Tennis News You Can Use
The USTA quietly published a spreadsheet listing the confirmed 2021 National level tournaments for adults earlier this week. The file attributes indicate that the spreadsheet was created on 20 October and last updated 23 October. That is about as close to “hot off the press” that this site will ever get.
NTRP Tournaments Radio Silence
The tournament does not contain any entries for NTRP events. The dates for the NTRP Individual National Championships have already been published, so I would assume that would also be a confirmed tournament.
I have been assuming that the NTRP National Championship would slot in at Level 1, 2, or 3. It would not be logical — or compliant — with the USTA consolidated framework to declare that event to be Level 4 or below. The only other alternative is to designate the tournament as a “pointless” event. (That is not an editorial comment, but it did make me chuckle.) I am also assuming that that NTRP Nationals will be the only NTRP event conducted at the National Level.
National Adult Age Group Open Schedule
The spreadsheet includes the details of each tournament which includes both the start and end dates. The interesting thing is that the length of some of the events currently listed do not conform to the specifications for the tournament in terms of length.
For example, the first two entries are for two events held in Florida as the West Coast (of Florida) Grand Prix in consecutive weeks. Those two tournaments are Level 2 and Level 3 events. According to the USTA guidelines, those events may be “Up to 5 days” in duration. However, in the confirmed tournament matrix the Level 3 event runs for 7 days and the Level 2 event spans 8 days. There are many other events in the spreadsheet that also exceed the maximum allowable duration.
Baseless Speculation
I have routed a question to the AdultTournaments@usta.com which is the location that the web pages and all the webinars indicate that any questions should be directed. The next time I receive an answer to a question that I have asked via that official mechanism will be the first time that I have ever received a response. I have submitted a lot of questions this year and have received exactly nothing back. Forgive me for assuming that this time is not any different.
So per the usual, I will speculate in the indefinite interim. One possibility is that some tournaments that were already planned for 2021 before the new structure was rolled out have been granted a waiver for 2021. If so, then it also may be possible for other waivers to be granted into the future. If this is the case, then the consolidated tournament structure changes nothing in terms of players knowing what to expect at an event. We will have to look it up case by case on the tournament page as have always done.
It is also possible that the USTA has noted the discrepancies and is working with the tournament organizers to bring these events into compliance. Equally plausible would be that the length of the tournaments is a general guideline and organizers can still select whatever length of event that they want.
I genuinely hope that this does not signal that tournament organizers can declare an extended tournament length and then declare shorter playing windows on a division by division basis after the draws are made. That completely defeats the purpose of tighter playing windows when players have to book travel to events.
Technology Impacts
I have been asserting for some time that we really won’t be able to assess the impact of the new consolidated USTA tournament framework in 2021 until the tournament calendar is published. Now that we have seen the opening salvo in those announcements, my perception in that regard has been enhanced.
As a complicating factor, the USTA has announced that the tournament interface for 2021 will be cut over to the new Serve Tennis platform. This means that tournaments will not be published in TennisLink unless the Serve Tennis rollout is delayed. Sitting here in early November with little additional news about the platform, I am starting to wonder if it will be ready.
The bottom line is that what we learn about upcoming events at the NTRP and age group local levels is very likely to be via a spreadsheet similar to the one published for the National level tournaments that was released this week. In the absence of National NTRP tournaments, I would anticipate that the tournament calendars will be published on a section by section basis. There are a lot of moving parts on this one.
All of this speculation is also predicated on the happy assumption that there will be National level tennis events conducted at all in 2021. Last Tuesday, the ITF sent an email to its members indicating that the 2021 Senior World Championships scheduled for Florida in April/May will not be held as scheduled. The ITF is currently searching for other suitable dates and venue.
Meanwhile, I will be anxiously scanning my mailboxes for the USTA Texas Tournament calendar and dreaming of tournaments yet to come.
- USTA 2021 National Adult Tournament Calendar, USTA website hosted document, date stamped 10/23/2020, viewed 10/30/2020.
- 2021 USTA Adult Tournaments Ranked Events, USTA Website Hosted Infographic, viewed 10/23/2020.
