Fun fact: The USTA League National Regulations don’t outline any responsibilities or authority for the Referee at any level of competition. Yesterday, in our ongoing rules examination saga stemming from an incident earlier this year at the Tom Fey Tri-Level National Invitational Championships, I described why I don’t think the unfortunate series of events started with a player filing an official grievance. That means that an official kicked off the punitive adventure that ultimately transpired.
National Invitational Championships are technically outside of the USTA League Regulations. Previous posts outlined why events such as the ear at the Tom Fey Tri-Level Invitational National Championships are positioned in a USTA governance gray area. As a result, an amalgamation of procedures from USTA League Regulations, the USTA Friend at Court, and event-specific rules are applied at the event.
However, the particular aspect of the rules we are exploring today would also apply had this occurred at an official USTA League Championship. I think everybody understands and would agree that USTA officials have responsibility and authority at these events. However, those duties are not outlined in the USTA National League Regulations. The only USTA rulebook that speaks to officials’ role, responsibility, and authority is within the USTA Friend at Court. As we have previously discussed in this series, that resource is contextually oriented for individual tournament play rather than team-format league tennis.
For tournaments, the USTA Suspension Point System saw some significant updates for 2024. Before any of this particular episode transpired, I summarized those changes in “USTA Tournament Suspension Point Updates.” Regulation IV.F was updated to include explicit delegation of authority for who can assess suspension points. Those updates came with new language that a person who assesses suspension points can only do so if they have seen, heard, or been presented with enough documentation to determine with reasonable certainty that a violation occurred.
Since the “violation” at the core of the controversy was a retired match, the reported score is well-documented objective evidence that it happened. I was told by a member of the Championship Committee for this event that it was the Referee who reported to the other committee members that a defaulted match had occurred. That sparked the idea that something had to be done about it. The question is why the committee was instantly galvanized with the idea that a matching retirement was an egregious event that required punitive attention.
There are two possible ways the Referee may have learned about the match retirement. The first is the other involved team complaining about it, prompting the subsequent action. I strongly suspect that is what happened. However, it is also possible the Referee noticed the retirement in the electronic score reporting system used at this event and independently decided that something had to be done.
The USTA Friend at Court clearly gives the Referee at tournaments the authority to assess the suspension points listed in Table 17 of Regulation IV.F. However, there is a separate Suspension Point system for USTA League. That was the one applicable and used for this particular episode.
When we resume this topic next Wednesday, May 15, the focus will be the USTA League Suspension Point system. In the meantime, the USTA should consider updates to the League Regulations that outline Referee roles, responsibilities, and authority for USTA League Championship Events. I don’t think any logical person would argue that the officials don’t have that responsibility, but the governance disconnect should probably be addressed.
- USTA Tri-Level National Invitational Welcome Page, USTA SoCal Hosted Informational Page, last viewed April 6, 2024.
- 2024 USTA League National Regulations, USTA Resource Document, March 14, 2024.
- Friend at Court: The Handbook of Tennis Rules and Regulations, USTA, 2024
- USTA Adult and Family Tournament, Ranking, & Sanctioning Regulations, USTA Regulation, as amended December 14, 2023.
- USTA League Suspension Point System Calculation Tables, USTA Resource Document, February 6, 2024.
- USTA League Suspension Point System 2024, USTA Resource Document, February 6, 2024.
- USTA League Suspension Point System Frequently Asked Questions, USTA Resource Document, March 23, 2023.
