Seattle and Portland split the 2023 Pacific Northwest 40 & Over Sectional champions.

The Pacific Northwest section held their 18 & Over Sectionals two weeks ago and Seattle area teams romped and are sending the Section's representative at every gender and level.  The 40 & Over Sectionals was this weekend and the same thing did not occur.

The women's 2.5 had Portland's MAC face Southwest Washington's JTC with MAC taking the title.

The men's 2.5 was a round-robin with two Seattle and two Portland teams, the Seattle teams finished first and second with ETC beating our CAC/Silver Lake.

The women's 3.0 had Seattle's Mercer Island facing Portland's WHRC in the final and Mercer Island taking the 3-1 win and heading to Nationals.

For the 3.0 men, two Seattle teams faced off with Central Park facing Mercer Island and Mercer Island taking the 3-1 win for a clean sweep of 3.0 for Mercer Island teams.

At 3.5, the women's final had Seattle's TCSP playing Portland's GLVR with TCSP taking the 3-1 win.

The 3.5 men had two Portland teams facing off with  IRV and MAC playing in the final, and MAC winning 3-1.

The women's 4.0 had another Mercer Island team from Seattle face Portland's LOTC with LOTC coming out on top 3-1.

The men's 4.0 saw GTC from Southwest Washington face BETC from Seattle and BETC took the 2-2 win by extending one of their lost courts to a super tie-break.

The 4.5 women had two Portland teams make the final with GLVR taking the 3-1 win over SHC.

The 4.5 men also had two Portland teams face off in the final, MAC beating UP 2-2 due to extending a lost court to  a super tie-break.

Last, there was a 5.0 men's round-robin where Seattle Forest Crest went 3-0 against three other Portland teams.

The result is at the four advancing levels (3.0 thru 4.5), Seattle won four and Portland won four, so very balanced between the two largest districts in the section.  If you count the 2.5 and 5.0 levels, Seattle did come out ahead  6-5.

Congratulations to all the teams headed to Nationals!

Seattle area teams sweep PNW 2023 18 & Over Sectionals

The 18 & Over Sectionals for Pacific Northwest were held this weekend, and remarkably the Seattle area teams (Northwest Washington) pulled of the clean sweep and in fact in most cases both finalists were from Seattle.

The 2.5 women saw two Seattle teams make the final, but WSC did it with a 2-1 record winning the tie-breaker over a Portland team at 2-1, and Mercer Island won the final 2-1 to punch their ticket to Nationals.

The 2.5 men had just four teams so just played round-robin and Seattle teams took first and second, ETC ahead of Columbia Silver Lake.  There is no Nationals at this level however, so just a Sectionals title.

The 3.0 women found Seattle teams ETC and Mercer Island in the final, each winning their flights with 3-0 records, and ETC took the title with a 4-1 win.

The 3.0 men also had Seattle teams in the final with TCSP and ETC meeting up having both gone 3-0, and TCSP took the 3-2 win to be heading to Nationals.

The 3.5 women had the first non-Seattle team in a final with Portland's MAC facing off against AYTC from Seattle, and AYTC won 5-0.

The 3.5 men was back to two Seattle teams with Forest Crest winning over Mill Creek 3-2 in the final.

The 4.0 women saw Southwest Washington (Tacoma/Olympia) make an appearance in a final facing off against AYTC from Seattle, and AYTC won 3-2.

The 4.0 men found two Seattle teams in the final, RBW who went 2-1 in their flight against BETC who went 3-0, and RBW came out on top with a 4-1 win.

The 4.5 women had Southern Oregon make a finals showing facing off against NTC from Seattle, and NTC won 4-1.

The 4.5 men had two Seattle teams play in the final with WSC taking the title over AYTC.

For the 5.0 women, there was just one flight and round-robin play where AYTC from Seattle won over SHC from Portland.

Last, the 5.0 men was also round-robin and had perhaps the most competitive event with Mercer Island, the sole representative from Seattle vs three from Portland, being tied with THPRD from Portland tying at 2-1 and 5-4 on courts with the other two Portland teams at 1-2 and 4-5 on courts.  But Mercer Island won the head to head match with THPRD and took the title.

Congratulations to all the winners.  Good luck at Nationals!

Wanting to follow Northwest Washington (Seattle) 40 & Over playoffs? Don't use TennisLink!

The saga of the USTA's technology challenges as it relates to leagues and tournaments seems to be continuing.

