An incident earlier this year at the Tom Fey Tri-Level National Invitational Championships has plunged me into a lengthy examination of the applicable rules and Regulations governing this type of event. This context is important to fully understand the crux of the situation previously introduced in “Suddenly Suspension Points.” Today, I am sharing some of my own thoughts on the potential benefits of National Invitational Team events to the overall tennis ecosystem. It is an important diversion.
At the moment, I am living in two completely different tennis environments. My primary residence is in the Dallas-Fort Worth metroplex, which offers ample opportunities to engage with all forms of USTA League tennis. I am also living part-time in Wichita Falls, my childhood hometown. It used to be a tennis hotbed but had turned into a tennis wasteland when I arrived back on the scene three years ago. While the situation has improved since I first wrote about it, the playing community still doesn’t have enough players to conduct local USTA League play at any level.
This has given me first-hand insight into how the USTA system is tilted against people who live in less populous areas. Tennis is not supposed to be strictly an urban privilege, but it is trending in that direction. I have numerous reasons why I think that is the case, but one recent rule change for Tri-Level is a great example of something that makes perfect sense at the National level but ultimately hurts players who live in smaller population tennis communities.
Until 2024, only one tier of competition advanced to the Tom Fey Tri-Level National Invitational Championships. This year, the event was expanded to three tiers. We now have “Low” with 3.0-3.5-4.0 levels, “Mid” for 3.5-4.0-4.5 levels, and “High” for 4.0-4.5-5.0 rated players.
Unfortunately, adding more of a good thing came with an inadvertent side effect that hurts smaller population areas. To fully understand why, we have to turn back the clock a little bit. Prior to the new rule changes that expanded the tiers at the National level, the Texas Section hosted an “advancing” Sectional Championship that aligned with Nationals. However, Texas also conducted a non-advancing Sectional Championship for what is now the “Low” tier. Self-rated players were allowed to compete in Tri-Level but only in the non-advancing tier.
That is because historically, the Tom Fey Tri-Level National Invitational Championships prohibited self-rated players from competing at the event. While the language has recently changed at the National Level, which appears to open the door to self-rated players who earn a computer rating at the end of the year, I suspect that most Sections will continue to exclude those players. Otherwise, they risk qualifying a team for the National event that cannot compete across all lines due to self-rated players receiving a higher computer rating at the year’s end. USTA Texas still prohibits self-rated players, and I suspect that most other savvy Sections will do the same.
As a National Invitational tournament that is fully outside of USTA rules and Regulations, the “Qualified CTAs” in Texas (equivalent to “Districts” most everywhere else) can send a team directly to the Sectional Championship without local league play. It presents an excellent chance for players in low-population areas to get the NTRP-rated matches that are simply not available in their local area. All they have to do is scrape up enough players for direct entry into the Sectional Championships. Pulling Tri-Level fully under USTA League would remove that opportunity.
In 2023, Wichita Falls managed to scrape together enough players to field two full rosters of self-rated players directly to the “lower” Tri-Level Sectional Championships. When the 2024 NTRP ratings rolled out, many of those players had assigned computer ratings because they got enough matches for that designation over the Tri-Level weekend. It sows the seeds for what one day may grow back into a vibrant tennis community that can once again support local league play.
Unfortunately, since there are now three tiers of “advancing” Tri-Level, self-rates are no longer allowed to compete at any Tri-Level tier in Texas. That has shut down this backdoor path to computer ratings for players in low-population areas. Pulling Tri-Level fully under the umbrella of USTA League rules and Regulations would have the same effect. Either way, tennis in low-population areas just got harder.
Paradoxically, I love the new Tri-Level “high” tier because that opens up new playing opportunities for 5.0 players, who are also typically squeezed out of competition due to the low number of players at that level. Changes in a biological ecosystem are fraught with trade-offs between competing populations. Tennis is no different.
To me, National Invitational tournaments serve a vital role in the tennis ecosystem. It is an opportunity for innovation and experimentation outside of the overhead of the USTA League regulatory framework. I love the addition of these matches to the NTRP system for the same reasons previously outlined in ‘A Case for Ditching the “T”.’ While there is a clear benefit of National Invitationals to the tennis ecosystem, I am disturbed that a player can inadvertently violate a rule variation imposed exclusively at a National Invitational and receive real suspension points for that.
This finally brings us to the discussion of the actual events and rules interpretations that transpired at the Tri-Level Nationals. I will delve into that next Wednesday, April 17.
- Celebrate The Life of Tom Fey (1953 – 2022), Indian Wells Tennis Garden, May 2022.
- 2024 USTA League National Regulations, USTA Resource Document, March 14, 2024.
- USTA Tri-Level National Invitational Welcome Page, USTA SoCal Hosted Informational Page, last viewed April 6, 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.
