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Non-Tennis Gifts for Tennis Players Great Christmas Gifts for Tennis Players (2024 Edition) Ultimate Stocking Stuffer List for Tennis Players (2024 Edition) Secrets of Winning Tennis The USTA Encourages Double Dipping The Speed Ladder Tennis Beyond the Headlines: November 18, 2024

12 “Gifts” To Improve Your Tennis Life (Part 1)

On By Teresa Merklin

In December of 2020 I gave a Women in Cybersecurity (WiCyS) webinar on 12 “Gifts” to jumpstart a career in cybersecurity. Each item in that list is a practice or habit that I regard as a career success factor. I was recently reviewing my own performance against those items over the past year had the sudden realization that the same core concepts would be equally effective if framed out in terms of tennis. This weekend I am launching into a whirlwind tour of those twelve items focusing on how each of those can advance and improve your tennis life.

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Adult and Junior Tournaments: Distant Cousins in the USTA Family Tree

On By Teresa Merklin

USTA is a massive non-profit organization with a certain number of full time paid staff. However, most of the the work is largely performed by a cadre of volunteers grouped into numerous committees. Yesterday I wrote about differences between the Adult and Junior tennis tournament Regulations and Ranking procedures. The origins for that divergence can be traced directly to the USTA organization structure for the committees that own those documents.

Surprising? Differences in a “Unified” System

On By Teresa Merklin

There are striking differences between USTA Adult and Junior tournament regulations. The same can be said about the respective ranking systems. Over the past couple of months, I have written a lot about errors and inconsistencies in the USTA Adult regulations and ranking system. In the background, I frequently reference the equivalent documentation that governs Junior competition for additional insight and perspective. The fact that the Adult and Junior documents are vastly different is immediately apparent even on casual review. The fundamental question is this: Should those differences exist?

Updating USTA Regulations, Schoolhouse Rock Style

On By Teresa Merklin

Last Sunday I described a request I made to the USTA Adult Competition Committee to update the glossary in the USTA Adult and Family Tournament, Ranking, and Sanctioning Regulations. Today I want to step through the process for how that actually occurs. To keep this topic from being as boring as it… Well, actually is… I am going to unapologetically leverage the linguistic style of the Schoolhouse Rock classic, “I’m just a Bill.”

How to Change USTA Regulations

On By Teresa Merklin

Yesterday I described an ambiguity in the USTA Adult and Family Tournament, Ranking & Sanctioning Regulations document that impacts how ranking points are awarded at tournaments. This has prompted me to explore the process for proposing updates to that document. The specific change will be a clarification of how rankings points are assigned for players/teams that do not win a match in Round Robin pool play. Like any good bureaucracy, the USTA has a process for updating their regulations.

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Points Per Round and Rankings

On By Teresa Merklin

Last weekend the post “Points Illustrated: An Example of Rankings Inequities,” contained an example where a winless team was awarded 615 ranking points in a Level 4 round robin bracket. In the USTA legacy digital platform, players had to win a match in a tournament to receive anything more than participation points for the event. The fact that the new digital platform awarded those points is a great backdrop for exploring what the USTA regulations actually say.

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Points Illustrated: An Example of Rankings Inequities

On By Teresa Merklin

In “When a USTA Level 4 Tournament… Isn’t” three weeks ago, I repeatedly emphasized the phrase: “The draw format of a tournament should not materially alter the rankings point allocation for the players.” The reason for belaboring that foundational truth is that it is key to understanding the ongoing player frustration over the USTA tournament rankings points allocations. In the intervening time, I continue to wonder if the policy makers have fully accepted or internalized that feedback. Perhaps an example will help.