Monday, January 25, 2016

Important PNW Seattle USTA League Dates

For those that play USTA League in the Seattle area of the Pacific Northwest, here are some of the important dates to be aware of.

As I just wrote about, the 18 & over league started a couple weeks ago and is going full bore already.  The regular season for the weekend flights is scheduled to run from 1/8 to 4/10 while the weekday flights run from 3/21 to 6/3.  Local playoffs for all teams will be 6/9-6/12.

The 40 & over league gets started a bit later, it runs from 2/19 to 5/22 and does not have separate weekend and weekday flight schedules.  Local playoffs for 40+ will be 6/3-6/5.

Sectionals for both 18+ and 40+ in PNW will again be held in Spokane this year.  18+ happens first from 8/12-8/14 and 40+ two weeks later on 8/26-8/28.

Sunday, January 24, 2016

2016 USTA Leagues have started in the PNW/Seattle, some teams with 4 matches already!

In the Seattle area, January means the start of the 18 & over Adult league with the weekend flights all beginning play as early as the 8th.  The weekday flights start a bit later.

Usually each team will play 8-9 matches in their regular season and do this over the course of 3 months or so meaning a few weeks off.  But this year, some teams have already played 4 matches through just 3 weekends, and some are going to be all done with their regular season by the first weekend in March!  With local playoffs not being held until June, that is going to be quite a layoff.

What this means is it is never too early to start getting Estimated Dynamic NTRP Rating Reports.  Whether you want to see what your own rating is doing, get a team report for your own team or another to scout them, or get a flight report to see where all the teams stack up in a flight, contact me to request one or for more information.

Friday, January 8, 2016

Seattle area 2016 USTA League 18 & over play starts this weekend

It is just the second weekend of 2016 and USTA League play in the 18 & over division starts tonight in the Northwest Washington district (Seattle area) of the Pacific Northwest section.

The start of the year is always exciting as new teams have been formed and many have high aspirations so that first match is a good gauge of where the team stands.  A win gets a team off to a great start, but a loss is not the end of the world.  I can attest to being on a team that lost our first match but still made local playoffs.

A number of local teams have gotten preview reports for their sub-flights to see how all the teams stack up.  These reports now include several things.

First is a table showing the average Estimated Dynamic NTRP Rating for the entire roster as well as the average by level should there be players playing up or the flight be a plus flight.  This lets you see how the teams compare top to bottom.

Second is a table showing the average for just the top-8 rated players on the team.  This shows the strength of the theoretical best line-ups if they were to be used, which gives an indication of who might be stronger in important matches when the teams play their best players.

With this information, teams can make better decisions about which matches are important and they need their best players for versus those that have a weaker opponent and some of the lower rated players can play in without jeopardizing a team win.

And last year, one of the flight reports I did locally did predict Harbor Square to win the 18+ 3.5 men locally and they did, and in fact went all the way to Nationals.  So sometimes these flight reports pan out in predicting who will win.

Contact me if interested in any reports.

Friday, January 1, 2016

Happy New Year! It is time for 2016 USTA League Tennis

Happy New Year!  To all those that read this blog regularly, thanks!  And to those that may have just come across it, welcome.

It is now officially 2016, so 2016 leagues can begin.  Wait!  In some areas 2016 leagues began way back in May of 2015 (hello Georgia), so it isn't really the start of the league year.  But in many areas, mine being one, the main 18 & over and/or 40 & over leagues do get started in January and February.

As a reminder, all advancing leagues are part of a specific championship year, but they may start and play their local league matches as part of an early start league in the prior year.  In my area for example, our 18+ Mixed and 55+ leagues are early start leagues, so those regular season and local playoffs for 2016 are already complete.

Even if your league doesn't start for a few months, teams are still forming and preparing now, and captains with their sights on making playoffs are recruiting and seeing if they can get the strongest players at their level.  If you need help recruiting with a targeted list of players/ratings or team reports, let me know.

Happy New Year, and have fun on the courts!