Monday, February 23, 2015

2015 USTA League tennis is well under way, estimating dynamic NTRP ratings is too!

If you are a regular reader of this blog, and even if you aren't, you likely know that the USTA "year" for ratings purposes runs roughly from November thru October.  However, "2015" leagues started way back in July 2014 and perhaps earlier where sections/districts have early start leagues.

The way things work, even though these early start leagues are "2015", any applicable matches played on or before 11/9/14 would be included in the 2014 year-end rating and only those matches played after 11/9/14 count towards the 2015 rating.  Similarly, any "2014" leagues that go past 11/9/14 will have those matches count towards the 2015 rating as well.

The result is that matches that are part of 2015 ratings have actually been being played for over three months now and despite it being winter and a particularly harsh one in some parts of the country, due to indoor courts and good enough weather in the southern and western states, a lot of leagues are in full flight.  Many players have played 5-10 matches already, some even more.

That means there are more than enough matches to start calculating Estimated Dynamic NTRP Ratings and generating associated reports.  I've actually been doing 2015 reports since December, even some reports for teams headed to playoffs where their early start or winter league finished up.  I've made a lot of refinements to my year-end calculations to further improve accuracy so I'm fully up and running for 2015.

I can generate a variety of reports including custom reports and lists, the standard offerings being individual, team, and sub-flight reports.  And if you haven't seen the examples or gotten a report in awhile, I've made improvements to all the reports giving you more data and insight.

Individual reports show detailed statistics, match by match analysis and charts, and a partner report showing how a player's matches rate when they play with their different partners.  These give a lot of insight into how each match rated, how your game is doing early in the year and which direction your rating is heading, and who you play the best with.  These reports start at just $20 and once you get a first report updates are just $10 during the regular season.

Team reports show each player's rating and team statistics along with a partner report for the entire team.  These are very useful for captains to know who their strongest players are and who to pair with each other.  They are also a great way to scout opponents to see their trends and tendencies and plan for upcoming matches, particularly in the playoffs where you may not know a lot about the opponents.  These start at $75 during the regular season due to the additional work required and number of players to be analyzed, but you get the ratings and stats for the entire team regardless of roster size and so are a lot more affordable than individual reports for an entire team.

Sub-flight reports show average ratings by team within a sub-flight so you can see who the strongest teams appear to be.  These are a very affordable way to get an idea which matches you need to make sure you have your best line-up available for at just $10 for a sub-flight.


I should note that my reports will always include all matches played to date and always include any relevant playoff matches.  You will never get reports based on stale or incomplete data and you will get the full detail mentioned above including my analysis, comments, and explanations, not just a number.

If you are interested in a report, see the examples at the links above and contact me with any questions or to get started.

1 comment:

  1. I think the sub-flight reports based on team average dynamic ratings is super interesting. I wonder if doing an average of the top 8 players on a team (since that's how many players play in a given match) would give a more accurate predicted standings, since some teams may have lower rated players on their roster simply as possible substitutes and won't play them in matches very often.

    It may also be interesting to look at which teams play their best pairs at #1 dubs or have a tendency to stack their better players at #2 or #3 dubs in matches.

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