2018 USTA League important dates for other districts in PNW

I wrote yesterday about important dates for Seattle area USTA League play, and I don't want to leave out the other districts in the PNW section, so here are some links for that.

Southwest Washington has this resources page, and they have their Mixed 18+ and Adult 55+ as Fall early start leagues going on now like Northwest Washington, and they similarly have Adult 40+ starting in January with sign-up and registration in early December (10th and 15th), and Adult 18+ also kicking off in March.  They also interestingly have an "Under 40 Combo" league I have not seen before.

Eastern Washington's resources page is here, and their Adult 18+ leads off on January, a very quick Mixed 18+ played over a weekend in March, Adult 55+ also a weekend event in April, and Adult 40+ being played in May and June.

Northern Oregon (Portland) has their resources page, and they like Seattle have Adult 55+ and Mixed 18+ as early start leagues going on now.  They start Adult 18+ in January, Adult 65+ in March, and Adult 40+ in April.

Southern Oregon's resources page shows they have Adult 55+ and Mixed 18+ as early start leagues, Adult 40+ is played over a few weekend in February, and Adult 18+ starts in March and Adult 65+ in April.

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.

When will 2017 USTA year-end NTRP ratings/levels be published?

Nationals are nearly upon us, and while some players are fortunate to get to compete for a championship, most may be done with their matches for 2017, so the focus for them now shifts to thinking about what their year-end level will be.

Will they be bumped up?  Bumped down?  Will they be able to play on the same team with their friends or have to find a new team?  If they must find a few team, they want to start as early as possible before rosters fill up.

For captains, it is even more difficult as they must think about what players will be back or which ones they might lose to how to replace them.  How many players do they need to recruit and they need to start early enough so they aren't committed to another team already.

All of these players are thus interested in when 2017 year-end levels will be published.  I've learned that Friday December 1st is the target date, which is roughly around when they are typically published, although it is often a bit earlier in the week after Thanksgiving, but Thanksgiving is early in the month this year.

For reference, here are the dates they've been published the past few years:

• 2016 - Wednesday November 30th
• 2015 - Monday November 30th
• 2014 - Monday December 1st
• 2013 - Monday December 2nd
• 2012 - Monday November 26th

It appears it has typically been the Monday after Thanksgiving, but last year they didn't hit that, and with an early Thanksgiving and some Nationals being played into November, it appears they aren't going to rush things out and instead wait until the 1st.  Of course, now that I've written this, they'll prove me wrong ...

In any case, plan on December 1st but stay tuned as I'll update or write again as I learn more.

And as always, if you can't wait and want to know what NTRP level you are likely to end up at, I can do individual or team reports, or custom lists to help captains identify who to recruit.  Contact me if interested.

Is Florida boycotting 2017 USTA League 18 & over 3.5 Men's Nationals being in Arizona?

I just wrote that the flights for 18 & over Nationals are on TennisLink, and in something of a surprise, Florida appears to not be sending a team for the 3.5 men!  And the last two years Florida won their flight and played in the semis, so that is typically a pretty good team that won't be there.

I wrote yesterday that Hawaii was seemingly not going to several Nationals, and for them the move of most Nationals to Florida/Alabama makes for a really long trip, so it is understandable.  But now Florida is not going to 3.5 Men's Nationals which is the level most commonly played so most surprising to see a missing team.

Looking at the team that won Florida Sectionals, they had a roster of 14, although one was DQ'd at Sectionals, and 13 should be more than enough to go to Nationals.  But, quite a few didn't play at Sectionals even though they were eligible.  But, perhaps they didn't have enough to go.

Or more likely, since the team that won is from an area hit pretty hard by Irma (Tampa / St. Pete), their situation could have changed and going to Nationals just isn't a priority which is fully understandable.

If that is the case though, what is surprising is that the runner up from Sectionals isn't there in their place.  I don't know if that wasn't considered or they declined too.  The runner up plays out of the eastern side of the state which was not hit nearly as hard by Irma.

But given that I believe the section could have elected to send another team, are they boycotting that the 18 & over 3.5 level is still being played in Arizona rather than Florida?  A trip to Arizona would be no different than prior years, and in fact is a bit shorter for Floridians than a trip to Palm Springs, so that doesn't seem like a good reason, but you never know.

Regardless, the section that had a team in the semis the last two years is not going to be represented apparently.

2017 USTA Nationals 18 & over flights are on TennisLink

I've written about the upcoming USTA League Nationals including showing the schedule and links to pages/PDFs showing the flights, but for the 18 & over age group, TennisLink is now showing the flights and teams that are going.

