Another "feature" of the new format for USTA League Nationals - Have to beat the same opponent twice!

The USTA has come up with a new format for USTA League Nationals this year, and I've written a bunch of thoughts about it and simulations of how it might play out, but something just occurred to me that I hadn't written about yet.

It is entirely possible, and we'll see how often it happens, that a team could beat another team in round-robin play, and end up having to beat them again in the semis or final!

One of the perks of the new format is that a team that loses early and might have ended with one loss in their old format flight and lost out to the team that beat them still has a chance to advance to the semis.  This is certainly true and I think something that will keep teams engaged longer, but in this scenario, they would make the semis along with the team the lost to.  Or put another way, the team that beat them could have to play them again if they both advance.

In a situation where that team that won in the round-robin pulled an upset, this is kind of tough as they would be asked to do it all over again, but this time the other team knows they are coming.  This doesn't seem entirely fair, but I understand you can't preclude it if you are giving teams that lost a chance to still advance.  It sort of gives an advantage to the strong teams over the underdogs as a strong team is more likely to be able to pull off the double than the scrappy underdog.

Now, what will be interesting is if the USTA will just go by standings in seeding the semis (1st vs 4th, 2nd vs 3rd), or if they would go out of their way to try to preclude a rematch in the semis and only have it occur in the final?

We'll have to wait and see.  I have to say I'm hoping it happens at least once just so I can write about it more!

9/21 Update: I've learned that they will stick with 1st vs 4th and 2nd vs 3rd even if that means a rematch in a semi-final