The NTRP Championships Rules Get Weird

The 2025 NTRP National Championship Fact Sheet outlines the draw and scoring format for the upcoming tournament. Last year, the USTA ditched the flawed short-set tie-break game previously used at the event and replaced it with the Coman method. In doing so, a great ambiguity and competitive inequity were eliminated. It was a good decision.

Recently, a reader asked me to take a second look at the tie-break game format outlined in the Fact Sheet for this year’s upcoming tournaments. His concern was that the USTA might have reverted back to the short-set tie-break format. The following excerpt is directly from the Fact Sheet.

Match format: Best of three (3) short sets. First to four (4) games wins the set. (Tie-break Game at 3-3). The Tie-Game at 3-3 shall be as follows:

• First to 7 points, must win by 2
• The serving rotation will follow what is in Friend at Court – The player whose turn it is to serve shall serve the first point of the tie-break game. The following two points shall be served by the opponent(s) (in doubles, the player of the opposing team due to serve next). After this, each player/team shall serve alternatively for two consecutive points until the end of the tie-break game (in doubles, the rotation of service within each team shall continue in the same order as during the set).
• Coman Tiebreak Procedure to be used for changing ends – During a tie-break game, players shall change ends after the first point and thereafter every four points.

This is a complicated way to state that the Coman Tie-break procedure will be used, first to 7 and win by 2. I probably would have worded it exactly that simply. I wonder if the order of service explanation was retained because that is the principle that prevailed over preserving consistent server sides in the short-set format before that was abandoned and replaced with the Coman. There is a definite opportunity to streamline this part of the Fact Sheet for greater clarity. Just say Coman.

However, while in that section of the rules, I noticed another similar instance of overly complicated wording. The 2025 NTRP National Championships Fact Sheet describes how to play no-ad scoring. The following is exactly what it says.

Scoring format: No-ad scoring will be used. If each player/team has won three points each, the score is “deuce” and a deciding point shall be played.

• The receiver(s) shall choose whether to receive the service from the right half or the left half of the court for Men’s or Women’s Singles and Doubles.
• In Men’s or Women’s doubles, the players of the receiving team cannot change positions to receive the deciding point.
• In Mixed Doubles, the player of the same gender as the server shall receive the deciding point. The players of the receiving team cannot change positions to receive the deciding point.
• The player/team who wins the deciding point wins the “game.”

The provision stating that “In Men’s or Women’s doubles, the players of the receiving team cannot change positions to receive the deciding point” is straight out of Mars. The fact that there was an apparent need to spell it out suggests that some team attempted to argue that they should be able to do exactly that in past events. I want to assume that players who had earned a spot in a USTA National Championship event would have a firm grasp of the basic rules of tennis, but maybe not.

In any case, other than forcing players to read through this section of the Fact Sheet a couple of times to conclude that these two rules simply state the obvious, there is nothing of concern here. It’s just weird.

1. 2025 NTRP National Championships Fact Sheet, USTA web-published resource, undated and no version markings.