Saturday, April 25, 2020

USTA SoCal outlines tentative schedule for the remainder of 2020 - Will you plan to play?

We know the USTA has suspended play through May 31.  We also know that National has canceled USTA League Nationals for 2020.  I also hypothesized what a continuation of league play may look like, but we haven't had much concrete information on what actually will happen, in large part due to the unknown of when play will resume.

The Pacific Northwest did announce that 40 & over would not be completed, nor would 18 & Over or Mixed 40 & Over be played, and correspondingly all Sectionals were being canceled.  There will be a free "Welcome Back to Tennis" league in the Summer, and Fall Early Start Leagues for 2021 are still scheduled to begin as planned.

I just learned that Southern Cal has tentative plans for resuming play, and they are going to try to finish and play all scheduled leagues.  This was from the San Fernando Area but mentions Sectionals, so seems to be applicable for the whole section:
  • Adult 18 & Over will start the 2nd or 3rd week of June  and play through October 9.  All levels will play 1 court of singles and 2 courts of doubles
  • Adult 40 & Over which was suspended will be completed, teams with "critical" matches have until August 28 to complete them
  • Adult 55 & Over will play September thru November
  • Adult 65 & Over will play September thru October
  • Mixed 18 & Over which was suspended will be completed, teams with "critical" matches have until August 7 to complete them
  • Mixed 40 & Over will start 1st week of July and play through mid-September
  • Tri-Level will start the 1st week of July and play through the Summer
  • Mixed Tri-Level TBD
  • Fall SCTA Doubles will play September thru December
  • Sectionals Schedule:
    • Adult 18 & Over in November using 1 singles and 2 doubles
    • Adult 40 & Over in September or October
    • Adult 55 & Over in December or January
    • Mixed 18 & Over in August or September
    • SCTA Doubles in January as usual

I'm guessing that "critical" matches are those remaining matches in suspended leagues that have an impact on standings.  Thus, matches between teams out of the running do not need to be played.

So if you live in SoCal, you may still get to play the majority of your leagues and matches.  Will you still do so?  Or are you leery of coming back to play too quickly?  Or with no Nationals, you've lost interest?

Leave a comment, let your voice be heard.

Monday, April 13, 2020

Update on today's breaking news - More details on USTA League Nationals and PNW information for 2020 and 2021

I wrote earlier today about the USTA announcing the extension of the suspension of play through May 31 and also the canceling of USTA League Nationals.

I have since received an e-mail, with basically the same text as the PDF I linked to earlier, but it did have a few new pieces of information.

First, there is an FAQ on the canceling of Nationals, a few items from it being:
  • Canceling Nationals may provide more opportunity for local league play, presumably by allowing districts and sections to extend their local leagues into the late Summer and Fall, rather than canceling leagues and/or squeezing them into small windows on the calendar to try to meet the schedule required for Nationals.
  • For teams that may have already qualified for 2020 Nationals, they are not given an invitation to 2021 Nationals, instead teams must qualify during 2021 league play.  These teams will not be subject to move-up/split-up in 2021 though.
  • Move-up/split-up does not carry over.  2019 Nationals teams are able to reform for 2021.
  • National Invitationals that take place in early 2021 (Adult 65 & Over and Mixed 55 & Over) are not part of this cancellation.
  • Sections may choose to still hold Sectionals.
  • Ratings continue to be calculated, discussions taking place on how the lack of Nationals will impact year-end ratings.

Regarding membership and league fees, the USTA is not deciding at this point to refund membership fees, but will continue to evaluate it.  Regarding league fees, decisions are up to each section.

My e-mail appears to have been tailored for my section (PNW) as it has a paragraph stating 2020 Sectionals have been canceled (so there is at least one section not planning to still hold them).  Here are all the pertinent points from the FAQ:

  • All Sectionals canceled for 2020.
  • All advancing local leagues scheduled for the Spring and Summer have been canceled.
  • A "Welcome Back to Tennis" league will be hosted by the section free of charge tentatively planned for mid-June thru August.
  • The 2021 Early Start Leagues that normally begin play in September 2020 are still planned and schedules for those are forthcoming.
  • Those that registered for leagues that were canceled will have the registration transferred to an advancing Fall (Early Start) league.  If the player does not play in said league, they will receive a refund less processing fees.
  • Tournaments scheduled after May 31 are still tentatively planned.

There you have it from PNW at least.  We'll see what other sections do.

The free league in the summer is certainly a nice olive branch to get players playing again, good move by PNW IMHO.  The rest of it is largely as you might expect.

Thoughts on what PNW is doing?  What is your section doing?  What do you think should be done?


Breaking News! 2020 USTA League Nationals Canceled

The USTA has made a announcements regarding their suspension of play, and today made an updated announcement that extends the suspension through May 31, and unfortunately the cancellation of a number of events.

The suspension through May 31 includes what appears to be all organized play including USTA League, Adult and Junior Tournaments, Tennis on Campus, and more.

