USTA League Nationals begin in just over a month - Scouting reports are available!

It is the end of August which means USTA League Nationals are just over a month away.  The first event of Nationals is generally the last weekend of September or the first weekend of October and this year that is September 29 with the 18 & Over 2.5 women, 3.5 men and women, and 5.0 men and women kicking things off in Tucson and Surprise Arizona.

I've written about the full schedule here, and the USTA has a PDF with it here.

As of this weekend, Sectionals are nearly complete across all sections in 18 & Over and 40 & Over, I think just a few 40 & Over still to be played next weekend, so Nationals bound teams have been decided and captains and players are signing up and preparing for the event.

For some teams, preparation means scouting opponents in order to maximize the chances of doing well and perhaps even making the semis or winning it all.  For those so inclined, as I've done in past years I'm offering my same suite of reports.

The best value is a Flight Report that gives summary info on each team including full roster averages, top-8 averages, and played averages by court so you can who is strongest at the top, deepest, and tendencies on how they play their courts.

Much more detail is available in a Team Report which you can get on your own team or opponents.  This shows my estimated rating for each player along with a little rating history, plus the records and court played on the team, and for Nationals you get that breakdown by phase of playoffs.  Then you also get a partner report to see who played with who and how they did together.

Then, since Nationals uses the unflighted round-robin format, I do a Simulation Report that looks at the strength of each team by court and their actual schedule, and simulates all the matches a million times to see which teams are most likely to advance to the semis.  This is a great way to see what may be required to advance and who the contenders are.

I've been fortunate to do reports for teams that have gone to and won Nationals for a number of years, last year eight teams I helped were able to win a National title.

If you are interested in any of the above, contact me at ratings@teravation.net.  But even if you aren't and are headed to Nationals, have a great event.

Update: All of the teams at 18 & Over are now up on TennisLink.  No schedules yet, they should be out within the next week or two.