A new idea I had today. There are/were four undefeated teams, but two of them, Intermountain and Eastern play so that would leave three undefeated teams, if Mid-Atlantic wins vs Caribbean, or two if they lose. At this point, just take the top-2 teams in the standings and have them play their 4th match against each other to determine the champ. The scheduled opponents for those two teams could play each other for their 4th so there is really no impact to matches played, but we get some clarity by having the top-2 teams play each other.
Yes, if there are three teams 3-0 one of them is left out. But I think this approach is better than having them all finish 4-0 without having played each other, it at least has the top two teams by the standings play head to head.
What do you think?
I'm confident this won't happen as it is too late to adjust for it I'm sure, but I would have loved to see it.
Well that sucks. They played out the schedule and not a single elimination match was played, meaning 18-2 mid Atlantic didn't have a chance to fight for the title vs Intermountain which was 19-1. Between this and the 2018 Arlington TX debacle, it seems pretty clear USTA is making no effort at all to contingency plan for Nationals events, while expecting players to shell out $1000 pp to participate...
ReplyDeleteYes, it is unfortunate. But, what are you going to do when one full day is basically rained out? Where is there a location with a huge amount of backup indoor courts if it rains where all 40 divisions can play each year for nationals?
DeleteIt's too bad they couldn't at least play Fast4 or one-set no-ad matches in the SF/F at least, or just a Final. This seemed easily feasible.
The Mid-Atlantic team had an easy last match too vs a short-handed MV team playing only 7 players that only won 4 courts total for the weekend and 2 were by their ringer singles player who ended up playing doubles and losing on Sunday. The 2 guys who won for MV had lost all their previous matches badly at nationals until this last match. Did Mid-Atlantic have their best possible 7 players playing in this last match?
They could play at the National Tennis Center in Queens. Tons of courts available and they have indoor courts on site.
DeleteBut can this center accommodate 35-40 divisions spanning 7 weekends of nationals even if it allowed the usta to use it rec league nationals? This past weekend of nationals had roughly 120+ teams. One round of matches for all these teams would require 270+ courts. There's no way any center could accommodate this. And even if it could, there's no chance it'd have enough indoor courts if necessary. Also, the temperature in New York this time of year will likely be in the 40s at some point. And what would the temperatures be in middle of November during the last weekend of nationals? Only warm weather locations can be an option.
Delete