The end of November is coming and with it the USTA releases their year-end ratings. These are important because it determines what level you can play at in 2013. Some people want to get bumped up to achieve a goal or increase the challenge, others want to get bumped down so they can play on or assemble a team with championship aspirations.
I've done quite a bit of research and tinkering the past few years (my wife says far too much) and can calculate pretty accurate Estimated Dynamic NTRP Ratings and generate a pretty informative report. But to do this requires analyzing the proper matches as the USTA does not include every match you play in calculating your rating. In fact, each section is given some leeway in determining what to include.
There are a few givens though.
If you play enough gender specific matches (I believe it needs to be 3 or more), any mixed matches you play are not included. If you play mixed but not enough gender specific matches, your mixed matches will be used to calculate a Mixed Exclusive rating.
Then I believe that all gender specific leagues (regular leagues) that have National Championships are included. This means that your Adult, Senior, etc. leagues that are usually played in the spring (some are early start and begin in the prior fall or winter) with playoffs/districts/sectionals mid-year and nationals in the fall count.
But then a section gets to choose. For example, In the Pacific Northwest where I play, tournament matches are not included, but a summer "One Doubles" league is. In the Southern section I'm told that only the regular leagues are included, no Combo or Tri-Level or Singles league matches count. Inter-Mountain does include tournament matches. So it varies.
But I'd love to build up a list of what each section counts, so please leave a comment or contact me to let me know what the rules are for your section.
do fall matches in South Carolina count in the ratings?
ReplyDeleteThe Southern section is one of the more conservative when it comes to including matches, not including Combo, Tri-Level, or tournaments, and even not counting the 65 & over league in the Adult divisions. I also don't believe Singles leagues are counted, so this usually results in just the Spring Adult league being counted for ratings. There may be some variance by state though, in part based on what additional leagues there are and if they fall into the Adult division or not.
DeleteWhat Fall league were you referring to in South Carolina?
I just moved from NoCal to Mid-Atlantic (Virginia). Does the Fall Singles League in MAS count towards ratings? Does my rating from NoCal carry over intact to Mid-Altantic and it just picks up from there? Transitioning from hard court to clay (which I'd only played on a few times in my life) has been rough and I'm getting my clock cleaned in the fall singles league, so am sure I'll be going down in rating if the singles league counts. Thx!
ReplyDeleteCongratulations, you've moved from one hotbed of tennis to another. You'll just be playing indoors a lot more!
DeleteMy understanding is that the Singles leagues in MAS do count towards your rating, and your year-end rating will include all of your NoCal matches that would have counted.
And I know what you mean about clay. Played on it once and it didn't go well. E-mail me (ratings@teravation.net) if you are interested in seeing how your clay court matches are affecting your rating.
Thanks Kevin. Will email you. Does Tri-level also count? That one might be able to save me!
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