An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
The USTA has announced a fairly significant restructuring of the membership cost model. This initiative is a recommendation from the “Membership Transition Advisory Group” which studied “best-in-class” membership models to develop a new engagement structure for tennis.
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One of the immutable differences between pickleball and tennis is the size of the court. Four pickleball courts can be constructed in the same space as would generally be allocated to one tennis court. In fact, the “four pack” arrangement of pickleball courts into the same size area as a tennis court is a very good configuration for considering the social dynamics of pickleball.
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Examination of pickleball is unavoidable and inevitable in any serious consideration in growing the game of tennis. Pickleball is regarded as a competitive threat to tennis. At the same time, the explosive growth of the sport is an enticing case study for any sport wishing to replicate the same success.
As far as I can tell, pickleball players do not have jobs. They do not have families. They consume all their meals from ice coolers which they carry up to the courts with them on a regular basis. They never leave.
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In 2019, Rafael Nadal defeated Novak Djokovic to win the men’s singles title at Rome. In the course of doing so, he provided us with a statistic that is probably one of the best examples of how to develop strategies and tactics around a player’s own strengths. The very best players in tennis have a sharp understanding of what they do well. More critically, they are able to develop tactics and techniques that maximize their strengths.
In March of this year, the USTA announced a new court surface for the US Open and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center. Since the Cincinnati Open was also played at that facility as a part of the COVID-19 “Double Bubble,” we have already experienced a preview of play on the surface. By all reports, the surface is playing extremely “fast” especially on the outer courts.
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Since I first wrote “Innovate or Die: USTA Adult Tournament Structure in 2021,” pretty much every “Fiend at Court Unplugged” post has examined some aspect of the upcoming changes. Until the USTA publishes something new on this topic, or we start to see events scheduled under the new structure, it is time to move on. Before I do that, I want to create a single page that chronicles what has been written up to this point in time.
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Someday I will tell the story of when I quit tennis forever. Today I want to focus on a tiny part of the story of when I came back to tennis. Specifically, how I slid down the slippery slope into the NTRP system. As previously mentioned in “My Days as an NTRP Sandbagging Bastard” I never had any desire to play NTRP rated tennis.
I keep returning to the point that Anthony Tatu raised recently in the Facebook group of avid Texas Tennis Tournament Players. His assertion was that leagues now have so many formats and variations that players no longer have “free” time to participate in tournaments. It is a valid point. For adults who already play tennis, USTA leagues are the most significant consumer market competition of USTA tournaments.
Starting in 2021, the USTA is dividing NTRP tournament participation into three age tiers: 18 and over, 40 and over, and 55 and over. If you are a regular reader of this site, this will not be news to you. I have been dwelling on the 2021 Adult Tournament changes for an extended period of time. The good news is that I think I am approaching a natural temporary conclusion of this coverage until new information emerges.