Local playoffs for the 40 & Over league in Seattle are going on this weekend, and I went to TennisLink to see how some friends had done in the matches.  Let's ignore for now that TennisLink is terrible as trying to follow along with local playoffs like this as there is no central place to see the schedule or get to draws, you more or less have to find a player or team and then find their championships and navigate to the draw where you can see only that draw.  Want to see other draws or NTRP levels?  Prepare to search and navigate a bunch more.  But I said I'd ignore that for now, so moving on.

I found the draw I was after but no score had been recorded yet.  But my wife got a text from a spectator saying our friend's team won and I refreshed the draw and indeed I saw the match was now recorded ... except the draw said the other team won!

Confused, I clicked on the match, and court by court our friend's team had won 3 courts to 1, but going back to the draw, it showed the other team winning 3-1.

Thinking this was perhaps a TennisLink web-site issue, I went to the iPhone app but it too showed a draw with the other team winning and advancing.

Clearly something is amiss with TennisLink, perhaps the issues in the new Serve Tennis/Play Tennis site have found their way into TennisLink, and it turns out our League Coordinator knows, as she is using a Google Docs spreadsheet to keep track of playoffs and pointing folks to it!  And it is even linked to from the Northwest Washington page on USTA.com.

Kudos to Jill for recognizing the issue and coming up with a solution, but it is sad she has to do that.  She is effectively having to do double work to enter results in the spreadsheet and eventually go get them in TennisLink.

But going back to it being hard to follow events like this, it is doubly bad when TennisLink is messing up as I don't think it is well known that a Google Docs spreadsheet is being used so fans don't know to look there and may look at TennisLink and get incorrect information it appears.

So, if you are trying to follow playoffs this weekend, don't head to TennisLink, but instead go here and click on the 2021 A40 Playoffs sheet where you can see a much nicer than TennisLink schedule for the whole event in one place and all the results.

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.

Unhappy with indoor tennis restrictions in Washington? Sign this petition!

Earlier this week, amid increasing COVID-19 numbers, the State of Washington Governor's office reintroduced restrictions on various indoor activities, including closing indoor activities at athletic clubs, meaning folks in Seattle and other parts of Washington are unable to play indoor tennis, and with temperatures in the 40s and periodic rain, we aren't playing outside either.

USTA League play in Seattle was wrapping up with 55 & Over playoffs just finishing in time (completed this past Sunday) but 18 & Over Mixed now having to be tentatively rescheduled for January.

I, among others, use tennis as their primary form of exercise in the winter here and not having it is more than an inconvenience, it can significantly affect one's well being.  The COVID-19 pandemic is certainly something to be taken seriously and certain restrictions may make sense, but evidence seems to show that when managed with the appropriate protocols and social distancing before and after play, tennis can be a safe activity with very low risk of transmitting the corona virus.

If you agree indoor tennis should not be a restricted activity, please express your support for an on-line petition to Allow safe, socially distanced indoor tennis in Washington!  As of this writing, 2,197 supporters have signed this petition and it is growing quickly.

Thanks to Diane Tien for getting this started!  Let's see how many signatures we can get!

PNW Seattle giving new playoff format another shot for 2021 18 & Over Mixed

Before COVID-19 ended our 40 & Over season in the Seattle area, we were working our way towards a new local playoff format.

I wrote much more at the time, but the short story is in a league where the 1st and 2nd place team in each sub-flight advance to playoffs, the new local playoff format places all the 1st place teams in one draw and all the second place teams in the other.  The winner of the 1st place team draw advances to Sectionals, while the loser of that match plays the winner of the 2nd place team draw for the chance to advance to Sectionals as a wildcard.

I wasn't terribly fond of the format then, and while we didn't get a chance to see it in practice yet, I'm still leery of it for the simple reason that it doesn't seem to reward 1st place teams enough.  While by making the final of the 1st place bracket they assure themselves of an extra shot at advancing even if they lose that final, they still have to make it to the final by winning one or two matches and do so against other first place teams.  One can almost make the argument that it may be easier to win two matches in the 2nd place bracket against 2nd place teams to make that final, and the have to play only one first place team, and that being one that could be playing their 4th match of the weekend at that point.

What do you think?

2019 Seattle area 18 & Over nearly complete, playoffs in June

The 18 & Over league in Seattle is approaching the last couple weeks of the season and who will advance to playoffs is still in doubt in nearly every sub-flight.

