Getting into competitive tennis outside High School

[wreachavok]

The tennis program in my school is fairly week and it's just not satisfying my crave to play and practice against a large pool of good players.

I've just created a USTA membership, but the entire system is foreign to me and I have no idea how to find tournaments and what divisions/categories I should be looking in. I'd also like to find a tennis club in my area where I could practice at least once a week. I'm currently 17 living in the Diamond Bar, CA (SoCal) area.

When I'm searching for tournaments on the usta website, should I be looking in the 18's or 16's group? How do NTRP ranked tournaments work? Which should I be looking at?

[wreachavok]

Sorry I meant weak* :\

[Tennisman912]

wreachavok,

You need to look at the 18s only. You can't play in the 16s. Also go to the section of the usta you live in. All the tournament listings are there. You can't play anything but junior and open tournaments until you are 19 (with rare exception).

But be warned if your school is weak and you are not the best player on the team by far, you will get killed in most tournaments. Just find out the best junior in your area or go to local tennis club and set up a match. It will tell you where you stand.

Good luck

TM

[TENNIS_IS_FUN]

I have the same questions...

I'm 18 years old, so im guessing i'll be entering in the 18's.

And im also guessing that the NTRP tournaments dont go by age groups? And the tournaments that DO go by age groups are opens/junior tournies?

[wreachavok]

Is there a place online where I can find tennis club listings in my area? How does USTA hand out NTRP rankings. Is there some diagnostic I must take before I can enter in these tournaments? I'm sure USTA doesn't allow 3.0's to enter 5.0 tournaments because they didn't realize what they were registering for so what proof of rank does USTA give?

This is my first time getting into the tennis scene outside h.s, but I would guess that I am a 3.5-4.0 player. I have an awesome stroke and I can certainly hit winners, but I don't have the consistency of hardcore tournament players (this is the main reason why I'm trying to enter in these tournies)