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!
