By now, everyone has seen the USTA Year End Ratings. If you haven't, go here
If you tried on the day the ratings came out, it was excruciatingly slow to load the page. Kind of sad to see the USTA website unable to handle the volume of league players checking their ratings.
I was bumped up from a 4.5 rating to a 5.0 Benchmark (in other words, no chance to appeal). Several other people in the Seattle area were also bumped to 5.0 for this upcoming season:
Yao-Jan Wu
Brandon Ferguson
Matt Look
Rob Box
Albert Lu
Bill Brooks
Shane Caskey
Dustin Hedger
Michael Nguyen
Paul Brown
Richard Deitz
Cameron Ragen
William Plautz
Looking at the people who got bumped to 5.0, I think the 4.5 Men's league this year will be a wide open race. The teams that have been finishing near the top will be losing key players, and it will be hard for those teams to replenish and stay at the top.
If you had a rating change? Did you agree with it, or do you think the USTA has it completely wrong?
I agree with most of the 4.5 bump ups to 5.0, as my earlier article post about "Ringers and Super Ringers" points out this group as winning 90% of their matches and more. This is grounds for the USTA to bump the players up, and rightfully so. This will make the 5.0 league interesting for the upcoming year as half of the league may be former 4.5 players. 5.0 is the new 4.5 in the PNW. I hope this ratings shakedown occurred in all the other districts and divisions because otherwise the teams from Seattle have no shot at Sectionals!
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Monday, November 29, 2010
2011 9.0 Mixed Season Preview
The 2011 campaign for PNW Mixed Doubles is underway. I've taken a look at the 9.0 rosters, and here are my power rankings
9.0 Team Standings
#1 Amy Yee - Returning most of the players from the previous year's 9.0 squad that finished 2nd in the league (barely lost out to Bellevue Club). Added a couple other solid 5.0 men in Kale Kowalski and Jason Chapman. Lawrence Chan and Catherine Green have been a successful tandem in past seasons.
#2 Edgebrook - Deep team of men and women. Sean Kelly and Michi VanGrunsven should be lock for a point every match. It will be up to the other squads to pick up the 2nd point.
#3 Harbor Square - Has some of the stronger 4.5 men in the league in Brandon Ferguson and Andrew Feyen. Laurie Scantlebury has been a tough mixed player to deal with in past seasons, the question will be if she can find a strong 4.0 partner to play with.
#4 Bellevue (Strieb) - Team has lost most of the players from previous season due to USTA rules of keeping only 3 players from a National qualifying team. However, the team has a strong tandem in Kris Gibson and Albert Lu. Maureen Strieb has picked up a strong 4.0 partner in Kent vanAlstyne. Todd Conley is the 3rd returning member of the previous year's squad and is dangerous in mixed with any partner.
#5 Sammamish - Primarily made up of solid 4.5 players.
#6 Pro Club - Jeff Servoss leads this team with Colt Tipton. This team is capable of handing some upsets to the top teams in the league.
#7 Bellevue (Chen) - Some of the stronger 4.5 Women in the league with Valerie Henderson and Kristen White.
#8 Central Park - Started season with a win, but the next 3 matches will be against some of the tougher teams in the league. The results of those 3 matches with Amy Yee, Harbor Square, and Sammamish should leave Central Park at 1 and 3 after the first four matches.
9.0 Team Standings
#1 Amy Yee - Returning most of the players from the previous year's 9.0 squad that finished 2nd in the league (barely lost out to Bellevue Club). Added a couple other solid 5.0 men in Kale Kowalski and Jason Chapman. Lawrence Chan and Catherine Green have been a successful tandem in past seasons.
#2 Edgebrook - Deep team of men and women. Sean Kelly and Michi VanGrunsven should be lock for a point every match. It will be up to the other squads to pick up the 2nd point.
#3 Harbor Square - Has some of the stronger 4.5 men in the league in Brandon Ferguson and Andrew Feyen. Laurie Scantlebury has been a tough mixed player to deal with in past seasons, the question will be if she can find a strong 4.0 partner to play with.
