An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
For the next two days I will be describing the potential draw formats players might encounter across all levels of USTA tournaments. The first step was to create a matrix that more clearly illustrated the options available at each level. It is easier for me to note the difference between the various levels in that format.
Every year I tell myself that this is the time that I am finally going to play the Cat 1 National Grass Court Championships at Forrest Hills. Playing that tournament is on my surprisingly short — and unsurprisingly tennis-dominated — bucket list. In 2020, I didn’t get to go to Forrest Hills due to the global pandemic. I am going to chalk that one up to fate.
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Yesterday I described some of the factors that brought me to enter many of the Cat 1 tournaments that I have entered. Today I am enumerating the reasons that I don’t play a full state of Cat 1 tournaments every year. In what may be the most shocking revelation of this site to date, I have a life outside of tennis.
2020 was supposed to be a banner year for me in terms of playing Cat 1 Senior Women’s National Championships. I was already entered in two events, and one of my personal goals was to play at one, if not both, of the National Grass Court Championships. Stupid pandemic.
The pinnacle of my return to tennis has been the opportunity to participate in Category 1 National Championships. Competing at that level is an amazing experience. The atmosphere and camaraderie at these events is everything tennis should be.
This weekends Fiend at Court Unplugged series was prompted by an inquiry from the National Women’s Tennis Organization (NWTO). The specific ask was for information and suggestions from former junior players, who stepped away from the sport but returned after an extended absence.
Yesterday I traced through the improbable events that brought me back to the immediate proximity of tennis. The junior tennis career of the umpire I gave birth to brought me into regular contact with tennis and tennis facilities. However, watching tennis is not the same as playing tennis. Today we examine the next leg of the journey.
I am a lifetime member of the National Women’s Tennis Organization (NWTO). Until very recently, that organization was known as the National Women’s Senior Tennis Association. As it turns out the use of the word “Senior” was confusing or possibly off-putting to some of the organization’s prospective members. “Senior” tennis starts at a much younger age than people generally expect.
Casual tennis fans are probably unaware of the business organizations that underpin tennis. It is important to understand that the Womens Tennis Association (WTA) and the men’s Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) are separate business organizations. Each organization sets prize money and other compensation standards for their own tour events.
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In a recent interview on the No Challenges Remaining Podcast, one of the “Original Nine” players, Kristy Pigeon, indicated that she thought that the “Battle of the Sexes” movie accurately depicted the events of 1970. Despite that, it is important to remember that “Battle of the Sexes” was not a documentary. Creative license was exercised to weave complex events into a narrative structure to fit within a reasonable movie run length.