Tennis Roundup: February 14, 2022
Women finally achieve equality with the men at Wimbledon. In 2022, fans will pay the same ticket price for both the men’s and women’s finals.
Leagues without Nationals
When the USTA first formalized NTRP based league play, the organization simultaneously self-imposed a requirement to conduct a series of National Championships. It has been an implicit part of the system from inception. That is probably why people look at me like I am crazy anytime I suggest that USTA Leagues would do just fine without National Championships. There is a pervasive belief that if the USTA eliminated League Nationals that participation would plummet. I’m not so sure.
3 responsesMovin’ On Up: What USTA Tournaments Can Learn from League Play
The USTA League Move-Up/Split-Up rule was put into place to keep the same teams from advancing to the National Championships in consecutive years. Usually I perceive that league play and the associated regulations are depressive influences on tournament culture. Today is a rare exception. It is quite possible that tournaments can appropriate a thing or two from league regulations to improve the overall ecosystem.
2 responsesUSTA League: A Move-Up/Split-Up Loophole
USTA League teams that advance to the National Championships are subject to a provision known as “Move-Up/Split-Up.” In fact that is the exact title of section 2.06 in the USTA League Regulations. Teams that qualify for Nationals are prohibited from competing together at the same level the following year. Last weekend, someone pointed out an insane loophole in where the spirit and intent of those rules can be violated. In fact, there is at least one team in my local area who has apparently made the same discovery.
5 responsesWhirlwind: The Godfather of Black Tennis
Dr. Robert Walter Johnson was a powerful force of change in tennis that accelerated the acceptance of players of color at the highest echelons of competitive tennis. It is not a stretch to observe that the tennis careers of Althea Gibson and Arthur Ashe would not have happened in the same way without the support of the doctor. “Whirlwind,” the nickname he picked up while playing college football, is an apt moniker for both his life story and influence on tennis. Whirlwinds create turbulence. So did Dr. Johnson.
2022 USTA League Regulations: Your NTRP Overlords
The USTA recently released the 2022 USTA League Regulations. Unlike in years past, there are some non-trivial changes in the document from the draft version circulated earlier in 2021. The most striking change is in the page formatting and layout. For reasons that defy my understanding, the final document is not a standard paper size. It is thin and narrow and not particularly friendly for printing or viewing on a mobile device.
Post-Match Evaluation
One of my goals this year is to maintain player records as outlined in the USTA Player Development Journal. I previously wrote about the Practice Evaluation Worksheet that was derived from the USTA document. Now, with USTA League play in full swing, I am playing matches that matter. Consequently, I have turned my attention to the Post-Match Evaluation Worksheet.
Tennis Roundup: February 7, 2022
A fun thought exercise for the week is to rank the first three stories in order of credibility: A) That IOC president Thomas Bach is an unbiased source of the well being of Peng Shuai, B) any future Novak Djokovic vaccination claim without independent verification, or C) that the Serbian legal system legitimately investigated the irregularities in Djokovic’s positive Covid test at the center of the Australian Open kerfuffle.
Thank You!
Today marks the 770th consecutive daily post to appear on Fiend at Court. This site was launched on New Year’s Eve in 2019 as a personal goal accountability mechanism to write a page a day about tennis the following year. At the end of the first year, it was an easy decision to keep on going. The people who read this blog on a regular basis were a significant factor. Thank you for joining me on this journey of discovery.
1 responseThank Your Team Captains
The theme for this weekend is “The Gift of Gratitude for Tennis.” If you participate in league play, you should consider writing a thank you note to the team captain or league organizer at the end of every season. If you think your captain has an easy job, then your captain is doing a terrific job. Chance are a lot is going on behind the scenes to build that perception. If captaining looks hard from your perspective… it is.