Tennis News You Can Use
In “A First Glance at the USTA Adult National Tournament Calendar” which ran a couple of weeks ago, I commented that I had submitted a question to the AdultTournaments@usta.com email address. I also indicated that I would be surprised if my query elicited a response. Well… I was surprised. A reply was received.
My question in this case was about the published length of tournaments in the 2021 USTA Confirmed National events spreadsheet. Following is the exact wording that was submitted:
The spreadsheet with the Confirmed National events for 2021 was helpful. However, I noticed that many of the Level 2 and Level 3 events exceed the number of days indicated as the maximum for that level.
It the length of time for a tournament just a general guideline rather than a standard? Is there a waiver process?
Email submitted to AdultTournaments@usta.com
The USTA did provide a prompt response, essentially within one business day of that question submission. The following is the complete text of the response I received:
Hi Teresa,
Thank you for your email. The maximum length of a tournament per level is based on the divisions. As you know, there are many tournaments that host multiple divisions thus to make it more consumer-friendly we want to make sure that divisions do not take longer than the x number of days.
Best,
Email response received from AdultTournaments@usta.com
Getting past my initial surprise on receiving a response, the body of the information that was returned was what I expected and feared. Essentially tournaments can run much longer than the USTA National Framework duration as long as the individual divisions don’t exceed the maximum duration.
The Wilson World Tennis Classic appears in the “USTA 2021 National Adult Tournament Calendar” published by the USTA. In that document, the Wilson World Tennis Classic is designated as a “Level 2” tournament. Under the previous nomenclature this tournament was a “Cat 2.” Additionally players regard this tournament as a Cat 2 that resembles a Cat 1 in terms of the players it attracts. The primary reason for this is because the Cat/Level 1 Mixed Hard Court Championships are conducted at the same time in the same venue.
As a Level 2, the prescribed duration of the tournament under the USTA 2021 framework is “Up to 5 days.” However, the dates in 2021 will run from January 23 through January 31. That is 8 days. I complain every time I have to do math in association with this site, but I am pretty sure that a duration of 8 days is longer than 5 days.
The “USTA 2021 National Adult Tournament Calendar” is currently the only source of information that the USTA has published about any of the tournaments in 2021. Since TennisLink is being phased out, we may not see any additional details via that official mechanism until the new Serve Tennis platform is rolled out.
Fortunately, the Wilson World Tennis Classic is an extremely well run event that has a dedicated website that is actively maintained year round. The tournament has already published a tentative table of the forecasted Start and End dates for each division in 2021. Those tables come with the following disclaimer:
Although we can’t guarantee (due to draw size) when during the week your division might play, the information below may help you in planning your work/travel schedules.
Wilson World Tennis Classic “Schedule of Play” excerpt.
The Wilson World Tennis Classic is one of those events that I am likely to play at some point in time. In the highly unlikely event that I decide to play it in 2021, the Women’s 50 draw is forecasted to run Thursday January 28th through Sunday the 31st. If I can scare up a doubles partner, that event would also occur on the same dates.
However, if more players entered than anticipated, play could potentially start a day earlier. That would still be in compliance with the USTA guidelines on length for a Level 2 tournament.
The thing about the Wilson World Classic is that the tournament is the exception to the rule. Through its own dedicated website and diligent communication by the tournament organizers, more information is available than is typical for other events on the USTA calendar.
I have played (or considered playing) other USTA National level tournaments where the pre-communication was much less precise as to the actual days of play. In many cases, the days of competition of each division is not whittled down until after the entry deadline. Sometimes that news does not come until after the draw is made. That is not consumer friendly to any player who has to deal with travel or work logistics.
How the dates and sliding windows for each division are ultimately determined and mechanized remains to be seen. Perhaps the Serve Tennis platform — which is supposed to replace TennisLink any second now — will be better structured for the kind of information that players need for these events. Maybe the USTA will require tournament organizers to be more forthcoming about the planned dates of competition that better aligns with when players would normally be making their work and travel arrangements.
At this point, I am not sure exactly who the USTA has in mind when the sliding window practice is labeled as “consumer-friendly.” If the consumer is the tennis organizers, then I agree with the claim that this practice is very friendly and convenient for them. Examining the practice strictly from a player perspective, an event that is scheduled for 8 days and later whittled down to half that time after travel arrangements would already have to be locked in, is not consumer-friendly.
Not every tournament is as well run and consumer-friendly as the Wilson World Tennis Classic. Which returns me right back to the same refrain. I am eagerly waiting for more details on the full slate of tournaments in 2021. We are less than 8 weeks away from the first tournaments in January and probably 6 weeks away from the likely entry deadlines for those events.
- USTA 2021 National Adult Tournament Calendar, USTA website hosted document, date stamped 10/23/2020, last viewed 11/14/2020.
- 2021 USTA Adult Tournaments Ranked Events, USTA Website Hosted Infographic, viewed 10/23/2020.
- Wilson World Tennis Classic, Tournament Web Site, viewed 11/14/2020.
- 2020 Wilson World Tennis Classic – Interview with Tournament Director Caerwyn Evans, Gold Ball Hunting YouTube Channel, 12/16/2019.
