Monday, August 30, 2021

Seattle dominates USTA League Pacific Northwest 40 & Over Sectionals


The Pacific Northwest section held their 40 & Over Sectionals this past weekend and the Northwest Washington (Seattle) district had a good weekend.

For the 2.5 women, Bainbridge-Alnwick (Seattle) won going 4-0 and 11-1 on courts.

At the 3.0 level, the women's championship was won by TCSP -Anderson (Seattle) beating Pacific Clinic-Lindberg in the final 3-1.  The men's had two Seattle teams in the final with Pro Club-Fintu beating Robinswood-Ravi 3-2 with the deciding win on court 1 doubles.

For the 3.5s, the women from BTA-Wolson (Seattle) beat West Hills-Leong 3-2 with the court 1 doubles win.  Note BTA had won their flight despite losing a match 3-2 to an undefeated team because points per position was used for standings.  The men had Pacific Clinic-Kohan (Eastern Washington) beating MAC Club-Wright 4-1.

At the 4.0 level, Central Park-Laun (Seattle) beat AC Bend-Feldman for the women.  And the men's 4.0s had TCSP-Blum (Seattle) beating Pacific Clinic-Haight 3-2.

The 4.5 women saw Edgebrook-Wilson (Seattle) beat Yakima-Morrison 3-2, while the men had two Seattle teams with Independent-Dalkin beating Central Park-Avery 3-2.

The 5.0 level does not go to Nationals, but Sectionals were still held with two Seattle teams playing for the women with Pine Lake-Hayes beating Central Park-Gibson.  The men had a three team round-robin with Forest Crest-Regala (Seattle) going 3-1 taking the win.

So of the 11 Sectionals champs, 10 of them were from Seattle.

This was a little different at 18 & Over a few weeks ago where the totals were:

  • Seattle - 7 (3.0W, 3.5M, 4.0M, 4.5W, 4.5M, 5.0W, 5..0M)
  • Eastern Washington - 2 (2.5W, 3.0M)
  • Portland - 1 (3.5W)
  • Southwest Washington - 1 (4.0W)
Seattle won the most by far, but the other districts weren't shutout the same as for 40 & Over.

These teams are now headed to Nationals, which are just over four weeks away.

Good luck to all!  Perhaps I'll have the opportunity to do some reports for a team or two to help them scout the competition and plan their line-ups!

Saturday, August 28, 2021

Two undefeated teams didn't win their flights at PNW USTA League 40 & Over Sectionals! Such is the nature of Points per Position scoring

I wrote yesterday about the possibility of an undefeated team not winning their flight at the Pacific Northwest 40 & Over Sectionals due to points per position being used, so what ended up happening?

Well, two undefeated teams were beat out by teams they beat in their flights, because the teams that "lost" accumulated more points in their other matches.

In one of the 3.0 women's flights, an undefeated team not advance out of their flight.  TCSP lost 3 points to 2 to Galbraith TC in both team's last match, and Galbraith had won their other two matches so they were undefeated, yet TCSP won the flight 11 points to 10 because they had won their other two matches more easily.  I have to think both teams knew the situation going into the match and TCSP knew 2 points would wrap it up for them and Galbraith knew they needed a 4-1 win, so I hope it wasn't a surprise, but what I said could happen did.

And it happened for the 3.5 women too!  In flight A, BTA won the flight with 12 points, but lost their second match to George Fox 3-2 who finished with 10 points.  It turns out BTA won their other two matches 5-0 while George Fox went undefeated winning their other two matches 3-2 and 4-1 but came up short despite not losing a match.  Going into their last matches, the teams were tied at 7 points and George Fox was in the lead on the head-to-head tie-breaker, but BTA won 5-0 while George Fox only won 3-2.

This is the nature of points per position, winning the team match only has value in that it accumulates more points than losing, and head-to-head is a tie-breaker that can come into play, but it is points that really matter and you can be beat out even if you "win" all your matches.

So this is definitely different than normal, under the old system different teams would be going to the finals from both flights, and perhaps going to Nationals.  To be fair, the regular season flights were all played with points per position so this wasn't new or a change, and I really hope no players were surprised by the result.