#4 Bellevue (Strieb) - Team has lost most of the players from previous season due to USTA rules of keeping only 3 players from a National qualifying team. However, the team has a strong tandem in Kris Gibson and Albert Lu. Maureen Strieb has picked up a strong 4.0 partner in Kent vanAlstyne. Todd Conley is the 3rd returning member of the previous year's squad and is dangerous in mixed with any partner.
#5 Sammamish - Primarily made up of solid 4.5 players.
#6 Pro Club - Jeff Servoss leads this team with Colt Tipton. This team is capable of handing some upsets to the top teams in the league.
#7 Bellevue (Chen) - Some of the stronger 4.5 Women in the league with Valerie Henderson and Kristen White.
#8 Central Park - Started season with a win, but the next 3 matches will be against some of the tougher teams in the league. The results of those 3 matches with Amy Yee, Harbor Square, and Sammamish should leave Central Park at 1 and 3 after the first four matches.
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Successful season for 2010 Seattle Mixed teams
The 8.0 team from the Amy Yee club under Tarik Burney has wrapped up their 2010 season. Looks like they had a close fight all the way to the end, and were inched out by the individual score tiebreakers.
They won their first match against the Hawaii team 2-1: Hawaii Match
They won their second match against the Southern Tennessee squad 2-1: Southern Match
They lost their third match against Florida 1-2: Florida Match
Way to go Amy Yee squad. It was close all the way. This wraps up the 2010 season with both the 8.0 and 9.0 teams from the Seattle area making it to Nationals. No one placed, but we all fought well against the other districts. Until next year! The 2011 season starts today for my new team at Edgebrook for the 9.0 team. I'll give my preview of the upcoming season soon.
They won their first match against the Hawaii team 2-1: Hawaii Match
They won their second match against the Southern Tennessee squad 2-1: Southern Match
They lost their third match against Florida 1-2: Florida Match
Way to go Amy Yee squad. It was close all the way. This wraps up the 2010 season with both the 8.0 and 9.0 teams from the Seattle area making it to Nationals. No one placed, but we all fought well against the other districts. Until next year! The 2011 season starts today for my new team at Edgebrook for the 9.0 team. I'll give my preview of the upcoming season soon.
Wednesday, November 17, 2010
Year End Ratings
In case you haven't seen, this is the latest word from the USTA:
The 2010 year end rating calculation process is currently underway. It will include matches played from Nov 2nd 2009 thru Oct 31st 2010. The expected date of publication is November 29th 2010.
The 2010 year end rating calculation process is currently underway. It will include matches played from Nov 2nd 2009 thru Oct 31st 2010. The expected date of publication is November 29th 2010.
Tuesday, November 16, 2010
Ringers and Super Ringers
Hello World! This is my first ever attempt at this whole blog thing. I just came back from my first ever trip to a National USTA League Championship. I participated in the 9.0 Mixed Doubles. I had qualified for a Men's 5.0 National Championship about 7 years back, but I was a college student that couldn't afford the trip. Anyways, this first trip to Nationals was quite an experience.
Before I get into my rant, everyone who plays league tennis knows that in order to win and do well, you need ringers. For those who aren't familiar with the term "ringer", my definition of it is a player who is really strong for his NTRP rating that will win over 90% of his matches against that same skill level. I am all for recruiting talent as long as it is within the same guidelines and rules that everyone is playing by. For the upper divisions of the Men's league (4.0 - 5.0), there are some perennial teams that do well every year. The players on these teams are definitely strong for their levels, but by no means cheating. The PNW region definitely cracks down on this, and has taken an extreme crack down on ringers over the past two years. I think the state of Washington cracks down harder on this than Oregon though (i.e. How does someone like Dougal Williams that represents the USA for Men's 35's and played as #1 for the University of Oregon get rated as a 5.0? I've already got the early start bump up to 5.0, and I wouldn't last one second on the court with Dougal Williams). This leads me to the whole intent of this particular rant.
