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Voluntary Consolation… If You Insist

One of the primary arguments that people make in support of voluntary consolation is that it prevents players from having to wait around a day (or more) before back draw play begins. That line of reasoning conveniently neglects to consider that a traditional voluntary consolation draw requires ALL the players to wait even longer than the worst case scenario from the traditional First Match Loser’s Consolation (FMLC) back draw. You cannot make a voluntary consolation draw without knowing the exact number of players that will elect to participate.

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Voluntary Consolation and Mosquito Bites

Voluntary consolation is a variation of the First Match Loser’s Consolation (FMLC) draw. In that format, players that lose their first match have the option of signing up to participate in a back draw. Participation is not mandatory and the player has to explicitly opt-in. A significant number of players and organizers believe that voluntary consolation would be a good thing for tournament tennis. They’re wrong. Voluntary consolation is like scratching a mosquito bite. It feels like the right thing to do in the moment, but ultimately it only makes the problem worse.

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The Ranking System Survey

Yesterday I took a cut at creating a survey to collect data on player sentiment and preferences associated with the USTA tournament ranking system. The questions were designed in an attempt to collect useful data that might help as the USTA considers potential updates to the regulations. This post introduces that survey and shares my thought process. If you follow this site for the tennis related musings of an overthinking engineer… this content will resonate with you.

Survey Says…

The email from the USTA contains a link and the following text: “Thank you for playing in the USTA National Women’s 35, 45, 55, 65, 75, 85 & 90 Clay Court Championships in March. Would you please take a moment and share your experience?” I didn’t complete my survey until this week because I actually got tripped up by one of the questions.