What do you think?

Friday, August 27, 2021

Will points per position result in an unexpected flight winner at PNW USTA League 40 & Over Sectionals?

The Pacific Northwest section of the USTA is having its 40 & Over Sectionals this weekend in the Portland area.  Because of canceled seasons due to COVID last year, this is the first Sectionals event in PNW using the new 4 court format that was introduced in 2020.

In this format there can obviously be 2-2 ties as far as courts won (which is not ideal), but rather than use the USTA's tie-breakers for a 2-2 tie, the PNW elected to use the points per position format for regular season league play.  PNW elected to allocate points to the courts with the singles court and court 2 and 3 doubles being 1 point, and court 1 doubles 2 points.  While one team will "win" the match with more points, team "wins" don't matter, and instead teams simply accumulate points during the season and the team with the most points wins the flight.  

In many cases the team that "wins" the most team matches will also accumulate the most points, but that isn't a given.  This can lead to odd situations where a team could "win" all their matches 3-2 but another team, that the first team beat, could finish ahead of them in the standings.  Obviously there are other permutations where it could happen too.

In playoffs when teams play head to head with the winner advancing, the points accumulation doesn't matter.  But at PNW Sectionals, teams are split into two flights of usually four teams each and standings will be determined based on accumulated points.

So, it will be possible for a team to "win" all their matches 3-2, and accumulate 9 points in flight play, but another team that lost to the first team 3-2 could win their other two matches 4-1 and stand at 10 points and win the flight.

Is this bad?  An argument can be made each way and it is certainly different and puts less value on pulling out the 3-2 win if you don't back it up with accumulating enough points.

Will it happen?  I can't say, but I'll be looking.

Many folks like points per position in the regular season as it helps discourage stacking, but what do you think, it is a good thing in playoffs too?  Especially with flight play and flight winners advancing?

Thursday, August 26, 2021

The USTA didn't publish 2020 year-end ratings, so how far out of level are C rated players now?


The USTA made the decision, one that I consider to have been a mistake, to not publish ratings at the end of 2020.  This meant players that had played enough to get a year-end rating, and perhaps be bumped up or down, weren't, and they continued to play at their 2019 year-end level in 2021.

I wrote that this would likely cause issues this year and indeed I looked at the rate of DQ's in 2021 and it was higher than in 2019 which would support what I wrote about.

Well, I came across another interesting side-effect of not publishing, this being a team of largely C rated players that is now clearly above and headed to Sectionals.  I saw this team while doing some reports for someone for Sectionals.

Specifically, it is a 3.5 team where every 3.5 on the roster has a C rating, and all but two of them held C ratings at the end of 2018 too.  So this is not a team of appeal or self-rated players.

As of right now, my ratings show a full nine (!) players rated at 3.50 or higher, and a top-8 average of 3.60.  That's right folks, a 3.5 team with 8 players that can probably be competitive in many 4.0 matches.

Now, you  might say this is normal, a strong team at Sectionals has to have players playing above level and that is true, but I don't often see this many above level, especially when there are no self-rates or players that appealed down.

I would hypothesize that this occurred because no one was bumped up in 2020, and as a result players have had two years to improve and you'd expect significant improvement like this.  The problem is you have the majority of at level players who are legitimately at level and didn't improve and have to play these players, or lost out to them in playoffs.

For my hypothesis to hold water though, these players would have had to have been in position to be bumped up at 2020 year-end, which had ratings been published, made them ineligible to play 3.5 in 2021.

Again, using my ratings, I count 5 of the top 8 that almost certainly would have been bumped up 1 that probably would have been, and 2 others that were borderline.  If just the 5 obvious ones had been bumped up, this team would have been far more like a normal team, and it would have been fairer to the majority of other at-level players.

It will be interesting to see what happens at Nationals as we are likely to see a bunch of teams with a lot of out of level players.  On one hand, it may be an even playing field and fair to all teams at Nationals, but it still likely made local leagues a bit of a farce when everyone knew who would win and was dominated by them.

What do you think?  Is this a problem?  Or all sections had two years to improve so it is no big deal?