Thankfully, due to the efforts of our League Coordinator, we will have the top-2 teams from each sub-flight advancing to local playoffs, the "wildcard" round being held June 7-9 and then the conclusion of local playoffs June 14-16.

As I understand it, the wildcard weekend matches will be played, where possible, at the higher seed's facility, but all of that is expected to be confirmed on June 3 when the draws and schedules/sites should come out.

Good luck to those teams still vying for a playoff spot!

Wildcard Weekend of Seattle 40 & Over Local Playoffs is complete

This past weekend found many local area teams playing in the first "Wildcard Weekend" for the 40 & Over teams in the Seattle area.

Truth be told, it was really just the first round (or two) of local playoffs and not just for wildcards, but this year it is spread over two weekends.

Alas, my team did not advance to local playoffs, but I watched several matches of friends and former teammates and there was some good and competitive play.

In a few cases, not just the first round matches but even semi-finals were already played, and with what has become the traditional wildcard to Sectionals being given to the second place team from local playoffs, those teams that are in this coming weekend's final have already both qualified for Sectionals!  Congrats to those teams.

For those teams that are already in the final, or happen to play their semi-final this weekend and get there, I'll digress for a minute and share my experience from a few years ago captaining a team that advanced to Sectionals.  We made the local playoffs final and new we had a spot, and I elected to play a number of players that didn't play in the semi-final in order to give them a chance to play in playoffs but also give them some valuable experience to prepare for Sectionals.  We ended up losing the final 3-2 which put us in the flight at Sectionals with the first place team from Portland.  Alas, we lost to that team 3-2, the last court in a super tie-break.  Had we won our local playoff final, we would have avoided this team until the Sectionals final.  I can't say the result would have been different, but I do still think about how things might have been different if we won the local playoff and were seeded in the other flight at Sectionals.  Something to think about for those captains that are fortunate to have such decisions to make.

Good luck to all those still in local playoffs this coming weekend!

Seattle area 40 & Over USTA League nearing completion - Local playoffs in just over 2 weeks!

It is only the first week of March, but in the Seattle area our 40 & Over league is nearly done with its regular season and local playoffs are in less than three weeks.  As such, some teams have wrapped up playoff spots while others are still being hotly contested.

For those following along, you may remember that last year our local playoffs had, for most levels, only each sub-flight winner and one second place team across all sub-flights advancing.  That gave teams pretty thin margins during the regular season as one bad match, perhaps with some of their best players missing, and their playoff chance could be gone.

The challenge last year was with the growth of USTA League in Seattle, the court demands to run local playoffs had grown to the point that it was difficult to get one or even two clubs to provide enough courts in one weekend for all the matches to be played.

Thankfully, this year we are back to the top-2 teams in each sub-flight advancing to local playoffs.  Our League Coordinator, Jill Borgida, came up with the idea of a "wildcard weekend" the week before local playoffs to get the first round of matches in reducing the burden for the actual local playoff weekend, and coordinated with clubs to get their support for those matches so all the matches can be played!  Thanks Jill!

The schedule does have quite a few different facilities being used so there isn't a central club or two where someone can camp out and watch all the matches, but I think the players are ok with that if it means more teams make playoffs and more players get to play.

Note, the new 18-39 co-ed league has also been run concurrently with the 40 & Over and its playoffs are also taking place at the same time, so that made securing courts a bit of a bigger task as well.

If you see Jill, be sure to thank her for her efforts on this, and please do thank the clubs for their part in making their facilities available.  Many of these are private clubs and they aren't obligated to do it, so let's make it all run smoothly so we can continue this model in the future.

As for the playoffs themselves, I will be doing reports to help teams scout opponents and plan their line-ups, and also look back at my simulations from the start of the year to see how well they predicted the teams to advance.

And with the 18 & Over league just about to start, it is never too early to start planning for that season and my flight reports, team reports, and simulations can be valuable tools for that.  And of course, I can do individual reports for any player at any time.

For those not in Seattle, all the reports I note above are available for players from any section or area and with your league getting ready for playoffs or perhaps just getting ready to start, I'd love to hear from you.

Contact me (ratings@teravation.net) if interested in any reports, or leave a comment here or on Facebook with your thoughts on the new playoff format for this year.

