Sunday, October 23, 2022

2022 USTA League Nationals Week 4 Round-Robin Recap - The tie-breakers rear their ugly head

It is a Sunday in October, and that means USTA League Nationals events are going on and we have teams in the semis and final.  Here is how things stacked up from the first two days of play this weekend.

The last weekend of 18 & Over play has the 5.0 men and women in Arizona.

The women had one 4-0 team and three 3-1 teams advance, those being NorCal, Intermountain, Midwest, and Southern.  The simulation had three of these teams likely to be in the mix so not too bad.

The men had three 4-0 teams in NorCal, MOValley, and Middle States, and Texas was the sole 3-1 team.  The simulation again had three of these teams among those likely to be in the mix.

It is interesting that both the men and women had 5th place at 2-2.  This is in part due to not having the full 17 teams, but still makes for a nice clean top-4 teams.  But both were close to having a tie at 2-2 for the last spot which would have been interesting.

The last weekend of 40 & Over play has the 3.0 men and women in Arizona as well.

The women had three 4-0 teams in PNW, Florida, and Middle States, and then Mid-Atlantic won a tie-breaker at 3-1 having won two more courts than the closest pursuer.

The men had two 4-0 teams in Southern and PNW, then a 4-way tie at 3-1 with Texas and NorCal having better court records and advancing.  The simulation had three of these teams in its top-4, and the other top-4 predicted team was in the tie at 3-1.

The 55 & Over events continued in Orlando with the 8.0 men and women playing.

The women unfortunately had the flawed tie-breakers come into play.  No dispute about the top-2 teams with Florida and Midwest both 4-0, and then Middle States was 3-1 and the best record on courts among other 3-1 teams, but the fourth spot went to New England (3-1 / 8-4 / 17-9) over Southern (3-1 / 8-4 / 19-9).  The teams were tied on everything to sets lost (9 each), but despite Southern winning two more sets than New England (19 to 17) the USTA ignores that and goes straight to games lost where New England lost fewer (91 to 98).  This is clearly not equitable as Southern was able to extend several matches they lost to match tie-breaks and thus won more sets, but do not get credit for it.

The USTA knows this is a problem and hasn't addressed it including rejecting a regulations change proposal that would have fixed it.  It is possible to get this right, the ITF does after all.  It happens once or twice every year, so it would be nice for all involved if it was fixed.

Note that Southern's loss was to a 4-0 and top seed Florida team that lost only two courts in the round-robin, one of those to Southern.  New England lost to a Hawaii team that was 1-3, their only win over New England.

However you look at it, hard to justify New England advancing.  Sorry Southern 55+ 8.0 women.

The men had one 4-0 team in SoCal with Florida, Southern, and Mid-Atlantic advancing as 3-1 teams with one other 3-1 team having a worse court record.

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