With the COVID-19 pandemic and associated stay at home orders, many tennis players are not able to play with some areas closing courts as a prohibited activity. The result is they can only dream of playing once restrictions are lifted, and for those that play USTA League, the obvious question is how will play resume and schedules be affected?
The
USTA suspended play on March 13, at the time through April 20, but subsequently
extended the suspension through May 3rd. That is the loss of 7 weekends of play. In the hopes of still keeping Sectionals and Nationals, that 7 weekends has to be recovered one way or another, be it moving Nationals and Sectionals back giving more time, compressing schedules, or doubling up on playoff weekends and taking fewer teams or using shorter scoring formats.
To see how this might play out, I'll use my area (Seattle in PNW) as an example and look at just Adult 18 & Over and 40 & Over. Our 40 & over was nearly complete, one weekend of play remained, and 18 & Over was to start on March 23rd.
Our Sectionals are planned for August 7-9 (18 & Over) and 21-23 (40 & Over). This gives teams at least 7 weeks from Sectionals to Nationals to plan. This could be compressed some, or National could move dates, but for now, lets assume these dates are kept. That means local playoffs must be completed by mid/late July, and even that leaves little time for teams to prepare logistics for Sectionals, but that is often a short trip so can reasonably be done.
So, lets say that our local playoffs were held July 17-19, and perhaps were a combined event for 18 & Over and 40 & Over. I'll discuss the logistics and impact of that shortly, lets just look at schedule.
This would mean 18 & Over league play would need to be completed by July 12th, which leaves just 10 weeks from May 3rd to get all the play in. This was normally planned for 11 weeks so one week is lost, plus the one week of 40 & Over remaining so 2 weeks lost. One can envision a revised schedule being compressed and getting 12 weeks of play in in 10 weeks, especially if some outdoor courts are used as play is in May and June as the weather warms up. This is doable!
But what about those playoffs? Normally each division has two weekends of playoffs, a wildcard weekend and then the final weekend with semis and finals. I seem to have suggested that all this be played on one weekend above. Is this possible?
First, perhaps July 17-19 is the first weekend of the two weekends, and things wrap up the 24th thru 26th. That leaves little time between local playoffs and Sectionals, but is perhaps doable.
Second, there may be the chance that rather than taking the top-2 teams from each sub-flight, playoffs are abbreviated to take just the top teams or fewer wildcards to reduce the number of matches to be played.
Third, being mid/late July, perhaps more facilities aren't as busy or more outdoor courts are used, and play is dispersed across more courts increasing capacity for a huge weekend of playoffs.
Fourth, to fit more matches in, an abbreviated scoring format could be used like Fast 4.
I don't know that July 17-19 is a real date in any contingency plans, but what I've run through above at least makes having reasonably complete season appear possible, along with some semblance of normal playoffs. There may be some impact with a more compressed schedule, fewer playoff teams, or short scoring formats, but there is hope for play to be complete on a schedule leading in to Sectionals.
And Sectionals dates could move as well so there is a bit of flexibility there, same with Nationals.
Now, all of this assumes play resumes May 4th, and that certainly isn't a given. But if it does, look for some arrangement like I described above to be used to get play in on a schedule that allows Nationals to still take place.
Note, I've ignored Mixed and 55 & Over, something may have to be sacrificed and it is possible Nationals for a division or two are not held, and that would allow for Nationals to move back 2-3 weeks as some dates for Nationals would become available. Of course, Mixed and 55 & Over are fewer courts and not as many teams typically, so there is more flexibility in getting these in, and in my area, all but 40 & Over Mixed has already had its regular season and local playoffs completed.
If more compressed regular season formats are required, look for the potential use of un-flighted round-robin, like is used at Nationals, for a "season in a weekend" (or two) instead of an 8-10 week season. This is not ideal of course, but at least allows for teams to play a season and advance. There are issues with the number of matches played and getting players qualified, especially with large rosters, but it is an idea.
What do you think? Is play resuming May 4th too optimistic? Do we just need to accept USTA League will not finish with any sense of normalcy this year? Or is there hope?