2018 Washington State Open this weekend at Seattle Tennis Club

If you live in the Seattle area and are wanting to see some good tennis, the Washington State Open is being played at Seattle Tennis Club this weekend through August 5th.

I believe this tournament is the largest Open and Age Division tournament in the area with a field of nearly 128 in the Men's Open draw, and large fields in many of the other draws too including some top ranked players in several of the Age Division draws.

Browsing the draws I see players from Oregon, California, British Columbia, Idaho, Hawaii, Arizona, and even as far away as Minnesota and Florida!

It looks like the weather should be nice this weekend so go on out and enjoy some good tennis in a beautiful location.

Seattle area teams headed to 2018 Pacific Northwest USTA League 18 & Over Sectionals

The 18 & Over local playoffs were held in the Seattle area and teams are headed to PNW Sectionals to be held August 10-12 in Portland.

I believe that at each level, the winner of local playoffs advances plus the finalist as a wildcard.  This can influence the finals as teams don't have to win to advance and sometimes will use the match to get more players a playoff match.

The 2.5 women saw #3 RBW-Harnish and #1 HBSQ-The All Nets-Flock play in the final, RBW taking a 2-1 win, all the matches in straight sets.

The 3.0 men's final had two ETC teams, #1 Blasko vs #4 Lash, and Blasko got the 5-0 win.

The women's 3.0 final had #1 RBW-Sakoda playing #3 AYTC-Serve Us A Double-Thomas with RBW winning 3-2, all three wins in fairly easy straight sets.

The men's 3.5 final had #1 seed RBW-Chan playing #3 MC-Fight Club-Vashist and it was a 5-0 win for RBW.

The 3.5 women saw #4 TCSP-Alexis Olympia FC-Miller facing #5 RBW-Moskos and pulling out a 3-2 win, one of the courts in a match tie-break.

At 4.0, the men's final had #3 MI-Sedlacek taking out #1 PSC-Smashers-Volli-Tortop in a close 3-2 win, one court in a match tie-break.

And the 4.0 women had #4 AYTC-Hood playing #1 PSC-Tzeng in the final and AYTC taking a 4-1 win.

For the 4.5 men, two AYTC teams played, #1 AYTC-4.5 o'clock somewhere-Reni taking the 5-0 win over #2 Frosted Tips-Grayson.

The 4.5 women had #4 AYTC-Godfrey playing #1 NTC-Sutter and NTC taking the 5-0 win.

Last, at the 5.0+ level, the men had #3 BETC-Brown facing #4 FC-Basha Tennis and FC taking the 2-1 win.

Congratulations to all.  Good luck at Sectionals!

Breaking News for Seattle! New league for 2019 and wildcard weekend for 2019 Northwest Washington local playoffs

I just wrote about the upcoming 18 & Over local playoffs taking place in Seattle this weekend, and I happened upon the 2019 league schedule that has been posted.

For the most part, the schedule is the same as we are accustom to.

Adult 55 & Over and Mixed 18 & Over are both early start leagues that will be play September thru November/December with playoffs at the start of December.

Adult 40 & Over as well as 18 & Over will be played as this year, January thru March and March thru June respectively.  Similarly, Mixed 40 & Over will be June thru August like this year, One Doubles will be a Summer league, 65 & Over will be in the Spring, and Mixed 55 & Over will be in the summer.

But there are two big new things that have shown up on the schedule.

First is a new 18-39 coed league.  As noted above, those over the age of 40 have their Adult league the first three months of the year, but those under 40 are left out.  This new league will be run during the same period and use the World Team Tennis format of doubles for men and women, singles for men and women, and a mixed doubles match, so 5 matches total.

Alas, I'm over 40 so won't be able to take part, but I'll be interested to see how the league goes and what participation is.  I think this league is being rolled out in other areas and sections too so I'll write more about it as I learn more, but please contact me or leave a comment with what you think or if your area is adopting this league.

Update: I wrote more on this 18-39 league here.

Second, our local playoffs for Adult 18 & Over and 40 & Over were a bit smaller this year with fewer sub-flight second place teams advancing, but this appears to be going back to normal with all second place teams advancing.  In order to accomplish this there will be a new "Wildcard Weekend" a week before the local playoffs actually take place and complete.  Expanding the time the matches can be played over makes more courts available which I think is a great way to address the issue.  Thanks Jill for listening to feedback and coming up with a solution!

