Last month, I was honored to attend Intersectionals as a non-rostered captain of the 55 and over team for USTA Texas. The number of players in my tennis circles who are unfamiliar with that event makes me sad. I have recently come to believe that this widespread lack of awareness reflects the sorry state of USTA Adult tennis. This brought me to the idea that Intersectionals might benefit from rebranding. That is a springboard into yet another FiendAtCourt hot take.
Intersectionals is the only legitimate national team championship awarded in Adult women’s tennis.
Intersectionals is a team tennis competition between the USTA Sections. The event is closely associated with tournaments rather than USTA League tennis. Consequently, no local or sectional competition leads into the national tournament. Instead, each Section attempts to field the strongest team possible across various age divisions. This age-group open competition determines the true national champions.
Intersectionals has no whispers or complaints over sandbagging or NTRP ratings manipulation. That is because the object is to field the best team, and the sky is the limit. When a team shows up with a strong player, the other teams work harder to compete at that level. It is the essence of what team competition in tennis should be. Everyone strives to be the best player possible.
That is why I contend that Intersectionals is where the actual USTA national championship teams are crowned. It deserves more recognition and publicity than is currently given. The lavish attention showered on the USTA NTRP League National Championships is a tacit promotion of toxic behaviors that are dragging down Adult tennis. Celebrating a USTA League Championship team composed of egregious self-rates and players adept at manipulating their NTRP rating is the opposite of what a healthy culture of competition in tennis should be.
While USTA League tennis fuels initial participation in team format competition, it is time to recognize and accept that it is not an effective engagement mechanism for the upper levels of the competitive tennis ecosystem. At some point, the USTA needs to open the aperture to consider the entire competitive landscape for Adult tennis. Only then will it be possible to recognize that USTA League serves an important purpose, but that it should not be the dominant product for Adult competitive tennis. That will be a long time coming.
In the meantime, the USTA should put some energy behind showing the players who are stifled by the constraints of NTRP League play that there is a place in tennis for players who embrace the culture of achievement. An essential first step on the road to recovery is recognizing that the only true team National Champions crowned by the organization are the ones at Intersectionals. More publicity and promotion of the event as such is desperately needed.
Intersectionals should be the crown jewel of USTA Adult Tennis rather than something only the best players know about. This is a relatively easy problem to fix.
Only the best players know about it because only the best players are talented enough to play in it. Yes, the NCAA Division I football championship is much more prestigious than the Division II championship. Should there be no Division II championship or NIT basketball tournament because the best players aren’t in them? This sounds like a one percenter argument which I’m guessing is about the percentage of USTA players who are good enough to play on an intersectionals team. For the huddled masses of 3.5 to 4.5 NTRP players who make up the vast majority of USTA players, this post is rather demeaning.
The point of the article is that the USTA doesn’t advertise the elite age division events at all. You would be surprised to know that Intersectional teams are made up of plenty of 4.5 players but the difference is that these players WANT to play against the best competition including against the “one percenters”!
This is another case where you need to stick with me through the weekend on this topic. Sunday’s post (which was written and scheduled prior to your comment) speaks to the aspirational aspects of the event.
The thing I am trying to get the USTA to recognize is that systemic neglect of the top tier of the competitive players is hurting the overall competitive ecosystem. When the best players either do not have or cannot see the next tier of competition, it normalizes the systemic ratings management that is now accepted as “smart” in USTA League play.
Actually, this post is encouraging more people to get involved in age group play! In junior tennis and in adult age group tournaments, one competes in their age group and has the opportunity to improve by playing players of all levels! League tennis is fun and competitive, but too often the captain spends a tremendous amount of time trying to predict which line to put players in to win the match. So much craziness goes on in league play. In tournaments, you sign up and if you are 65, you play in 65’s! You can even play down in lower age groups to get more practice- and get this, we play 3 full sets in singles and doubles in level one events. You can play both singles and doubles as well. 6 full sets in one hot and sunny day makes for a lot of fun tennis!
Great! Where is this championship explained on the USTA website? A side note, would this be like the Open level of league?
So much within the USTA is non-transparent. I just found out this week that a player who wins a match 6-0;6-0, will not be given credit for that win in the dynamic rating system for their year-end rating. I was informed that the computer automatically considers that a forfeited match, even if it was played out completely, and neither player’s rating is affected ( for the good or the bad) by it. Better to win 6-0; 6-1.
Theresa, you have very eloquently hit the nail on the head regarding tennis products of the USTA. I was a member of the winning 65 Southern team at the 2023 Intersectionals with a team match record of 19-1. Almost half of our matches were decided in the third set and we loved the competition! Your post led me to do a web search of the event and I discovered that it leads you to 65 and over league championships on the USTA website. Is USTA capable of looking beyond leagues?
Beautiful said, Teresa. Thank you for sharing.