Fiend at Court Unplugged
I had expected to start off this weekend talking about the distribution of USTA National NTRP Level 5 tournaments. In the interim, I discovered that I was completely misreading something in the tournament regulations that is infinitely more impactful. Today we are examining the number of Level 4 events that each section can sanction and taking a look at how NTRP tournaments at that level were scheduled for 2021. Depending on how you look at it, there is either an insane error or a loophole within the USTA Adult and Family Tournament Sanctioning Regulations.
Section Level 4 Adult and Family Tournaments.
Annually, each Sectional Association shall be authorized to sanction:
• Up to two Closed Section Level 4 Tournaments in each division that are limited to residents of the Sectional Association; and
• One or more Open Section Level 4 Tournaments in each division that are open to players from any Sectional Association,
except that total number of Section Level 4 Adult and Family Tournaments sanctioned in each division must be less than the number of Section and District Level 5 Adult and Family Tournaments sanctioned in each division. Sanctioning Section Level 4 Tournaments may not be delegated to the District Associations.
USTA Adult and Family Tournament, Ranking & Sanctioning Regulations, VII.A
Until last weekend, I have been reading that section of the regulations as meaning that each section could have a total of three Level 4 tournaments. As the highest level tournament that a Section can sanction, this is where the “Sectional Championships” should be. There shouldn’t be many tournaments on par with the Sectional Championships. The tier designation and the increased points is a mechanism for inducing all players to complete in Championship level events.
A representative from USTA Texas recently pointed out to me that the text really indicates that a section can have 4 or more Open Level 4 tournaments. The only restriction on the number is that the number of Level 4 tournaments has to be less than the total number of Level 5 tournaments sanctioned by the section.
It is instructive to examine how many Level 4 tournaments each USTA Section sanctioned in 2021. The following table contains that data for tournaments that were sanctioned with 18+ divisions. Meaningful analysis requires focus of specific divisions because some Sections sanction tournaments for the divisional groupings separately.
| Section | Level 4 “Closed” | Level 4 “Open” |
| Caribbean | 0 | 0 |
| Eastern | 0 | 3 |
| Florida | 0 | 2 |
| Hawaii Pacific | 0 | 0 |
| Intermountain | 0 | 6 |
| Mid Atlantic | 0 | 6 |
| Middle States | 0 | 5 |
| Midwest | 2 | 0 |
| Missouri Valley | 1 | 1 |
| New England | 0 | 2 |
| Northern | 0 | 0 |
| Northern California | 2 | 1 |
| Pacific Northwest | 2 | 4 |
| Southern | 0 | 7 |
| Southern California | 1 | 1 |
| Southwest | 0 | 3 |
| Texas | 2 | 0 |
As currently implemented in my home section of Texas, the two Level 4 tournaments are the Sectional Championships and the Texas Masters. Any player in Texas can enter Sectionals, but only the top 8 ranked players are selected for the Masters. Players in Texas have historically energetically pursued those slots in the Masters and the only way to get into that prestigious event was to perform well in one or more Level 5 tournaments and at the Level 4 Sectionals.
In Texas, selection for NTRP Nationals goes to the top three players resident in the Section on the USTA National Rankings List. Consequently, any player from Texas pursuing qualification for NTRP Nationals should play a lot of tournaments to maximize their rankings points totals. In fact, that is exactly what the USTA is incentivizing players to do with the NTRP National Championship initiative. Encouraging players to play more tournaments is a good thing.
Unfortunately, savvy players also quickly recognize that playing tournaments with higher point values is essential for maximizing the point totals. With the plethora of Level 4 Open tournaments in other Sections, a player with enough time and money can now exclusively play Level 4 tournaments. Some people will do exactly that and it has already started. That hurts play at the local level. That is the opposite of what the USTA claims to be trying to do with the new system.
The USTA Adult National Tournament Framework has distorted the pyramid of tournament play and participation. That is the topic I was planning on discussing this weekend, but I thought I would be starting specifically on Level 5 tournaments. That was before I realized that the problem is more profound and better illustrated at Level 4.
I consider myself to be primarily a Senior Open player. However, I also play some events that only have NTRP divisions. I have very recently come to the realization that I have been looking at the tournament level “Pyramid” independently from each context. The reality is that the 7 Tier Pyramid is a single system that has to work from both perspectives.
I suspect that I am not the only person with that particular blind spot. In Texas, the Sectional Championships for Adults are all conducted at different levels in the pyramid. At 18+, the “Texas Sectional Championships” is a Level 4 tournament. The Senior Sectional Championships, is conducted under the banner of “Westwood Senior Championships” at Level 2. The “Texas Super Senior Sectional Championships” is a Level 3.
I don’t care how old you are or what Section you are in, the USTA Sectional Championships should all contested at the same USTA Level. The pyramid is broken.
- USTA Adult and Family Tournament, Ranking & Sanctioning Regulations, Adopted May 14, 2020 and Amended December 2020.
- NTRP National Championships: How to Qualify in Texas, undated USTA web page, viewed January 10, 2022.
