Believe it or not, we are very close to the end of a deep-dive exploration of the rules implications surrounding an incident that occurred earlier this year at the Tom Fey Tri-Level National Invitational Championships. Today, we are examining how misconduct is reported at USTA League Championships… and apparently also at National Invitational Championships. The question of whether or not flagrant misconduct actually occurred is a topic left for tomorrow.
The procedure for reporting misconduct during USTA League competition is codified as regulation 3 in the USTA League Suspension Point System. The following is the entirety of that section:
3. Reporting misconduct. Persons who observe misconduct by a player or Captain on or off the court may report it following USTA League Regulations Section 3.00 Grievance Procedures, including 3.02 Grievance Types, 3.03A1, 3.03A5 and 3.03A6 and 3.03E NTRP Grievances:
- During Local play see also regulations 3.03B Local League Procedures
- During Championships see also regulations 3.03C Championship Procedures. Tournament staff and League Coordinators may report to the Head Referee or the Referee’s designee and/or the Championship Committee on or off court violations that may result in suspension points but were not witnessed by any Referee, and points may be assessed per Section 5 (Assessing and reporting suspension points) below.
Essentially, this rule says that people who are not part of the event administration may report misconduct at any level of competition. However, it must be done via the grievance process that we discussed earlier in this saga. As I previously wrote, I do not believe a player grievance was filed because the defined procedures require the penalized team to receive a copy of that complaint, which did not occur.
Another option is that the Championship staff could have reported the “misconduct” to the Referee. Alternatively, the Referee independently could have noticed the match retirement. Either way, we know that the Referee informed the Championship Committee, who either agreed or decided that flagrant misconduct had occurred.
It is important to remember that the Championship Committee’s initial ruling was disqualification of the two players for the remainder of the Championships. While that was a pretty stiff penalty, ironically, it was completely within their purview since this occurred at a National Invitational Championship rather than an official USTA League event. They can make up their own rules because those events are technically outside the USTA League system. While I don’t agree that disqualification was warranted, it would have been the cleanest outcome in terms of compliance with the regulations.
To the credit of the Championship Committee, I believe they realized that disqualification was a bridge too far. One possible resolution could have been determining that retiring from a match was not actually flagrant unsportsmanlike conduct. The alternate path selected sought a different penalty that still categorized and treated what occurred as a serious infraction.
Indeed, flagrant unsportsmanlike conduct is anchored to egregiously bad behavior per the definition within the USTA League Suspension point system.
Flagrant unsportsmanlike conduct or flagrant inappropriate conduct (e.g., hitting balls at opponent or spectators, threat of physical violence, destruction of property) regardless of location or medium. This includes, but is not limited to, conduct at League match sites, League activities, hotels or other housing, and all forms of communication, including online medium or otherwise.
USTA League Syspension Point System 2024, USTA League Suspension Points Table, Flagrant unsportsmanlike conduct
To be honest, I have difficulty understanding how retiring from a match falls under the USTA League Suspension Point System definition of unsportsmanlike conduct.
While I fundamentally do not believe that USTA League Suspension Points should be levied at National Invitational Championships, there are other lines in the Suspension Point table that would make more sense as a penalty for this particular infraction. For example, this could have been categorized as “Failing to comply with a USTA League Regulation or Guideline or Championship Procedure” for anywhere between 2 and 24 points. I wouldn’t love the low end of 2 suspension points in this scenario, but it’s certainly preferable to 8.
I could also see retiring from a match categorized as “Unsportsmanlike Conduct/Violations of The Code or inappropriate conduct (e.g., intentional/retaliatory bad line calls, refusing to call out the score, “quick” serving, stalling, feinting, grunting, tanking/not using best efforts to win; obscene/profane language or gestures)” as listed in the suspension point schedule. If retiring from a match was interpreted as not using best efforts to win, that infraction could have been assessed somewhere between 2 to 4 suspension points. Again, that is considerably less than the 8 that were actually levied.
Once the flagrant unsportsmanlike option was selected, the better routes through the suspension point table were eliminated. However, that is not even the most questionable aspect of this saga. For me, the biggest mystery is what galvanized the Championship Committee to the idea that retiring from matches is flagrant misconduct in the first place.
Tomorrow, we will examine the sportsmanship aspects of retiring from a match. I will then run a (much overdue) capstone summary on Sunday that will officially close out the use of this incident to explore this unseemly corner of the USTA governance framework. There are a few additional related topics and loose ends to tie up, but those are largely outside this specific episode and will be addressed independently.
- 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.