My understanding is that the wildcard weekend will be played more like local league matches at the home team's respective facility and not part of a block of matches at a designated playoff site as the actual playoffs will continue to be.  I don't see a problem with this and hope, and think it will, works well.

What do you think?  Do you like these changes?  I have to say I do as they are great ways to provide more playing opportunities for players in our area, and other areas that adopt similar approaches.

Seattle area teams win local playoffs and punch ticket to USTA League 40+ Sectionals

I previewed local playoffs for the 40 & over teams in the Seattle area, here is who ended up winning.

The 3.0 women had the #3 and #5 seeds come through and Eastside came through for the win over Amy Yee.

The 3.0 men had #3 Columbia Silver Lake make the final, but #1 Mercer Island took the win the local championship.

At the 3.5 level, the women's final was #3 Mercer Island against #2 TCSP-Blum, Mercer Island coming out on top.

The 3.5 men had #3 Gold Creek beating #1 Central Park in the final.

The 4.0 women found a #1 seed in the final again in TCSP but #3 Pro Sports Club beat them there.

The 4.0 men had the #2 seed in Nordstrom Tennis Center beating #4 Pine Lake.

The 4.5+ women found #1 Bellevue Club beating #4 BETC in the final.

Last, the 4.5+ men had the top two seeds play in the final, #1 Nordstrom beating Seattle Tennis Club.

As is the case in most years, all the teams noted above will be headed to Sectionals as the runner up gets a wildcard berth.  So congratulations to all the teams above and good luck at Sectionals!

Note that because teams know in advance that just making the final gets them to Sectionals, sometimes the final may not have each team's best line-up.  Captains will use the match to get other players in a playoff match or get someone their third match to qualify them for Nationals.  Still, the winner gets bragging rights, an extra winners gift from the USTA, and better seeding at Sectionals so there was still something to play for.

Regardless, while nearly ever final had a #1 and/or #2 seed, there were some upsets and lower seeded teams found their way there.  This is the beauty of sport, having higher rated players doesn't guarantee the win, you have to go out and perform on the given day and upsets can happen.

One last note, given that this playoffs had fewer teams due to struggles getting enough courts, lets be sure to thank the two facilities that did host 40+ playoffs this year, those being Mercer Island and BETC.  Thanks!

Again, congratulations too all the teams involved.

Seattle area USTA League 40+ local playoffs preview

The local playoffs for the 40+ USTA League in Seattle actually got started last night, but the bulk of play is today and tomorrow.  Here is a quick preview of some of the match-ups.

All these previews are using the top-8 averages from each roster using my Estimated Dynamic NTRP Ratings and is info that is included in Flight Preview reports.  Keep in mind that top-8 averages are a good, but not perfect, predictor of who will win a match.  Who actually plays and the match-ups can result in upsets, and getting the desirable match-ups is why people get flight reports to scout opponents.

The 3.0 women are tightly bunched and has one first round match this morning with #2 Robinswood playing #4 Bellevue Club.  The winner plays #3 Amy Yee while #1 Seattle Tennis Club plays #5 Eastside.

The 3.0 men lays out nicely with the #1 seed Mercer Island playing the #4 seed TCSP, while the #2 seed Bellevue Club plays the #3 Columbia-Silver Lake.

The 3.5 women had two matches last night, #4 TCSP-Rally Cats beating #5 BETC, and #2 TCSP-Blum beating #6 Central Park.  So no upsets so far.  Today TCSP-Blum takes on #1 Nordstrom while TCSP-Rally Cats plays #3 Mercer Island.

The 3.5 men have a match this morning, #2 Bellevue Club taking on #5 Eastside, the winner then taking on #1 Central Park.  The other semi has #3 Gold Creek facing #4 Columbia Silver Lake.

At the 4.0 level, the women are tightly bunched with #2 Central Park playing #3 Pro-Sports Club in one semi while #1 TCSP plays #4 Seattle Tennis Club.

The 4.0 men has #2 NTC facing #3 Bellingham and #1 Pro-Sports Club taking on #4 Pine Lake.

Finally, at 4.5+, the women has #1 Bellevue Club playing #3 Nordstrom and #2 Seattle Tennis Club playing #4 BETC.

And the 4.5+ men has #1 Nordstrom playing #3 Mercer Island while #2 Seattle Tennis Club faces #4 BETC.

I'll report back Sunday evening on how it has all played out and who is on to Sectionals.  Good luck to all!

