In 2020, this site published “NTRP Horror Story: When the Carrot becomes a Stick.” That post was my own personal account about abhorrent player behavior in a USTA League match. A the time, I made the assertion that the incentives attached to the NTRP system were a contributing factor in the unsportsmanlike conduct. Today I have a tiny coda to that saga.
In the original description of the incident, I made some effort to obscure some specifics to conceal the identity of the other players involved. This is what I said along those lines at the time:
Names and one very specific detail that would make it trivial to find this match in TennisLink have been withheld. I have also intentionally referenced the current USTA league regulations rather than referencing the one that was in effect at the time to obscure the year.
I honestly hope that no one bothers to go find the match in TennisLink.
Excerpt from “NTRP Horror Story: When the Carrot becomes a Stick“
As it turns out, I probably shouldn’t have bothered. The very same day the original post went live, a practice partner greeted me enthusiastically with her own response to the post. She relayed her own story of an almost identical thing had happened during one of her matches. I laughed as she revealed the name of the perpetrator. Same dude.
In the interim, two additional players in my orbit engaged in speculative conversation with me on the identity of the player. One simply told me that she knew for a fact who it was and didn’t need me to confirm. The other hazarded a guess by name. Both were correct in their identifications. For those of you keeping score at home, that is three for three.
The reason that that original post is revisited today is not to re-emphasize there are some well known jerks that play league tennis in the DFW area. Rather, the player with the almost identical experience to mine provided a detail that forces me to reconsider the assertion that the NTRP system is to blame.
Put simply, my friend’s similar story occurred during a non-sanctioned local league match. The NTRP system was completely unrelated to the unsportsmanlike behavior in that case. Post season advancement of any kind was not at stake.
Sometimes a jerk… is just a jerk.