If you are going and want to see who your opponents will be, or just curious to see what team from you area advanced, go take a look, here are links that should take you directly there:

• 18+ 2.5 Women
• 18+ 3.0 Women
• 18+ 3.0 Men
• 18+ 3.5 Women
• 18+ 3.5 Men
• 18+ 4.0 Women
• 18+ 4.0 Men
• 18+ 4.5 Women (not listed yet)
• 18+ 4.5 Men  (just one flight populated)
• 18+ 5.0+ Women
• 18+ 5.0+ Men

And now that the exact teams are known, it is a great time to start scouting and my flight and team reports are a great way to do it that has been successful for quite a few teams that have won Nationals.  Contact me if interested in more details.

Hawaii a no-show at several Nationals - Are Nationals in Florida/Alabama unfair?

I just reviewed the flights for 2017 USTA League Nationals and five of them do not have the full complement of 17 teams.  A few go as low as 15 teams, which results in three flights of five teams and a wildcard making the semis, but there are also a couple with 16 teams.

A common theme with each of these championships is that Hawaii is the, or one of the missing teams.

Now, this could be just because they don't happen to have teams playing at that division/age/level/gender.  For example, there are typically very few 2.5 teams in most areas, and in one as small as Hawaii one can envision they may not even have teams play.  The same may happen at the 4.5+ or 5.0+ levels too.

But, is the move of most of the Nationals to Alabama and Florida perhaps also a reason?

In past years with Nationals in California and Arizona, Hawaiians were faced with a 5-6 hour flight to get there, and only that "quick" if they could get a non-stop to Palm Springs, Phoenix, or Tucson which probably wasn't likely.  So they already had the toughest trek just to get there, about the same as a flight from the New England section.

To get to Florida from Hawaii is an 11+ hour trip, and that is with the shortest connection one can find, most itineraries end up being about 13 hours.  They could fly to Australia in less time!  Is it really fair to ask someone to make that trip "just" to play three (perhaps more) tennis matches?

So lets take a look at the championships they aren't showing up to and see where they are and if Hawaii had teams.

• 18+ 2.5 women in Mobile - Two teams played so could have gone, but Alabama is a long trip.
• 18+ 3.0 men in Arizona - Two teams, "normal" trip to Arizona but appear to be deferring.
• 18+ 4.5 women in Orlando - Seven teams, plenty to choose from, but none electing to make the trip.
• 18+ 4.5 men in Orlando - Two teams, could have gone, but Orlando trip a long one.
• 40+ 3.0 men in Ft. Lauderdale - Three teams, Florida is a long trip.

In each case, there were teams in local leagues so I believe they could have sent a team.  But in four of the five, and that just thus far, the trip was a pretty onerous one and I'm figuring that played into deciding to not go.

By comparison, last year Hawaii sent teams at 3.0-4.5 levels in both 18+ and 40+ men and women, so the missing 2.5 team is unchanged from last year, but the other four are all missing this year where they weren't last year.

Note that one could argue that for years, parts of the Continental United States have had a 5-6 hour trip to Nationals, and there are many more players in those areas so it is only fair for them to get a shorter trip now.  But it doesn't really matter how many players play in local leagues, only one team goes to Nationals so the move to Florida/Alabama would seem to be awfully unfair to Hawaii and likely is the reason they won't be at some of the championships this year.

I wrote about potential impacts of the location change for Nationals awhile back, and hypothesized the travel change would be a factor.  Hawaii was not a perennial top team in the past, but has made the semis eight times and won a title twice in the past four years, so it seems pretty clear they performance will be affected because some teams aren't even making the trip.

A few changes to flights for 2017 USTA League Nationals, a wildcard can make the semis

As we get closer to Nationals, and they are less than a month away now, there can be a few tweaks to the flight make-up for Nationals.  This generally occurs if a section elects to not send a team for a given division/age/level/gender.

For example, the 40 & over 3.0 men now has 15 teams rather than the 17 for each section, it appears Southwest and Hawaii are not sending teams.  As a result, there will now be three flights of five teams each and thus each team will get a minimum four matches rather than most having just three like is the case with four flights.

However, this also means that there will be a wildcard that makes the semis to join the three flight winners.  In the past when this has happened, the criteria for what second place team advances has been percentage of games won so I expect that will be the case again but have not had that confirmed yet.

A few other championships won't have the full 17 teams.  The complete list so far:

• 18+ 2.5 women - 15 teams (Hawaii and Southern Cal missing)
• 18+ 3.0 men - 16 teams (Hawaii missing)
• 18+ 4.5 women - 15 teams (Hawaii and Northern missing)
• 18+ 4.5 men - 16 teams (Hawaii missing)
• 40+ 3.0 men - 15 teams (Hawaii and Southwest missing)

I have updated my post with the schedule and links to PDFs with what we know as of today and will continue to update it as I can.  Note that in at least one case, the match schedule links on the USTA site are broken but my link is still good :)