USTA League Tennis is Growing! But all is not positive ...

You may be surprised by the subject given that I've written about the declining participation in USTA League in the past, and that is true Nationally.  Since 2013, the number of players playing in the Adult leagues in all divisions from 18+ to 65+ has dropped from about 276K to 263K.  That isn't a huge drop, but it has been pretty steady.

But that decline is not happening in every section or area.  I've noted before that sections like the Pacific Northwest and Southern California have actually been growing, and the 40+ and 55+ divisions have shown growth as well.  But that means some areas and divisions are shrinking quicker to offset that growth.

This all comes up because in my area (Seattle) our growth actually appears to be causing problems.  I wrote last week that our local playoff format is changing to have fewer wildcards for second place teams in sub-flights, in fact there will be 31% fewer teams advancing to local playoffs under the new rule this 40+ season than there would have been under the old format.

The reason I've heard for this change is that as we've had growth, that means there are more teams and more sub-flights and thus more courts required for local playoffs if first and second place teams from each sub-flight all advance.  This all makes sense, but apparently, it is very hard to secure enough courts for all the teams.  Why wouldn't the USTA's money for courts be as good as any other user?

Some clubs are private and are reluctant to give up their entire facility for a weekend as I'm sure members will complain and other (perhaps lucrative) programs they offer, e.g. juniors, would suffer as well.  But apparently even public facilities aren't wanting to give up the whole facility and keep some courts for instruction or other programs.  The result is fewer courts could be secured and fewer teams will be advancing, putting a much higher priority on the regular season.

Not that I doubted what I heard, but I had do do some checking to confirm this growth and to see if the problem is real.

Taking a look at the 40+ league in Seattle since its inception, I looked at the number of teams and the number of rostered players and indeed there has been growth.

In 2013, there were 162 teams and it grew all the way to 264 in 2017 or 63% growth.  For rostered players, it went from 2,404 to 3,858, a 60% growth.  That would be noticeable and would certainly increase the number of courts required for playoffs.

The 18+ season has not yet started, but it too has grown in Seattle unlike most areas.  Teams grew from 274 in 2013 to 362 in 2017, 32% growth, and players grew from 3,610 to 4,907, 36% growth.

What is interesting is that for 2018, the 40+ team count actually dropped from 264 to 247, but the player count increased from 3,661 to 3,858.  I'm not sure the reason but one could speculate that facilities are even reducing the number of teams they'll sponsor/allow so teams are down, but there is still player growth and so rosters are now larger.

So there indeed is evidence to indicate there has been dramatic growth in teams and players, and perhaps facilities are tightening up the courts available for USTA both for regular league play with team counts down and also for playoffs.

How do we solve this?

Perhaps we were just lucky to have courts available and securable in the past so that first and second place teams could all advance.  It could be that it is more normal to have just first place teams advance and we are just losing a perk few other areas had.

But perhaps this indicates there is demand for more courts and there is an opportunity for facilities to expand or for new facilities to be built.

Last, players should talk with their facilities and encourage them to choose to support local playoffs and make their facilities available.  We already typically use more than one facility for playoffs, why not add a third?  Clearly club members want to play, shouldn't facilities support those members?

What do you think?  Is there a problem?  If so, what is a solution?  Or do we just need to suck it up and accept that second place teams won't be going to playoffs?

With fewer teams making Seattle area local playoffs, are the women's sub-flights balanced?

I wrote last week that a change in playoff format is going to result in 31% fewer teams making local playoffs in the 40 & over division in the Seattle area.  Specifically, where last year every sub-flight had the first and second place teams advance to playoffs, now, at most levels, just one second place team from all the sub-flights will advance.

This clearly puts a premium on the regular season.  In past years, a team could lose a match, perhaps even two, and still make it to local playoffs.  Now, that is less likely to be the case and there very well could be teams with just one loss that don't advance.

Those reading closely will note that there is a spot for at least one second place team to advance, so you might think that this will make things equitable and allow that really good team that got unlucky and had to face another really good team to advance anyway.  But is that really the case?

For that theory to be true, it requires that all the sub-flights be reasonably balanced so that every second place team have a reasonable chance of winning that coveted wildcard.  If they aren't balanced, one sub-flight could have three or four very good teams and beat up on each other resulting in a second place team with at least two losses, while a weaker flight could have a weak second place team lose their one important match but have a record that appears better than those in the tougher flight.

