I have been keeping track of what I hear/learn about how different sections and districts adapt to the change National made to use 4-courts for 40 & Over. I just added some new information I heard about Southern California and that is that:
- Most leagues will use the 4-court format of 1 singles and 3 doubles courts
- Scoring/standings will be team wins
- In the event of a tie on games lost, the visiting team will be declared the winner*
- Some 4.5+ flights (Orange County for one) will continue to use 5-courts to give more singles playing opportunity to 4.5s
- Some 4.5+ flights will use a 3-court 1 singles 2 doubles format
There is an * above because it appears SoCal would prefer to break 2-2 ties by declaring the winner to be the team that won court 1 doubles. But, TennisLink can't do that today, it would have to be done manually making the team standings on TennisLink not reflect reality. So they are sticking with what TennisLink can do, which is to give the win to the visiting team.
Unless ...
Apparently all the furor over this change and exposing the tie-breakers National documented as being insufficient has caused National to say a change may be made to TennisLink to allow a league to have the 2-2 ties ultimately broken by awarding the win to the team that won court 1 doubles. As I understand it, this would be the sequence of rules for determining the team win:
- Winner of the most courts
- In the event of a 2-2 tie, loser of the fewest sets
- Should that tie, lower of the fewest games
- Should that tie, whomever won court 1 doubles would be the winner
It is unclear when this will be done though, so SoCal and other areas may have to stick with what TennisLink can do, which is give the win to the visiting team, or a league can elect to use Points Per Position (PPP).
I do have to wonder, PNW made the change to use PPP and weight court 1 doubles higher, and if this TennisLink option would have been available if it would have been used.
What do you think? If a league is going to play a 4-court format, do you prefer PPP or would you prefer?
Even easier solution, go back to 2 singles and 3 doubles, or 1 singles and 4 doubles. It's not rocket science.
ReplyDeleteYou are taking the easy path, makes too much sense. This is the USTA we are talking about.
DeleteOur district plays over the summer and hasn't decided on a format yet. They've asked the players to decide via polling what format will be used locally. Most everyone I know voted to keep the format the same (2 singles 3 doubles) or opt for a 1 singles and 4 doubles format so more people can play.
ReplyDeleteNice of them to ask I guess! What responses are they getting?
DeleteI don't understand why the visiting team or the team who wins court 1 to win the match if everything else tied. But anyway, the question I'm wondering is what will they do at nationals if it comes down to a match that is still tied after all the tiebreakers?
ReplyDeleteI have heard some sections allowed for ties when all the tie-breakers were exhausted, but TennisLink doesn't support it so they had to do the standings manually outside of TL.
DeleteI've asked about what would happen at Nationals, no answer. But it appears TL will ultimately give the win to either the visitor or home team. I believe it has been visitor in the past but have heard it is changing to home. That change makes no sense to me BTW. But this awarding of the win to either is not documented in any regulation to my knowledge.
I am in SoCal and we just had this happen in our 4.0w match. Home team won D1, S1, visitors won D2, D3. Games were equal. Tennislink awarded the home team the win. It is still listed as "percentage of games won" as the reason why.
ReplyDelete