Reimagining “Find a Partner”

As I continue to contemplate how to better use the USTA digital platform to support tennis tournaments, the “Find a Partner” feature is another obvious opportunity. In terms of supporting participation, it is essential for the USTA to leverage the digital platform to help players connect. Since the tournament entry system recently implemented a button for a player to press if they would like to be connected with a partner, the organization clearly understands this. However, there is an opportunity to kick it up a notch to the next level.

There are a couple of subtle issues with the current implementation to consider. First, when a player presses the “Find a Partner” button it creates additional work for the tournament director. I seriously doubt that the software is matching prospective players behind the scenes. I am sure that some tournament directors are more diligent when matching prospective doubles teams than others.

The other problem with the tournament director-initiated doubles partnership blind date is that it can create some awkward situations. The sad reality is that there are some players who cannot stand to be on the court together. Neither tournament organizers nor players should be exposed to that potential situation.

There is an opportunity for the digital platform to support a mechanism where players could proactively share more of the workload. The alternative implementation would mean that players who pressed that button agreed to enter a portal where they could see other players who were looking for a partner and initiate communication on their own when there is a match.

In fact, in USTA Texas “The Traveling Circus” Facebook group that includes many of the active tournament players in the Section, effectively performs this function. In fact, that use case illustrates the benefits and features of a public interface. It is pretty common for a player who signals that they are looking for a partner to be connected to a local player who isn’t active in the Facebook group. In other words, players will sometimes come up with a partner who never would have stumbled across the opportunity to play on their own.

What would be really cool is if players could advertise that they are looking for a partner without first entering the tournament. For example, a Singles player who wants to play doubles or mixed in a tournament that limits entries to two events should have the opportunity to advertise for a partner in both divisions. The present system doesn’t support that.

Reimagining “Find a Partner” could further reduce the tournament organizer’s workload while supporting tournament entries. While the players would have to shoulder the communication overhead to advertise and commit to partnerships, this is a situation where most players would probably prefer to do just that.

As a side note, I am signed up to take the USTA’s Tournament Director workshop in February which will greatly improve my insight into the training that tournament directors receive as well as how the USTA digital platform supports (and doesn’t support) the people who make tournaments happen.

In the meantime, I really wish that there was a process to suggest new features to the USTA.