The 2023 USTA League Nationals schedule is out!

For many USTA League players, the dream of advancing to USTA League Nationals and winning the title is part of the allure of USTA League play.  Local league play takes place throughout the year, many areas having different leagues played year-round, but the main leagues have their Nationals in the Fall each year.

I just wrote about some of the secondary leagues and tournament nationals events, but the big news for those in the regular leagues is what the schedule is for those national events for 2023.

It looks like the sites for Nationals this year will be several of the traditional locations and include Orlando, San Diego, Surprise, and Tucson.  Oklahoma City was used last year as was Scottsdale and they are out with San Diego and Tucson in.

The schedule itself is very similar to last year with 18 & Over towards the front, 40 & Over in the middle, and 55 & Over and Mixed at the end.  Here is the full schedule:

• September 29 - October 1
• 18 & Over 2.5 women - Tucson, AZ
• 18 & Over 5.0 - Tucson, AZ
• 18 & Over 3.5 - Surprise, AZ
• October 6 - 8
• 18 & Over 4.5 - Surprise, AZ
• 40 & Over 3.5 - Tucson, AZ
• October 13 - 15
• 18 & Over 3.0 - Surprise, AZ
• 40 & Over 4.5 - Tucson, AZ
• October 20 - 22
• 18 & Over 4.0 - Surprise, AZ
• 40 & Over 3.0 - San Diego, CA
• 55 & Over 6.0 / 8.0 - Orlando, FL
• October 27 - 29
• 40 & Over 4.0 - San Diego, CA
• 55 & Over 7.0 / 9.0 - Orlando, FL
• 18 & Over Mixed 6.0 / 8.0 / 10.0 - Surprise, AZ
• November 3 - 5
• 40 & Over Mixed 7.0 / 9.0 - Surprise, AZ
• November 10 - 12
• 18 & Over Mixed 7.0 / 9.0 - Orlando, FL
• 40 & over Mixed 6.0 / 8.0 - San Diego, CA

If you aspire to make it to Nationals, pencil those dates in on your schedule!

USTA Nationals aren't only in the Fall!

Those that play USTA League are used to the league season culminating in Nationials being held in October and November, but that isn't the only time national events are held.

What is played in the Fall are the "main" leagues, those being 18 & Over Adult and Mixed, 40 & Over Adult and Mixed, and 55 & Over Adult.  But there are other leagues played and some of them end up having their national events in the Spring.

Now, these events are not called "Nationals" for some reason but instead are "National Invitationals".  Here are a few:

• January 27 - 29, February 3 - 5, February 17-19: 65 & Over National Invitational in Surprise, AZ
• March 17 - 19: Tom Fey Tri-Level National Invitational in San Diego, CA
• April 21 - 23: 55 & Over Mixed National Invitational in Scottsdale, AZ

The last of these is next weekend, good luck to all those attending.

Additionally, the national events for NTRP tournament players are in the Spring.  This gives tournament players from across the country that excelled in tournament play an opportunity to qualify from their section and test themselves against those from other sections.

Here is/was the NTRP tournament Nationals schedule:

• March 31 - April 2 
• 18 & Over Singles in San Diego, CA
• 40 & Over Singles in Orlando, FL
• 55 & Over Singles in Surprise, AZ
• April 14 - 16
• 18 & Over Doubles in San Diego, CA
• 40 & Over Doubles in Pelham, AL
• 55 & Over Doubles in Surprise, AZ

The last of these is this weekend, good luck to all those participating as I write this!

USTA Mid-Atlantic institutes a suspension points system for 2022

The USTA League program is for many a great way to play recreational tennis in a competitive atmosphere, giving players a conduit to compete with similarly skilled players in a game they love.

However, as with most things in life, league play isn't all a bed of roses.  Some players take things very seriously and get too competitive leading to sportsmanship issues and confrontations, there are chronic bad line callers, and players that self-rate too low and captains that encourage it, players that will throw games or matches to manage their rating, and the list goes on.  By and large, there are certainly more positives than negatives, but reducing the negatives should certainly be a goal of the USTA.

The National regulations outline a standard procedure for filing grievances for many of these situations, but there has not been a structure, that I'm aware of at least, for meting out punishment for various violations should they be determined to have occurred.  That is until now.