But in addition to the suspension, they go on to say that to allow the focus to be on local play once play resumes, the following events are canceled for 2020:
  • USTA League Nationals
  • USTA Junior Team Tennis Nationals
  • USTA Intersectional Team Championships

Canceling USTA League Nationals makes sense, I'd written about the logistics of the lead up to Nationals with all the phases of playoffs and how it becomes increasingly difficult to fit everything in, but I was hoping for and expecting some creative solutions to get play in and even starting in June perhaps some abbreviated play could result in playoffs being played.  But alas not.

Now, this doesn't mean that league play and even local/district/sectional playoffs are canceled.  It is possible that sections will use the open dates in October and November to slide their local schedules to have Sectionals still be played in those time-frames.  No guarantees of that of course, but it is an idea.

It is sad to see this become a reality.  What is your reaction?

Read the release here.

Update: I received more information and wrote an updated blog here.

Thursday, April 2, 2020

What might an altered USTA League schedule look like when play resumes from COVID-19 suspension?

With the COVID-19 pandemic and associated stay at home orders, many tennis players are not able to play with some areas closing courts as a prohibited activity.  The result is they can only dream of playing once restrictions are lifted, and for those that play USTA League, the obvious question is how will play resume and schedules be affected?

The USTA suspended play on March 13, at the time through April 20, but subsequently extended the suspension through May 3rd.  That is the loss of 7 weekends of play.  In the hopes of still keeping Sectionals and Nationals, that 7 weekends has to be recovered one way or another, be it moving Nationals and Sectionals back giving more time, compressing schedules, or doubling up on playoff weekends and taking fewer teams or using shorter scoring formats.

To see how this might play out, I'll use my area (Seattle in PNW) as an example and look at just Adult 18 & Over and 40 & Over.  Our 40 & over was nearly complete, one weekend of play remained, and 18 & Over was to start on March 23rd.

Our Sectionals are planned for August 7-9 (18 & Over) and 21-23 (40 & Over).  This gives teams at least 7 weeks from Sectionals to Nationals to plan.  This could be compressed some, or National could move dates, but for now, lets assume these dates are kept.  That means local playoffs must be completed by mid/late July, and even that leaves little time for teams to prepare logistics for Sectionals, but that is often a short trip so can reasonably be done.

So, lets say that our local playoffs were held July 17-19, and perhaps were a combined event for 18 & Over and 40 & Over.  I'll discuss the logistics and impact of that shortly, lets just look at schedule.

This would mean 18 & Over league play would need to be completed by July 12th, which leaves just 10 weeks from May 3rd to get all the play in.  This was normally planned for 11 weeks so one week is lost, plus the one week of 40 & Over remaining so 2 weeks lost.  One can envision a revised schedule being compressed and getting 12 weeks of play in in 10 weeks, especially if some outdoor courts are used as play is in May and June as the weather warms up.  This is doable!

But what about those playoffs?  Normally each division has two weekends of playoffs, a wildcard weekend and then the final weekend with semis and finals.  I seem to have suggested that all this be played on one weekend above.  Is this possible?

First, perhaps July 17-19 is the first weekend of the two weekends, and things wrap up the 24th thru 26th.  That leaves little time between local playoffs and Sectionals, but is perhaps doable.

Second, there may be the chance that rather than taking the top-2 teams from each sub-flight, playoffs are abbreviated to take just the top teams or fewer wildcards to reduce the number of matches to be played.

Third, being mid/late July, perhaps more facilities aren't as busy or more outdoor courts are used, and play is dispersed across more courts increasing capacity for a huge weekend of playoffs.

Fourth, to fit more matches in, an abbreviated scoring format could be used like Fast 4.

I don't know that July 17-19 is a real date in any contingency plans, but what I've run through above at least makes having reasonably complete season appear possible, along with some semblance of normal playoffs.  There may be some impact with a more compressed schedule, fewer playoff teams, or short scoring formats, but there is hope for play to be complete on a schedule leading in to Sectionals.

And Sectionals dates could move as well so there is a bit of flexibility there, same with Nationals.

Now, all of this assumes play resumes May 4th, and that certainly isn't a given.  But if it does, look for some arrangement like I described above to be used to get play in on a schedule that allows Nationals to still take place.

Note, I've ignored Mixed and 55 & Over, something may have to be sacrificed and it is possible Nationals for a division or two are not held, and that would allow for Nationals to move back 2-3 weeks as some dates for Nationals would become available.  Of course, Mixed and 55 & Over are fewer courts and not as many teams typically, so there is more flexibility in getting these in, and in my area, all but 40 & Over Mixed has already had its regular season and local playoffs completed.

If more compressed regular season formats are required, look for the potential use of un-flighted round-robin, like is used at Nationals, for a "season in a weekend" (or two) instead of an 8-10 week season.  This is not ideal of course, but at least allows for teams to play a season and advance.  There are issues with the number of matches played and getting players qualified, especially with large rosters, but it is an idea.

What do you think?  Is play resuming May 4th too optimistic?  Do we just need to accept USTA League will not finish with any sense of normalcy this year?  Or is there hope?