So, I went about checking on how balanced the flights are to see if teams will have an equal chance or if things are stacked in favor of some sub-flights.  To do this, I looked at the top-8 averages for each team using my ratings as of 1/1/18.  This is the best gauge of how strong a team could be known to be prior to the season starting.

Note of course that players can improve during the year, self-rated players aren't accounted for, and player availability and teams doling out equal playing time can result in teams with high top-8 averages not doing as well as expected.

For the below, I'm looking at just the women.  I'll follow up with an analysis of the men.

For the women, the 2.5 level has just one sub-flight so no issues there.

The 3.0 women have four sub-flights and 39 teams, and it is not balanced it appears.

• Flight A is pretty tough with eight teams ranked in my top-24 including teams ranked T2 and T5.
• Flight B doesn't have any team in the top-4, but has four in the top-11 so very tightly bunched.
• Flight C is arguably even tougher at the top with three of the top-8 including #1, T2, and T5!
• As you might expect, Flight D ends up being far weaker with only three in the top-14.

It is very possible that sub-flights A, B, and C beat up on each other and the second place team from sub-flight D takes advantage.

The 3.5 women have five sub-flights and 43 teams and some serious haves and have nots.

• Flight A has no team in the top-6 so is not top heavy, but has eight of the next 18 so has a lot of depth.
• Flight B is stacked with five in the top-9 and then three more in the next 11!  It will be tough for a second place team to advance here.
• Flight C is very weak on paper, just one team in the top-25!  Worse, it has the bottom 2, three of the bottom 4, and six of the bottom 10.
• Flight D is fairly strong with four in the top-13.
• Flight E is not very strong with just two in the top-26.

It appears flight C will be a cakewalk for the top team, and flight B will be a dog fight.

The 4.0 women have three flights and 28 teams.

• Flight A has three of the top-7 teams.
• Flight B has #1 and T2 but then no other until T12.
• Flight C has five of the top-11.

These flights do have a different make-up, but nothing egregiously out of whack it appears.

The 4.5+ women have two flights and 11 teams with two teams from each flight advancing.  Flight B has the top-2 teams and flight A the bottom three, but the trick here on top of that is that in flight A, teams don't have a balanced schedule and someone will get to play the bottom team twice while another team will play the top team twice.

In summary, from the above there is certainly not perfect balance between the flights, and in some cases there is a huge difference, so it will be interesting to see how that plays out and who the wildcard teams are.

Playoff format change for 2018 Seattle area 40 & over league - 31% fewer teams will advance than last year

January tends to be a slower tennis month for USTA play as some areas aren't playing at all, and those that are tend to begin play full force mid or late in the month.  Thus, I've been a bit delinquent in writing about thoughts or observations.

But as we exit January, things are ramping up and folks are getting reports (yes! I'm still doing them and ready for 2018), whether individual, team, recruiting, or flight.  As teams play, those vying for the lead in their flight start thinking about playoffs and what it will take to qualify.

In this area, there is a change for 2018 in my area, specifically the 40 & over league going on now has changed what teams and how many qualify for playoffs.

From the playoff draws already posted, we can see that for each gender and level, what used to be 6 to 8 or even 10 team draws is now generally just 4.  The change is that for the most part, it is just flight winners that advance to local playoffs instead of what used to be the 1st and 2nd place teams in each flight with just one 2nd place wildcard total across all the flights.  Here are the full scenarios.

Women

• 3.0 - Five teams advance, four flight winners and one 2nd place wildcard, this would have been eight teams in the past
• 3.5 - Six teams advance, five flight winners and one 2nd place wildcard, this would have been ten teams in the past
• 4.0 - Four teams advance, three flight winners and one 2nd place wildcard, this would have been six teams in the past
• 4.5+ - Four teams advance, the top-2 teams from each flight, just as was done in the past

Men

• 3.0 - Four teams advance, three flight winners and one 2nd place wildcard, this would have been six teams in the past
• 3.5 - Five teams advance, four flight winners and one 2nd place wildcard, this would have been eight teams in the past
• 4.0 - Four teams advance, three flight winners and one 2nd place wildcard, this would have been six teams in the past
• 4.5+ - Four teams advance, the top-2 teams from each flight, just as was done in the past

All told, this is 19 women's teams and 17 men's teams advancing, compared to 28 and 24, so a reduction of 31%.  That is a lot of players that won't get to experience playoffs this year that did last year.