For 2022, the Mid-Atlantic section has published a "USTA League Suspension Point System" that outlines specific violations and the suspension points they will accrue, and the point totals at which specific suspensions will be levied.  Some examples:

• Equipment abuse - 2 points
• Unsportsmanlike conduct - 2-4 points
• Tanking - 2-4 points
• Threaten physical violence - 8-10 points
• Gambling - 8 points
• Self-rating lower than true ability - 2-5 points
• Omitting information during self-rating - 8-10 points
• Misrepresenting scores - 18 points
• Misrepresenting identity - 24 points

There are more, but that gives you the idea.

Once a player accrues 10 suspension points in a 12 month period, they are suspending from league events for three months.  A second suspension occurs if another eight points are accrued (combined with those rolled over) in the next 12 month period, and another six points accrued or carried over results in a TBD suspension.

This is just a summary, there are other provisions outlined in the document, so give it a read if you are interested in all the details.

I do not know what precipitated creating this suspension point system, but suspect it was wanting to take some of the subjectivity out of handling complaints with repeat offenders.  Rather than simply giving consideration to past offenses, this structure lays out clear rules for how things should be handled.

If their goal was to scare players into behaving, perhaps that will work on the surface, but the challenge will always be what it has been in the past, how are any of these violations reported and proven?  Some are factual or can be fact checked, but others are still a subjective decision or he said/she said scenarios, so they will likely be hard to prove without video evidence or the like.  Perhaps this will lead to players recording their matches so they have evidence should something occur.

Additionally, I believe any violations have to be reported through the grievance system that requires the filer to pay a fee, so that alone will likely reduce a lot of the noise.  But I'm sure there will be some annoyed players that will file grievances because Sue habitually makes bad calls or because Bob is clearly tanking games, and it will be interesting to hear how things play out.

What do you think?  Is a suspension points system like this needed?  Or is it overkill?  Given it is in place, how do you think it will work?  Will grievances be upheld and players accrue points for suspensions?

How much USTA League play is taking place in 2021? Is participation up in some areas?

As January 2021 comes to an end, we are far enough into the new year to take a look at how much USTA League is actually being played as various areas of the country deal with the coronavirus pandemic in different ways.

For reference, I'll be using last year, play was not suspended at all in January, and looking at league matches in the 18 & Over, 40 & Over, and 55 & Over divisions, as those schedules year to year are generally the same when there is no pandemic affecting schedules.

Using this criteria, in January 2020, there were 11,461 team matches scheduled and 10,554 played.  The difference of around 900, or about 8%, is likely due to matches needing to be rescheduled due to weather or various other reasons and is not to be unexpected in January.

In January 2021, there were 6,389 team matches scheduled, down 44%, and 5,486 played, down 48%.  Let's take a look at why these numbers are down.

The obvious answer on the scheduled matches being down is the pandemic and some leagues simply not being played.  This is certainly true, play in PNW is postponed until at least March, league play has not started in either California section, and Northern has not started play.  But there has been league play in other sections, somewhat to significantly lower than last year in Eastern, Hawaii, Mid-Atlantic, Midwest, and New England, and near or normal match counts for January in other sections, with a few are even up slightly including Florida, Intermountain, and Texas.

Florida and Texas are both warm weather areas that generally are able to play outdoors in the winter and haven't had the restrictions other states have had, so the play being slightly up in these sections would seem to indicate strong interest in league play, perhaps even a slight bump from folks getting back into tennis last year as it was an allowed activity.

Intermountain is interesting as the main leagues are played outdoors and don't start until Spring in much of the section, but Nevada can play outdoors in January so the modest bump would seem to be attributed to that district and again, may be to be due to increased interest in tennis.

Southern is also a warmer weather area, but much broader area and population so more subject to restrictions or delays in some states and is down about 17%.

But Southern is likely an indicator of another factor in the decreased play, that being areas where leagues are able to play at normal levels, some players are choosing not to play.  This may be because they didn't play much last year and feel they are rusty and don't want to spend league fees to play yet, or they may be cautious and don't want to play until the COVID numbers drop more or the vaccinations are more widely available and administered.  The long term question for USTA League is if these players will come back or not.

A good way to look at this factor is to look at the number of teams and players registered for a league.  An area that started later than normal in January will still have teams and players registered even if matches scheduled/played are down.  And teams/players in a league isn't affected by leagues not being played.

Here is a chart by section showing the percent increase/decrease in the teams per league and players per league.  Note, just 12 of the sections have played in January so that is why only they are shown.  I've also included the percentage increase/decrease in scheduled team matches and leagues as well.

