Taking Weekend Tennis Seriously

There’s some angst among my area’s USTA tennis players and captains about this weekend’s playoff tournament because rain is in the forecast and the local league office decided that they still wanted to get the City Championship in and done with. They’re getting ahead of the weather and now all matches will be played indoors. There wouldn’t be a better weekend the rest of the year than Nov. 21-23, the Dallas Tennis Association officials reckoned, to fit in a tennis tournament of this size and magnitude that involves, no doubt, a ton of moving parts and logistics.

Here’s where it gets good though: due to the limited availability of indoor tennis courts, the powers that be made the playoff pool smaller and removed all the second place teams from advancing.

GASP.

😯

For this year’s fall USTA season, the DTA had originally laid out the format for moving on to Cities as follows: most teams would need to place first or second in their regular season flight in order to go on to the big dance.

Teams fought and clawed and strategized, and those first and second place finishers were ecstatic, I’m sure – just like mine was, to have the privilege of playing in the City Championship. To not get to play…people be pissed about the DTA’s decision, y’all. Understandably so. Some of us tennis just so we can play USTA playoffs. It’s the best. It just is.

Some people/teams might have had this weekend circled for months and had it all cleared out. They might have written “KICK BUTT” as the agenda for the next three days on their calendars. And now they won’t have an outlet for all their pent-up testosterone.

Sadness.

🙁

While I do understand those sentiments and I am one of those directly affected by the decision, I am not one of those in angst over my local league’s ruling. First of all, you know the local league office couldn’t win on this one no matter what they did, right?

Let’s say they had gone through with the original plan, rain be darned. Play the matches, have the weather screw everything up like it did for last year’s fall Cities, have no simple way of moving matches indoors because the tennis facilities are like, “Uh, we’re booked. Nasty weather has been in the forecast for over a week. Our members aren’t stupid,” and get to endure the armies of whining people IN PERSON who are angry about the unreasonable rescheduled match times and the uncivilized playing conditions and blahblahblahblah.

I’m sure the DTA tried on this one. I’m sure removing ALL second place teams was not their first choice. I’m sure they ran through the logistics of all other scenarios and options and it just couldn’t work. If you want to blame someone, blame the country club members who are hogging all their indoor tennis courts. Or the tennis facilities for being financially prudent and selfish about their bottom lines.

Ya know I just noticed something…there are a couple of glaring omissions from the list of Dallas-centric tennis facilities with indoor courts being used for this weekend. What’s up with that, TBM and BT? Affected players who are members of these country clubs – blame your club’s tennis director for his cold, unyielding ways to your USTA playoff needs.

To be clear: if the DTA didn’t actually try any other back-up plan and was just like “We’re going to put our heads down and sleep” or “Hey, maybe they won’t notice if we don’t let them play Cities,” then I take back everything I’m saying at their defense. Someone hand me a pitchfork. Where are we picketing? I’ll bring the tar and feathers!

Secondly – and most likely the real reason for my uncharacteristic serenity – the second place finishing 4.0 team that I captain but can’t play on (for the last time, THIS IS WHY I CAPTAIN A 4.0 TEAM. How else would I get to experience USTA playoffs??) would have had to default a line in one of the City Championship matches if the original scheduling had been upheld. Now I don’t have to go through that embarrassment.

So while I am bummed for my players who were looking forward to playing playoff tennis and I do think it is indeed a sucky, unfortunate situation, I’m just peachy-keen about this whole thing, thank you very much.

Because I didn’t want to be known as that captain, the inept one who didn’t have all her ducks in a row and couldn’t even field the measly 5 lines/8 players during the most important match-up of the season while the non-advancing 3rd place teams probably had lines of players out the door who could have played this weekend at a moment’s notice, I was totally going to blame a player for having to default.

“She’s stuck in traffic and won’t be able to make it in time! UGH.

“Oh, no-no, we don’t need to wait out the allotted fifteen minutes before calling a default. That is some bad traffic she’s stuck in.”

I was wondering how I was going to move my hands while delivering those lines. Should they be flailing about like I’m all frantic? Should they be turned palm upward like I’m helpless? Should I be holding my cell phone and be glaring death rays at the screen like I’m angry?

I’m pretty sure that as the worst liar on the face of the planet, I would have said it in either the most monotone voice possible while looking at the ground and avoiding eye contact or in the most playful, slightly sarcastic way possible because my voice is naturally of a sarcastic tilt and I can’t help it while practically winking at everyone. And then I would have over-screamed denials when the person running the tournament desk and the suspicious opposing captain correctly assessed the situation and called me out on the fact that I have known I was going to default a line for a week now but I didn’t say anything before line-ups were turned in and just how unethical that is and…

Alas, we’ll never know how it would have played out. I’m…totally fine with this.

HUGE S-EATING GRIN.

😀