I do not know the motivation for this change, but can speculate and consider the effects of this change.

First, it is going to reduce the number of matches that need to be hosted for local playoff weekend.  Where in the past they had to start on a Friday, sometimes even Thursday evening and some teams may have to play four matches in three or four days, the schedule now has only two matches on Friday and the rest on Saturday and Sunday, the longest path to winning being three matches and that only for a few teams.

This certainly eases the burden on the required courts and scheduling, and will also be cheaper for the USTA in that regard.  Will we see the team fee for playoffs go down as a result?  And it will make it less taxing for players likely reducing by one the number of matches to be played in a short period of time.  But some players may have relished the playing opportunity and as noted above, 31% fewer teams will get to experience playoffs.

Second, this puts more pressure on teams to do well in regular season play and puts a priority on winning every match if possible.  No longer can you have an early season loss or two and still have a shot at playoffs.  If you don't win that early season match against the top team, you are really in a hole and may need the top team to lose twice to have a shot.

This could mean captains will be less willing to play their full roster, instead wanting to run their best players out every match to avoid a slip-up that could cost a chance at playoffs.  If so, this is unfortunate as the other players may get to play less than before.

Of course, this is not necessarily a bad thing.  Encouraging teams to go all out could lead to stronger competition, and the top team that is undefeated with two matches to play may not be able to mail in the last two knowing they'd still qualify in second place.

Third, it is almost certain that a really good team is not going to make playoffs, perhaps at each gender and level.  If a team is missing some good players for a given match and comes away with an unexpected loss, they could go 8-1 or 9-1 and lose out to an undefeated team.

Yes, there is the provision for one 2nd place team to be a wildcard, but for that to be equitable it assumes flights are relatively balanced and the best 2nd place team will earn that wildcard.  The truth is that it is nearly impossible to have balanced flights and there will be a tough one with perhaps three playoff quality teams, and another flight with at most one, but the tough flight may beat up on each other and only one team advance while the 2nd place team with the best record may be weaker but benefit from being in a weak flight.

I'll try to do some analysis on strength of flights to see if there are any glaring inequities and what the result could be.

What do you think?

Does making the regular season more meaningful make for a better league?  If you can't win your flight you aren't going to do well at Sectionals and beyond so no harm done?  Is letting 2nd place teams go to playoffs like giving out participation medals?

Or is only taking 1st place teams (for the most part) not fair and make it so there is pressure on a captain to only play their good players?  Or does it unfairly advantage those teams that can stack their roster with ringers?  Or is the USTA just trying to save a buck on fewer matches/courts that have to be paid for?

Important dates for PNW Northwest Washington USTA League players for 2018 leagues

I was just checking out some of the upcoming dates for my area (Seattle in the PNW section) for 2018 USTA League play, and thought I'd share it for those that may be interested.

Our 2018 league season has already started with our 18 & over Mixed and 55 & over Adult leagues beginning earlier this month.  55+ Adult plays through November 19 with local playoffs the first weekend in December, and 18+ Mixed plays through December 3 with local playoffs the following weekend.

Adult 40 & over begins right away in 2018, first matches as early as January 5.  This means teams must be formed in advance of that, team forms must be turned in by December 5 and the minimum number of players registered by December 12.  With year-end levels due out December 1, there won't be much time to make changes if players are bumped up or down!  Local league play goes through March 18 with local playoffs April 20-22.

Adult 18 & over is next and starts play for weekday flights on March 19 and weekend flights on March 23.  Team forms are due February 1 and 15 for weekday/weekend, minimum players registered a week later for each, and the season goes through June 3.  Local playoffs are then June 14-17.

Adult 65 & over goes on about the same time, matches start April 2 and go through June 8, playoffs June 11-12.  And team forms are due February 1 with minimum players by February 8.

Mixed 40 & over and 55 & over are run nearly in parallel, team forms due May 1, minimum rostered by May 8, and seasons go through August 12 with local playoffs August 17-19.  40+ just starts earlier, June 8 vs June 22.

Last, One Doubles is scheduled to run from June 22 to August 26 with local playoffs September 7-9.  Get those team forms in by May 15 and players rostered by May 22.

Note, if you have trouble finding this information on the official PNW USTA site here is a direct link to the page that has a link to the schedule but also other useful resources.