Here we can see some pretty dramatic changes between 2020 and 2021.

Just four sections have shown any growth in the teams/players registered in a league, just Southwest and Intermountain showing significant growth, and Intermountain is represented by a single league in Las Vegas where play is up.

However, there are a full eight sections showing a significant decrease in the teams and players per league.  The greatest decrease is in Mid-Atlantic where participation is down over 75% for each metric, and Middle States, Eastern, and Texas are also significantly down.

Middle States is also interesting in that the number of leagues is up a bit, but matches and teams/players per league are down.

I should note that while comparing the same month from 2020 to 2021 does mean that generally the same leagues are being compared, but they aren't necessarily exactly the same, and that can be seen in the chart above with the leagues played in January increasing or decreasing so some differences can be attributed to differences in the leagues being played in January.

Does this mean USTA League play in several sections is dying, while a few sections are growing?  One certainly shouldn't make that leap based on comparing a single month from 2020 to 2021, but it reveals some trends that it is worthwhile following the remainder of the year.

What are you observing in your are?

PNW Seattle 40 & Over USTA League on track to start March 5th

Back in early December, the Pacific Northwest section of the USTA announced that leagues scheduled to begin in January would be posted until at least March.   This was a result of coronavirus restrictions in much if not all of Washington and Oregon being in phase 1 and not allowing indoor play at all at the time, and the likelihood that the restrictions would not be lifted in days or weeks.

Thankfully, early January did bring a modified phase 1 in some areas that did allow for play indoors with restrictions including wearing masks while playing, but no tournaments or leagues allowed.

Late this week, it was announced that the greater Seattle area would be moving to phase 2 this coming Monday, and with it our area League Coordinator sent an e-mail out to captains saying that our 40 & Over league would indeed be starting on March 5th.

Now, this does not mean league play will be fully back to normal when play begins in 5 weeks.  As I understand it, wearing masks will still be required during play, and as a result some players not comfortable with that may opt not to play, so players and captains need to be clear on this before joining teams.

I also expect that in order to help adhere to strict court times and minimize interaction between players coming/going/watching, we may still be using timed matches and facilities will ask that players leave promptly when play on a court is finished.

Here are important dates for this league:

• 2/1 - Teams must be registered
• 2/8 - Teams must have at least 7 players registered
• 2/19 - Schedule published
• 3/5 - 4/25 - Regular season of 6-7 matches per team
• 4/30 - 5/2 - Local playoffs
• 8/27 - 8/29 - Sectionals

All of the above is subject to change of course should the coronavirus situation change, but my fingers are crossed we can stay at or progress from phase 2 and continue to be able to play.

I have not heard if other areas in PNW are similarly moving to phase 2 and on track to begin league play in March, but I'll update as I hear more, or readers can leave a comment with what they've heard.

New USTA League Survey from the USTA

This morning, I found an e-mail in my inbox from the USTA with a new survey about USTA League.  The survey link may be specific to a player, so I won't post mine here, but look for an e-mail with the subject "USTA League Players - We Want to Hear From You!".

This follows a survey in December in an e-mail titled "Your Opinion Matters" that wasn't much to mention as it didn't really ask anything of substance, but this new one does ask a number of things of note.

The survey starts off asking some basic demographic and location questions, oddly including each of section, state, zip, and ends these with asking if one captains or not.  I answered yes and it appears the few captains questions are then asked, but there aren't specific questions for non-captains.

For a captain, it then asked if I knew about a new feature on TennisLink for indicating a team is open to or looking for more players (I was), then asked some questions about other tools a captain would like to have to making captaining easier.

It continued with questions about how often I play, drills, lessons, etc., and what leagues I play in.  There were a few questions to rate things but it didn't specify that "1" was the best or the larger number was, I assumed "1".  It finished asking what I liked about USTA League and what I would change.

All in all a reasonable survey, but as with any survey, it will only be useful if a representative set of players respond, and the USTA then takes relevant action as a result.  Since it is harder to justify complaining if you don't give feedback, I encourage any USTA League players to answer the survey if you are so inclined so your voice can be heard.

Some of the feedback I gave was regarding not publishing 2020 year-end ratings, problems with sandbaggers and thrown matches, and the need for better tools to manage teams.

Did you take the survey?  What did you think?

Update: Survey link here.