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Close Calls on the Far Side of the Net Bad Line Calls First Service: Andrea Jaeger Should There Be a Rule Against This? A “Landmine” Training Technique from Carlos Alcaraz Tennis Beyond the Headlines: May 5, 2025 Try New Experiences to Rediscover the Joy of Tennis

The USTA Tennis Champions Initiative

On By Teresa Merklin

Last Monday this site published “Celebrate #NationalTennisMonth by Becoming an Ambassador to the Sport.” The gist of that post is that individuals in the tennis community need to step up to promote tennis in their communities because the USTA apparently wasn’t going to do it. Two days later, the USTA sourced “Baseline Tennis” newsletter contained a blurb announcing a USTA initiative for “Tennis Champions” to promote tennis in their communities. It is a great idea, if I say so myself.

Overthinking a recent USTA Social Media Survey #NationalTennisMonth

On By Teresa Merklin

Last week the USTA Official Facebook page shared a link with a survey targeting tennis players in the 18-39 age demographic. Discussion on Facebook was spirited… and mostly from people who were over 40 who were miffed at being excluded. According to the Facebook request, “The USTA is conducting a focus group to better understand what, how, and when tennis players in this demographic want to play.” As my family consistently reminds me, I passed 40 a very long time ago. However, in the true Fiend at Court spirit, I have some thoughts. Let’s regard this as my focus group of 1.

May is #NationalTennisMonth

On By Teresa Merklin

The USTA sent an email late last week promoting May as #NationalTennisMonth. That message did not go out to all USTA members and the best guess is that it was directed toward tennis service providers. In fact, the links in the message are to a “Marketing Generator” that tennis service providers can use. The marketing generator is basically a set of templates for the USTA Net Generation program. A service provider can edit these templates to add their own logo and facility information. The finished products are available for download which means that it is up to the service providers to contract printing services.

USTA NTRP National Championships Recap

On By Teresa Merklin

The USTA NTRP National Championships are officially in the books. The tournament included players who received endorsements for the Covid cancelled tournament in 2020 as well as new competitors who qualified for the event in 2021. The Singles brackets were played 9-12 April with 18+ in Surprise, AZ and 50+ in Orlando, FL. The doubles brackets were played 16-19 April with 18+ in Surprise, AZ, and 50+ in San Diego.

Fun Fact: USTA Director of Digital Application Development is “TBD”

On By Teresa Merklin

don’t want to pile on. Issues with the deployment of the USTA’s new digital application development platform continue to roll in. “Harsh Realities Revealed in the USTA Digital Platform Update” which went live on March 8, detailed some to the issues including the fact that players entering doubles events in USTA tournaments under the new platform have no way to indicate who their partner will be. Issues with the new system continue to roll in.

USPTA 2020 Financial Data Insights

On By Teresa Merklin

The USPTA released preliminary financial data for 2020 in the April edition of ADDVantage magazine. In a summary introduction of the information, USPTA CEO John R Embree indicated that it was shared in an effort to be fully transparent about the financial performance of the organization. This same data will eventually be publicly available once the USPTA’s IRS Form 990 goes on record. It is commendable that the USPTA is has delivered a summary of the organization’s finances in a reader friendly format directly to its membership. Most people are not aware that IRS 990s are public data and even fewer ever bother to take a look at them.

League Captain Alert: NTRP Computer Ratings Expirations

On By Teresa Merklin

2020 was a year of difficult decisions. One of the myriad of problems the USTA was confronted with last year was what to do with player NTRP ratings. Due to shutdowns and closures due to the pandemic, the volume of matches did not achieve the numbers required to reliably make the NTRP calculation. The USTA statement that announced the decision that ratings would not be updated at the end of 2020 first declared the NTRP system to be fundamentally sound. (Cough.) The move was characterized as a difficult decision. I am sure it was.

Harsh Realities Revealed in the USTA Digital Platform Update

On By Teresa Merklin

The USTA sent an email to all playing members on March 5. That message contained an important update on the status of the deployment of the new digital platform, Serve Tennis. An identical news story was simultaneously released to the USTA web site. In typical USTA fashion, the subject line of “Competitive Pathway,” as well as leading off with some “rah-rah” news of PAC report tennis participation data, buries the lead. Additionally, the message any conveyed optimistic statements about how awesome the new competitive pathway is going to be for tennis players before getting to the crux of the issue.