Fiend at Court Unplugged
Every year I tell myself that this is the time that I am finally going to play the Cat 1 National Grass Court Championships at Forrest Hills. Playing that tournament is on my surprisingly short — and unsurprisingly tennis-dominated — bucket list. In 2020, I didn’t get to go to Forrest Hills due to the global pandemic. I am going to chalk that one up to fate.
Today I am working through the thought exercise of how tournament format and travel logistics factor into the decision of whether or not to throw an entry into that particular tournament. I wanted to use the dates and details from the 2020 event as the backdrop, but the USTA has expunged the COVID cancelled event from existence in TennisLink. Consequently, I will have to use the 2019 tournament as the basis for the parameters of discussion.
The posted dates for the tournament in 2019 was July 8-14. Those dates align with a Monday through Sunday schedule, which is pretty standard for the Cat 1 tournaments. The entries closed Saturday June 22. From a practical standpoint, I would have had to commit much earlier than that date if I was planning on flying using frequent flyer miles or to lock in to a discounted air fare. The start of the tournament is on the tail end of a national holiday, so cheap airfare would probably not have been available.
The tournament was advertised as FICQ. That stands for Feed-In Consolation Through the Quarters. In a feed-in consolation draw, a player who loses a match in any round except the finals drops into the consolation bracket. Essentially FICQ guarantees two matches, plus the number of matches that the player wins. Sometimes that bracket is referred to as “double elimination.”
In FICQ it is possible to lose a first round match and then come all the way through the back-draw to finish 5th in the tournament. I know that for a fact because I have accomplished that exact long slog at the National Clay Court Championships in Houston.
Before the entry deadline at Forrest Hills a note was added to the tournament home page that FIC (Feed In Consolation) may be full or modified. Additionally it was indicated that different age groups will start and finish on different days. In other words, the tournament was not actually committed to the FICQ format and both the start date and the end date of the tournament was uncertain until the draws were actually posted.
Since I have a job, and it is kind hard for me to be away from work for any length of time, it would be nice to cut down on the days when I could reasonably expect to be playing at the tournament. It would be really frustrating to buy a plane ticket to travel on Sunday only to discover that my first match was not until Wednesday.
Additionally, if I was to use frequent flyer miles, I have to book much earlier than when the draws are posted. Conservatively, I would fly to the tournament on Sunday and return late in the evening the following Sunday. That means I would need 7 nights in a hotel.
Players were limited to two events at Forrest Hills this year. Nominally this is expected to be singles and doubles, but some players played two doubles. If I could not find a doubles partner, I would definitely pony up to two singles events just to get four guaranteed matches.
This is at the point where I typically perform a mathematical calculation to determine if the benefits of playing the tournament are worth the cost in terms of money and time. One of the factors is the number of matches that I am likely to play versus the time spent at the tournament including travel time on both ends. If I hit the minimum of 4 matches, then I would have traded a week’s worth of vacation, and 7 nights in a hotel (in New York), and a plane ticket for those four matches. Ideally I feel good about averaging one match a day at these events, anything less feels too expensive to me.
Driving is really not an option. According to google maps, it is a 24 hour drive from my doorstep to the stadium. I would have to break that up over three days and would be unlikely to play tennis along the way. That is not ideal heading into a Cat 1. Six total days round trip. If I played four matches across three days, then the trip would run 7 days, most of which would be spent behind the wheel. That would require 4 additional nights of hotels along the way coming and going. Flying it is.
This is at the the point of the exercise where I always start to examine playing alternatives closer to home. Consulting TennisLink, the most attractive option for me was the San Antonio Adult Major Zone. In 2019 it was scheduled July 12-14, which is the standard Friday through Sunday weekend run. San Antonio is a 4.5 hour drive from my doorstep, thus no airfare is required. It always looks like a better option.
As a final plot twist… I didn’t play the San Antonio tournament either in 2019. The reason for that was that I had league tennis obligations. Tennis competes with tennis which dilutes players available to any particular event. Participation in tournaments is suffering in part due to competition from other tennis programs and offerings. It’s a real problem.
- “2021 Adult Tournament Changes: Indoor Level 1 (gold ball) Nationals are Eliminated,” Carolyn Nichols, The Senior Tennis Blog, September 21, 2020.
- “2021 Adult Tournament Changes“, public google doc referenced by NWTO website, viewed, October 14, 2020.
The Fiend at Court Unleashed series runs on this site every Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. The Unleashed series topics cover a broad range of topics.
nice post