Update on the tie-breakers for USTA League 4-court formats: Home team gets the win? 😕

Those that have been following my blog recently know that the USTA went to a 4-court format for 40 & Over for 2020.  The result of this is that 2-2 ties are possible and while there are some documented tie-breakers, they won't always break ties.  Yes, a match could end in a 2-2 tie and no winner be declared.

This has led some sections like Pacific Northwest and Northern California to adopt the points-per-position format for standings for the 40 & Over division so that teams just accumulate points and team wins aren't a factor in standings.  Other sections that used a 4-court format in the past elected to call the match a tie at this point and they had to handle standings manually as TennisLink can't show ties.

Now, above I said a match could end in 2-2 tie with no winner.  I've just learned that that is not entirely true!

Apparently, while the documented rules stop at Game Winning Percentage as the last tie-breaker (which is a meaningless tie-breaker), TennisLink has been programmed to decide the winner based on who is the home or visiting team!

I am told that originally the visiting team would be given the win, the idea being that they were able to tie the match despite having the disadvantage of playing at the other team's facility.  However, at some point recently, it changed to give the win to the home team!

Yes, you heard right, not only does the home team get the advantage of playing at home, but should the match end in a 2-2 tie, they get the benefit of the doubt and will get the win.   Further, consider a playoff match where who is home or visitor is arbitrary and that luck of the draw will determine the winner it seems.

I guess giving the win to the home team is deterministic, and avoid a coin flip, but it still seems wrong and if one was going to do this, giving it to the visitor makes more sense to me.  I also see more merit in treating it as a tie.

Of course points-per-position avoids this, well, until two teams are tied on points and breaking that tie goes to the head-to-head tie-breaker ...

Anyway, beware of the ties and know how your section handles it as all don't do the same thing, and the rules used may not be documented.

What do you think?

Update: I have looked deeper for examples of ties and what happened, and I've seen situations where there home team is a 2-2 winner and the visiting team is a 2-2 winner.  So it may be that there are local rules that determine how this is handled.  The lesson learned is that if you are in a 4-court league that isn't using points-per-position, ask your Local League Coordinator before the season starts what the tie-breaker is so rules aren't being made up as the season goes along.