This was the busiest week so far with 8 events going on. And there were some notable events!
The most notable was that we had a team that went 4-0, didn't lose a match, and didn't advance to the semis! This happened because five teams in the 40 & Over 3.0 men's event went 4-0 and only four can go to the semis. The original simulation said it was a real possibility, then after the first day the chances went way up, and then it happened. The team that got the short-end of the stick was Texas who finished in 5th. In the semis we had two 2-2 ties, errr wins, with PNW beating Middle States due to one fewer set lost, and Southern beat NorCal also with one fewer set lost. The final went to PNW in yet another 2-2 tie/win where they also lost one fewer set.
The 40 & Over 3.0 women was not quite as exciting until the final as Texas beat SoCal 4-0 and PNW beat NorCal 4-0, but in the final we had another 2-2 tie/win with Texas losing one fewer set.
The 18 & Over 4.0 women had its own form of excitement as Texas beat New England in one semi and Florida beat Mid-Atlantic in the other. The final had Texas win 4-1. What was the excitement? Texas had a small roster, just 10, but the interesting thing is that 9 of those were self-rated. Self-rated players at Nationals are not uncommon, but large numbers of them are usually at lower levels, not 4.0. Everything could have been by the book and fair, but a team with that many self-rates winning Nationals makes you scratch your head.
The 18 & Over 4.0 men was relatively normal with Middle States beating Eastern and Southern taking out Florida to meet in the final where Southern won it all 3-2. What is semi interesting is Southern has a fairly high shenanigans score indicating they had a lot of self-rates and/or players who had been 4.5s in the past.
[Update: Upon reviewing the Southern team, while the score was reasonably high, I saw no indication of any tanking, and self-rates didn't appear to manage scores, i.e. no shenanigans. It appears to be a team that did it by the book.]
The 55 & Over events got going this weekend the 6.0 women saw MOValley beat SoCal and Northern beat Midwest, before MOValley won the final.
The 6.0 men was interesting in that they show SoCal in 4th, but 5th place Midwest in the semis. Looking at the matches SoCal defaulted a court every match so must have been ruled ineligible to advance for that reason. Normally teams must bring the minimum number of players, but I've heard of extenuating circumstances causing the shortage of players being a reason a team is allowed to play but they aren't eligible to advance. The teams that did play had Midwest beat Eastern and Northern beat NorCal before Northern won it all.
The 8.0 women saw Texas beat Middle States and Florida beat Midwest before Florida won it all, all the matches 2-1 results.
Last, the 8.0 men saw Mid-Atlantic beat Southern and SoCal beat Florida with SoCal winning it all, again all the results were 2-1 so very close.
Congratulations to all the new champs!
I don't like what the USTA did with the 55 6.0 SoCal men. If they're allowing them in the event, then they're in. They shouldn't be eliminated from the top 4 if they make top 4(which they did) just because they can only fill 2 courts if the USTA is allowing them to start the event and play in the pool-play round.
ReplyDeleteI don't know the details of what happened, but I think the "extenuating circumstances" clause is there for extreme situations to try to make the best out of a bad situation. It is possible whatever happened occurred too late to remove the team and redo the entire schedule so they were allowed to play for that reason. And once the event starts with them, you can't really change then.
DeleteRight, they had a player or two cancel last minute probably, but they were allowed to continue in the event. But, my issue is that USTA did change something and remove them from competing in the SF/F rounds. But, maybe there's something else happening we aren't aware of, such as they only had 3 or fewer players healthy enough for the SF. But then the 5th place team shouldn't be allowed to play in the SF still. The #1 seed should just get a walkover to the F.
DeleteWhat sort of schenanigans were there from the 18+ 4.0 Southern team besides having self rates and former 4.5s? I wonder if you would see a lot of lopsided first sets followed by 2nd sets which look close.
ReplyDeleteI casually looked at prior year scores and didn't see blatant or obvious tanking, but that doesn't mean the subtle tanking you mention wasn't employed.
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