Is It Against USTA League Rules to Retire from a Match?
An incident earlier this year at the Tom Fey Tri-Level National Invitational Championships has plunged me into a lengthy examination of the history, context, andRead More
Pickleball Tournaments are “Popular”
A disturbing thought is currently making the rounds within tennis advocacy organizations; Tennis should examine pickleball to discover how to attract tennis players to tournaments.Read More
5 responsesBye, Bye, Bye
The USTA Regulations include detailed procedures specifying the placement of byes for tournament brackets that don’t attract enough entries to fill out the division. WhenRead More
Potential WTN Impacts on USTA Tournaments
In the ITF’s own words, “The ITF World Tennis Number provides a single global tennis rating for players of all ages, genders, and abilities.” AccordingRead More
Revisiting Tennis On Campus
Rumor has it that I am not a big fan of the USTA’s Tennis on Campus program. In fact, I eventually came to believe thatRead More
Team Tennis and Ranking Points
The very last rankings point table in the USTA Adult Tournament Ranking System document is for Team Tennis events. In the Adult context, I am guessing that people generally associate Team Tennis with USTA League play, but that isn’t what we are talking about here. I suspect that most Adult Tournament players are not even aware that Team Tennis is a valid tournament format and that it is actively used.
Draw Format for National Level USTA Tournaments
Feed in Consolation through the Quarterfinals (FICQ) should be used for all National Level Amateur Tennis Tournaments. For anyone not familiar with that tournament format it is a close approximation of double elimination. A player who loses a match in the quarterfinals or earlier could still finish as high as 5th in the tournament. Players who lose in the semifinals play a match that decides 3rd and 4th. That is a significant match for a Bronze Ball in a National “Gold Ball” event.