Taking Weekend Tennis Seriously

Tri-Level is this weekend for my area. Tri-Level is a USTA team tennis tournament in which three lines of three different rated doubles teams (for example: 4.5/4.0/3.5 or 4.0-3.5-3.0) play each head-to-head match. Win at least two of those lines, and your team has won that match-up and on your merry way you go to the next one.

The idea behind the tournament, I believe, is to allow tennis friends across rating levels to be on the same USTA team for once and to compete together in this fun-with-racquets game we lovingly call tennis.

That’s the technical definition.

Here’s the underlying definition. Tri-Level is a team tennis tournament in which captains craft their rosters by grabbing and hoarding the bestest players of each rating level they can find. The recruiting call/text/email could be the first time the captains and the differently rated players have ever had correspondence.

Tri-Level uses the year-end ratings from the previous year, and the tournament itself generally occurs late the next calendar year. Boy does a lot happen in a year. So for this weekend’s tournament in November of 2013, what the computer said you were rated at the end of 2012 is the minimum* level you can play at.

*Players can always play up, but having people play up at Tri-Level would be…unconventional, as you’ll see, and goes against the unwritten spirit of the tournament.

Unwritten, that is, until now. 🙂

Anyone who was bumped down at the end of last year was immediately a prized player for this year’s Tri-Level tourney because a person who was bumped down from 4.5, let’s say, can now play 4.0 for the upcoming Tri-Level tournament. Similarly, anyone who was bumped up when the mid-year report came out halfway through this year is also a prized player for this year’s Tri-Level tourney because a person who was bumped up to 4.5, let’s say, is still eligible to play 4.0* for the upcoming Tri-Level tournament.

*I’m using the 4.0 level throughout this piece as an example, but my point applies to all the ratings being played in the tourney.

In both instances, those players are expected to be at the top of their Tri-Level rating group and expected to dominate their matches. Captains who recruited such players have pretty much checked off that line as a sure-fire win. That’s why players typically don’t play up in this tournament.

It’s the other lines that don’t consist of players that have ever been bumped up and/or whom captains know nothing of that they’re worried about *take a breath* because different rated players do not intermingle with one another on a regular basis except when they’re forced to in this one blip in the year *take a breath* because whoever thought of this tournament structure has a wicked sense of humor, but that will be the topic for a future annual Tri-Level blog post. Cheers!

The problem with such logic – or what I like to call one of the most delightful aspects of weekend tennis – is that every single team thinks the same. I am captaining a Tri-Level team this weekend. Of course I think my 4.0s are going to dominate; first of all, I always think all my players on all my teams are amazing. Hey, guys!

Secondly, I am one of the 4.0s, and I am awesome…at least according to my rating, anyway (I got bumped up when early season ratings came out in July). You know who else has identical warm and fuzzy feelings about their 4.0 line? All the other teams housing former or current 4.5s that will be playing the 4.0 level, which – you’re never going to believe this – would be nearly all of them.*

*I got the idea for this blog post when I went to lunch with my fall 4.5 teammates after a match this season. Tri-Level came up in conversation. That’s when it hit me: “Oh, no, I’m going to have to face them.”

It hit them as well: “Oh, yes, I’m going to have to face her.”

Every team, every captain thinks she’s got a leg up on the competition because of her recruits, and it’s simply not true. Yes, if I play at the level the USTA rating system says I am – which as we all know is not how that works ever – I should be able to beat most 4.0s. Guess what? I ain’t seeing “most 4.0s” at Tri-Level.

Heck, there are players playing at the 3.5 rating this weekend that I can’t beat today because again, they are really 4.0s in sheep clothing, and furthermore, those “3.5s” just might be one of the top-most 4.0s now.

The beauty of USTA ratings, y’all.

Now of course, there are players in the tourney who have never been bumped past the level they will be playing in this weekend. You know, captains who wouldn’t otherwise be on a Tri-Level team. 😉 No, seriously though, there are only so many former/current 4.5s who are eligible to play 4.0 this weekend to go around. So the other players are complete slouches, right?

HAH! If only.

This is a tournament. Teams are here to win. All the best possible players in town known to captains* have been snatched up. There will not be a “weak” player on a Tri-Level court anywhere.

And if there are weak players in the tourney, well, they sure as heck aren’t in my flight.

*I don’t know why you’re not playing. That’s weird. Captains just didn’t know about you is all. You were certainly the next player I was going to ask.

Moreover, the players that have never been bumped up could not care less about these “statistically superior” opponents who on paper should beat them. First of all, as the saying goes: the game isn’t played on paper. Anybody can beat anyone in any given match.

Secondly, plenty of people don’t want to be bumped up and will play accordingly. (Fall) USTA results cannot ever be fully trusted. #nowyaknow.

Thirdly, those haven’t-been-bumped-up-yet players are probably just part of the next batch to be moved up as the powers that be meet their seasonal quota. There are lots of players you and I know that the USTA system has egregiously overlooked. It’s all seemingly random who gets bumped up over whom. I like to imagine the powers that be who decide people’s USTA ratings as Greek gods lounging around and toying with us mere mortals as they sip on grapes and laugh manically. “Who am I going to bump and ruin her tennis life this time? BWAHAHAHA!”

And fourthly, those not-bumped-up players were just playing those mid-year bump-ups and year-end bump-downs a few months ago during the regular USTA season, if not last week for Fall USTA. Girl, please. They know those “statistically superior” players ain’t all that.

What I’m saying is being overly confident about your Tri-Level roster is silly. Yes, the tournament is basically a battle of recruiting. Yes, having bump-ups on your team is nice, but it’s not the be-all-end-all indicator of anything because of the oddities of this rating system we think so highly of.

So if you find yourself wandering around my area’s Tri-Level tournament this weekend and if you stop to watch a 3.0, 3.5, or 4.0 match (this doesn’t apply so much at 4.5 because 5.0 bump-ups or downs are rare), you’ll probably be impressed with the quality of play, especially given the level the match is listed under. Well, there’s a very good chance that none of those players are currently rated at the level they are playing. And if they are actually rated as such, we’ll all just shake our heads and smile knowingly. Those USTA Rating Greek Gods and their fickle whims!

Good luck everyone; see you all this weekend!