The
last weekend of
USTA League Adult Nationals completes this weekend, and with that, the year ends for Adult NTRP rating purposes. So what exactly does that mean? It is all a bit confusing the way the USTA does it, but here is a hopefully concise explanation.
Year-end ratings are generally released the week after Thanksgiving, so they aren't really through calendar year-end, but they are still given a rating date of 12/31. So what is the "year" they are calculated for?
Generally the year runs from November thru October, but more precisely the league year typically ends when the last Adult League Nationals finishes. This makes sense, you'd want the matches from Nationals to count! But this also means that matches played in other leagues that count on or before that cut-off date will also count. This is true even if it is an early start league for the following year.
While this may seem strange that a "2016" league will count for your 2015 year-end rating, this also makes sense because the matches are played during the 2015 league year, and since some early start leagues start back in the late Spring and early Summer, it would be stranger to be including matches from May 2015 in your 2016 year-end rating.
So why, if the cut-off date is this Sunday November 1st, do ratings not come out for another 4+ weeks? My guess is that the USTA uses this time to do all the benchmark and other year-end calculations and review and determination of if any adjustments will be made.
Note that Mixed Nationals are still to be played November 13-15 and 20-22, so while I have not confirmed this, I think the cut-off for Mixed-exclusive ratings would be November 22nd. That means the USTA only has a week or so to turn around "M" ratings, but with the vast majority of players playing Adult league, there aren't that many M-rated players so they are able to do it.
Of course, this leads to players being in this limbo state where the matches are all done and there is nothing they can do to influence their rating, but they have to wait to find out what it is. With many leagues start right away in January, players and captains would like to know sooner than December what their NTRP level will be so they can form teams and not be rushed to do it all during the holidays.
For those that are impatient and wanting to plan, or just curious what their rating is or how their rating has changed match by match, I can generate
Estimated Dynamic NTRP Rating Reports. These reports show what I estimate your
dynamic NTRP rating to be, but also show a bevy of statistics for your 2015 season including a chart showing match by match how each match rated and affected your dynamic rating, plus you get a partner report showing how your matches rated when playing with your different doubles partners.
And while the USTA does not calculate separate singles and doubles ratings, my reports will show you how you've done in both, singles matches in green and doubles matches in blue, so you can see which you do better in.
And if you were fortunate to go to and play at Nationals this year, my reports always include all relevant matches played including playoff matches, so you can see how those rate and the impact they have on your dynamic rating. Each phase of playoffs is noted in the chart as well, D for Districts, S for Sectionals, and N for Nationals as you can see above.
If you are interested in getting a report,
contact me and I can generate a report for you or answer any questions you might have.