Thursday, August 19, 2021

2021 USTA League Sectionals continue this weekend

A bunch of teams have already won their Sectionals and qualified for USTA League Nationals, and more will punch their ticket this weekend, including:

  • Eastern - 40 & Over Sectionals
  • Middle States - 18 & Over Sectionals
  • Missouri Valley - 18 & Over Sectionals
  • Missouri Valley - 55 & Over Sectionals
  • Northern - 40 & Over Sectionals
  • SoCal - 40 & Over Sectionals

The following weekend has more including:

  • Hawaii - 40 & Over Sectionals
  • Northern - 18 & Over Mixed Sectionals
  • Pacific Northwest - 40 & Over Sectionals
  • Texas - 40 & Over Sectionals

I've been fortunate to help a number of teams make it to these Sectionals events, but a few teams have already won Sectionals and are headed to Nationals.  We'll see if more make it this weekend!

Good luck to all those playing.

Monday, August 9, 2021

The road to 2021 USTA League Nationals is in full flight in August

As we move into the middle of August, USTA League playoffs are going on in many sections inching us closer to 2021 USTA League Nationals.

Some upcoming Regionals and Sectionals include.

August 13-15:
  • Eastern 18 & Over Sectionals
  • Eastern 40 & Over Sectionals
  • Florida 18 & Over Sectionals
  • Intermountain 18 & Over Sectionals
  • Mid-Atlantic 18 & Over Sectionals
  • Michigan 18 & Over Regionals
  • Michigan 40 & Over Regionals
  • Ohio 18 & Over Regionals
  • Ohio 40 & Over Regionals
  • New England 40 & Over Sectionals
  • Northern 18 & Over Sectionals
  • Pacific NW 18 & Over Sectionals
  • Southern 40 & Over Sectionals
  • Southwest 18 & Over Sectionals

August 20-22:
  • Eastern 40 & Over Sectionals
  • Missouri Valley 18 & Over Sectionals
  • Missouri Valley 55 & Over Sectionals
  • Northern 40 & Over Sectionals

If you are going to any of these events and want to scout opponents to prepare and maximize your chances of doing well and advancing, my flight reports and team reports are a great resource.  In either case, you get ratings and statistics helping captains know what to expect and how to arrange line-ups to give their players the best chance of winning.

A number of teams and captains have gotten reports and already played and advanced.  See my testimonials page with some quotes of the nice things folks have said about the reports.

If you are interested in getting a report, contact me for more information.

Monday, August 2, 2021

The USTA sends out another survey, but requires agreeing to non-disclosure to take it?


I received an e-mail from the USTA this morning with a survey to fill out.  The e-mail contained this description of the purpose for the survey.

As we all get our bearings in this new world, we're looking to understand how we're doing among those closest to us: you!  We've commissioned a third-party research firm, the U30 Group, to conduct a very brief four-question survey to provide critical information to help the USTA understand what we're doing well and how we can improve.

This sounds good, I like survey's, and doing surveys shows a willingness on the part of the USTA to listen to their constituents, so all good right?

But upon clicking the link, it had a very ominous sounding introduction.  It reads:

By your participation in this survey, you hereby agree to keep all information about this survey and its contents completely confidential. You will neither use nor disclose to any other person or any other party any of this information. Further you agree not to attempt to copy, print or download any of this information.

You also agree that this information will remain the sole property of the organization, for whom this survey is being conducted, as will your responses to the survey questions, including any ideas or suggestions that may be contained in your responses.

This was presented to me before agreeing or disagreeing to anything so don't believe I've strayed outside of any rules by sharing the above, but what do you think of a survey beginning with this preamble?

Did you receive the survey e-mail?  Did you agree to the terms and take the survey?

Did the USTA intend for the survey to have this requirement?  Or is this boilerplate the survey firm uses for all surveys?

Should I agree and take the survey and then not be allowed to write about it?  Or should I protest and not take it?

Note, I don't dispute there are some surveys that genuinely need this sort of language as the questions may offer hints into what an organization may be planning to do and they don't want that disclosed to competitors.  I'm just curious why the USTA would feel such strong language is required for "brief four-question survey"?

What do you think?