What better day than Friday the 13th to take a look at updates to the USTA League Regulations for 2024. We will be spending this “unplugged” weekend considering what I think is the most significant new stipulation in the rules. To me, this is not so much an actual change but rather putting explicit bounds on what most people likely already regard as ethical behavior.
The new League Regulation has to do with USTA membership. The new parts are highlighted in red underlined font.
1.04E(2) Membership. All individuals who compete in the USTA League must be current USTA members in good standing through the local league season. Any individual who progresses to a championship level in the USTA League must be a current USTA member through each championship progression. Individuals shall only have one USTA membership account/ USTA number. Individuals who obtain more than one USTA membership account/ USTA number may be subject to a grievance and such suspension penalties as outlined under the League Suspension Point System.
2024 USTA League Regulations, 1.04E(2) Membership
This rule shuts down a loophole that was being exploited by some players. I originally wrote about it in “The Naughty List: Reinvention” in December 2022. Quite simply, some people had created a new USTA account to allow themselves to ditch an unfortunate history of above-level performance. That original post was sparked after I accidentally stumbled on two instances of players doing exactly that.
That post also indicated that the USTA needed to consider how to handle duplicate registrations, along with the observation that the mechanism would generally flow through the USTA League Grievance process. In the 2024 update to the League Regulations, that is precisely the solution the organization settled on.
I still believe that it is possible in the current registration system for a player to inadvertently create a second USTA membership when attempting to renew. Additionally, in the wake of my original post on this topic, one player disclosed communication from USTA Customer Care advising him to create a new registration. There is still a potential for process improvement in this area.
Since players with two identities flow through the Grievance and Suspension Point System, this is an opportune time to delve into those topics for the first time on this site. While I don’t have specifics, Suspension Points were apparently handed down in 2023 against players found to be harboring more than one identity.
I don’t know if “The Naughty List: Reinvention” influenced this new stipulation in the USTA League Regulations. The fact that I stumbled across violations means that other people may have done so as well. In any case, the Grievance process would be the logical place for those complaints to be formally made to the USTA. That is the way it likely played out, resulting in this particular update to the rules.
To close the loop on a Fiend at Court recurring theme for today, the word “grievance” now appears in the 2024 USTA League Regulations a total of 204 times. In contrast, the word “tennis” appears only 26 times. I still think we have taken our eye off the ball.
- 2024 USTA League National Regulations, USTA Resource Document, September 19, 2023.