I just came back from this 9.0 competition at Nationals, and there was this player named Therina Steenkamp. She is rated a 4.5 in the NTRP system. We started warming up for our match against Therina and her male partner (also another 4.5, but a strong 4.5 and borderline 5.0 player). During warm up, we just saw Therina hit these unbelievable shots and volleys. We knew we were in for a battle, but we were game as my partner and I had done well all year. Then the match started, and Therina just started taking the match over unlike any other player I had seen in mixed doubles before. She had amazing service returns, incredible volleys, and a super kick serve. She pretty much dominated. We got blown off the court 6-0, 6-1 in probably 40 minutes. I had never received a whupping like this in my life ever. After the match, we thought she was the 5.0 with a 4.0 male partner, but then she tells us that they are both 4.5. 4.5!!!!! I've never seen 5.0 Men execute the volleys she was making or pound overheads the way she did. For mixed doubles, it's like bringing a knife to a gun fight! Anyhoo, we did some research on google and found out she played 4 years at a Division 1 University as the #1 player, and had won some rounds at Challenger events. Who the heck is letting this slide as a 4.5 rated player?!!! How did she not get appealed from the Southern district all year or DQ'd? No one in their right mind would ever think she's a 4.5 player. And get this, she even lost one match to another lady in Women's 4.5 during the year. The Southern district must be composed of "Super Ringers" that are like 1.5 levels higher than their actual rating.
This has been a long enough first entry, so I should wrap this up. If there is a point to this first blog post that I would like understood, it is that we need all the USTA districts to have equal playing rules. I don't care if Southern allows Super Ringers to play in the league if other districts are allowed to recruit the same type of caliber players for a team. That would at least allow for an equal playing field. We spend a lot of money to attend a National competition, and the last thing I want to experience is an unfair playing field against teams that we won't have a shot of competing with.
Before I get into my rant, everyone who plays league tennis knows that in order to win and do well, you need ringers. For those who aren't familiar with the term "ringer", my definition of it is a player who is really strong for his NTRP rating that will win over 90% of his matches against that same skill level. I am all for recruiting talent as long as it is within the same guidelines and rules that everyone is playing by. For the upper divisions of the Men's league (4.0 - 5.0), there are some perennial teams that do well every year. The players on these teams are definitely strong for their levels, but by no means cheating. The PNW region definitely cracks down on this, and has taken an extreme crack down on ringers over the past two years. I think the state of Washington cracks down harder on this than Oregon though (i.e. How does someone like Dougal Williams that represents the USA for Men's 35's and played as #1 for the University of Oregon get rated as a 5.0? I've already got the early start bump up to 5.0, and I wouldn't last one second on the court with Dougal Williams). This leads me to the whole intent of this particular rant.
I just came back from this 9.0 competition at Nationals, and there was this player named Therina Steenkamp. She is rated a 4.5 in the NTRP system. We started warming up for our match against Therina and her male partner (also another 4.5, but a strong 4.5 and borderline 5.0 player). During warm up, we just saw Therina hit these unbelievable shots and volleys. We knew we were in for a battle, but we were game as my partner and I had done well all year. Then the match started, and Therina just started taking the match over unlike any other player I had seen in mixed doubles before. She had amazing service returns, incredible volleys, and a super kick serve. She pretty much dominated. We got blown off the court 6-0, 6-1 in probably 40 minutes. I had never received a whupping like this in my life ever. After the match, we thought she was the 5.0 with a 4.0 male partner, but then she tells us that they are both 4.5. 4.5!!!!! I've never seen 5.0 Men execute the volleys she was making or pound overheads the way she did. For mixed doubles, it's like bringing a knife to a gun fight! Anyhoo, we did some research on google and found out she played 4 years at a Division 1 University as the #1 player, and had won some rounds at Challenger events. Who the heck is letting this slide as a 4.5 rated player?!!! How did she not get appealed from the Southern district all year or DQ'd? No one in their right mind would ever think she's a 4.5 player. And get this, she even lost one match to another lady in Women's 4.5 during the year. The Southern district must be composed of "Super Ringers" that are like 1.5 levels higher than their actual rating.
This has been a long enough first entry, so I should wrap this up. If there is a point to this first blog post that I would like understood, it is that we need all the USTA districts to have equal playing rules. I don't care if Southern allows Super Ringers to play in the league if other districts are allowed to recruit the same type of caliber players for a team. That would at least allow for an equal playing field. We spend a lot of money to attend a National competition, and the last thing I want to experience is an unfair playing field against teams that we won't have a shot of competing with.
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