image or to take control of the narrative. I was willing to take a flyer on this particular book because Ashleigh Barty may be the last athlete to publicly and effectively deal with mental health issues before it was regarded as an act of bravery. With the “Australian Summer of Tennis” in full swing I was willing to take a chance on the most compelling Aussie player.

My First Take on World Tennis Number

On By Teresa Merklin

In certain pockets of the tennis ecosystem, there is a general awareness that a new “World Tennis Number” system is coming soon. The same people that whisper that bit of tennis insider information inevitably follow it up with breathless exhortations that it’s going to be amazing. No one can ever claim that tennis organizational insiders have a lack of enthusiasm for vague forthcoming changes that will revolutionize the administrative side of the sport. By the same token, no one can claim that there is any semblance of a track record of success in such initiatives. In any case, the World Tennis Number is apparently coming soon.

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