Tennis News: May 30, 2022
The drop shot is back in style and I am here for it. A thrown racquet at the French Open strikes a young fan, and a tribute to Pancho Gonzales.
Errata and Running the Numbers
There is a cap to the number of tournaments that count toward a player’s USTA ranking under the current cumulative tournament performance ranking system. The primary purpose of this post is to correct a misstatement I made about that on this site a couple of weeks ago. Additionally, it is a perfect opportunity to preview my emerging thinking on how to structure tennis tournaments to build the robust participation needed for a healthy competitive ecosystem.
What, me worry? (NTRP and the World Tennis Number)
The USTA has been busy filling my inbox with announcements heralding the imminent deployment of the World Tennis Number. The messages are infused with reassurances directing players to not “worry” that the NTRP system might go away. I have been trying to find someone who is actually concerned about that happening. If I could find such a person, I could try to pinpoint the root causes of the fear. So far I have failed in that endeavor.
Yes I Am! (Going to League Nationals)
My 55+ 9.0 NTRP USTA League Team qualified for the National Championships last weekend. In related news, I have a history of asserting that elimination of NTRP “National Championships” would eliminate the majority of unsportsmanlike behavior that plagues the USTA League system. Additionally, I have also railed at the absurdity of conducting NTRP competition with age based restrictions. Will I make the trip with my team? Absolutely.
2 responsesRoland Garros
While Roland Garros played tennis… very poorly by all accounts… the stadium of the French Open bears his name for panache and heroics unrelated to tennis.
2 responsesHindrance from Corrections
Tennis played with a full cadre of line officials is a privilege typically reserved for tour level professional matches. With electronic line calling becoming more and more prevalent, even that may soon be a relic of the past. Sometimes people make mistakes, and there are provisions in the ITF Rules of Tennis for handling the situation when a call is made, but immediately corrected.
Backboard Alley Drill
My love of hitting off a backboard is previously well documented on this site. Today I am sharing a drill for hitting off a backboard to build control and accuracy. When I achieve a steady state of flow with this exercise, it is also very meditative.
Tennis News: May 23, 2022
The ATP and WTA tours announced that no ranking points will be awarded at Wimbledon this year. That will create some interesting ripple effects in the rankings. The NCAA crowned Division I team Champions yesterday. The individual singles and doubles NCAA Championship tournaments gets underway today.
2 responsesProhibiting Divisional Crossovers…
USTA tournament directors have the latitude to prohibit divisional crossovers within the tournaments they run. They shouldn’t. Fragmentation of NTRP into age groups combined with an arbitrary “no crossover” restriction, kills participation. Paradoxically, the worst offenders are typically tournaments with tiny draws in the first place.
2 responsesUSTA Scheduling Guidelines
The USTA Friend at Court contains a table of guidelines for the maximum number of daily matches for a player within a division in a USTA tennis tournament. Per the tennis triple constraint model that was the subject of yesterday’s post, the various scoring methods in that table are the qualitative aspects of match play that constrains the calendar time and schedule for the tournament.
2 responses