Friday, February 27, 2015

USTA League match tie-breaks are stressful

My 40 & over team had our first match of the season this evening and three of the five matches went to match tie-breaks.  My match was over, so I got to watch them all and it only reiterated to me how stressful it is to watch, especially since I'm captaining this team this year.

I'm not a big fan of match tie-breaks, but I'd rather be playing one than watching.  Every point means to much that you are on the edge of your seat, and as a captain you stress about thinking if you did your best job getting the line-up right to give your players the best shot of winning.

I understand the reasoning for match tie-breaks, but would still rather play out third sets.  I think fitness and being able to play a full third set should matter and it would help increase the chances the best player(s) win the match and that it isn't decided by a fluke point or two.  But especially where I play, indoor facilities are used the we have limited court times and thankfully we don't do timed matches, so third set tie-breaks give a match a better chance of finishing within the allocated time.

My team was fortunate that we won two of the three tie-breaks and won the team match, so we are off to a good start.  But I'm not looking forward to having to watch more match tie-breaks this year.  So lets win all our matches in straight sets!

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