Saturday, October 19, 2019

Weather update: Week 3 of USTA League Nationals in Orlando

The rain arrived in Orlando, and the alternate plans had to be implemented.

The forecast was for rain much of the day and so matches were moved into the handful of indoor courts at the National Campus, and the format was changed to an abbreviated Fast Four format.

As I understand it, sets were played to 4, playing a tie-break at 3-3, and if sets were split, a super tie-break was played.  This is probably the least evil of the alternate formats, others being pro-sets to 8, 6, or even 4.  At least this format still has three sets so a slow start isn't necessarily a nail in the coffin so to speak.

Now, even with this, since there are limited indoor courts, I understand some round-robin matches are still planned to be played Sunday morning.  The current forecast seems to say the rain has moved out of the Orlando area so I'd think there is a chance play could commence outside, but I've gotten no indication that is in the cards.

Kudos to the USTA for having a plan to accelerate matches on Friday and play at least a semi normal format today, but I still contend there are sites where there is less chance of disruption like this that could have been selected.

I also heard that Oklahoma City has been going find.  A bit windy as it was last weekend, but still playable.

No comments:

Post a Comment