USTA NTRP Nationals 2019 schedule published - How can you get a rating to qualify?

Those of you that regularly read my musings here know that the USTA introduced an NTRP National Championships event held earlier this year.  This is a Nationals for NTRP tournament players, as opposed to USTA League players, and gives tournament players an opportunity to advance and compete against players of the same level from other sections of the country.  Read what I wrote last year for more details.

The 2018 events were held in April and each section determined how players advanced, but in most if not all cases advancement was based on NTRP tournament results from 2017 and perhaps a Sectionals tournament for those that qualified.  Two Nationals events were held, one for 18 & Over singles and doubles and another for 50 & Over singles and doubles.

The schedule for 2019 has been published and is now four events.  The singles and doubles at each age level have been split into separate events leaving us with this schedule:

• March 29-31 - 18 & Over 3.0 thru 5.0 singles at Academia Sanchez-Casal in Naples, FL
• March 29-31 - 50 & Over 3.0 thru 4.5 singles at Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex in Surprise, AZ
• April 5-7 - 18 & Over 3.0 thru 5.0 doubles at Academia Sanchez-Casal in Naples, FL
• April 5-7 - 50 & Over 3.0 thru 4.5 doubles at Surprise Tennis & Racquet Complex in Surprise, AZ

One new thing is the addition of the 3.0 level for both age groups and the 5.0 level for 18 & Over.  This will give more players an opportunity to experience Nationals which is great.

Another change is the splitting of singles and doubles, perhaps due to expanding the levels and the additional court requirements.  This split is nice in that it gives a player a more reasonable chance to compete in both singles and doubles, but having the 18 & Over and 50 & Over events on the same dates means a 50+ player has to pick one or the other if they happen to qualify for both.

On one hand, that gives the under-50 crowd more of their own event as you might expect those over-50 to focus on their event, but it also takes away an opportunity for those older players that can still play with and like to test themselves against younger players at a Nationals event.  In general, I like the changes though, but perhaps the events won't go head to head on the calendar in the future.

The format appears to be remaining basically the same.  It will use the Fast Four format and each player will play in one of eight 4-player round robin groups that advance to four 8-player compass draws.  From what I heard, the format had mixed reviews as it is different than normal play and what most play in tournaments.  The plus is that it allows more matches to be fit into a 3-day weekend, the minus is that you can't start slow or get behind in a set as it goes quick.

The event in Surprise will certainly be on hard courts, but Academia Sanchez-Casal has a lot of clay courts so my guess is that event may be primarily or entirely on clay.  That is great for those players that play year-round on clay, but I'm guessing the majority of tournament players play predominantly on hard courts so we'll see how that goes.

So how do you qualify to go to NTRP Nationals?

First, you have to play in NTRP tournaments!  For each event you play, you accumulate points and each section then determines how they will pick the players to advance.

Some sections will hold a Sectional tournament where players qualify for it based on tournament play during the year.  Others will just use the tournament rankings from the accumulated points to determine the representatives directly.  Check with your Section Coordinator with the format your section will use.

Second, as I understand it, self-rated players cannot advance to Nationals so you must have a year-end NTRP rating.  It may seem like this is a given, you play tournaments and you'll get a rating, but not all sections have included tournament results in year-end ratings, and some players that play just tournaments continue to be self-rated.

This means that a tournament player would also have to play USTA League to get a year-end rating and thus be qualified.  This is certainly doable for most players, and many already play League, but there are some that prefer tournaments to league play and do not play both.

In order to get tournament only players eligible for NTRP Nationals, more sections are considering including tournaments in year-end ratings.  Which sections do/don't include them is somewhat fluid, but as I write this my research shows the following do or plan to for 2018:

• Eastern
• Intermountain
• Mid-Atlantic
• Middle States
• Northern California
• Northern
• Pacific Northwest
• Southern California
• Texas

That is just over half, so as of now, a lot of players that play only tournaments would continue to remain ineligible for NTRP Nationals.  But more sections may elect to include tournaments before year-end ratings are calculated though.

Checking some statistics, it appears less than 2K players ended 2017 with a tournament exclusive (T) rating.  I'll have to do some more research to see how many played tournaments and not league and didn't get a rating, but I'd say there is a good chance there are at least 2K more since only about half the sections include tournament matches.

What do you think?  Do you play NTRP tournaments?  Is qualifying for NTRP Nationals one of your goals for this year?