? for South Carolina league players

[tguru]

South Carolina, like the rest of the country, adopted the 2 sets and 3rd set tiebreak some years ago. Most male players that I know detested the change. I have noticed, however, that a good 2/3s of the male leagues in South Carolina play 3 full sets during the regular season. I am going to bring this up at the league(Grand Strand) start up meeting in January and can't wait to hear their reason why we can't do the same. Any thoughts?

[cghipp]

In Rock Hill (YCTA) all the USTA leagues play the third set tiebreak. I hate it, especially in singles. I play tennis for exercise, not to get finished quickly. It eliminates much of any fitness advantage you might have. I'm sure they will say the tiebreak is necessary because of court space/time issues.

[tennis-n-sc]

In UPTA, whicfh includes the Greenville, Anderson and Clemson areas, we have voted each year to play all three sets. I believe the women do that as well. There are some that think this hurts our teams that go to state because we aren't used to playing the third set tie-breaker. Not sure this is true.

[jagsv650]

In Hilton Head we play three full sets. I went to states on three teams this year which I will never do again because of the third set tie breaker. I will tell my captain up front that if we go to states to count me out. I can't see spending the money to go to have an important match be decided by a tie breaker instead of a third set.

I also would not play in the league if we didn't play best of three set matches. It makes no sense to me.

[Geezer Guy]

In league play, I prefer 3 full sets (which is what we do here, unless we run out of time).

In tournament play, I prefer 2 regular sets and a third set tiebreaker only, if needed.

[marcl65]

Originally Posted by Geezer Guy

In league play, I prefer 3 full sets (which is what we do here, unless we run out of time).

In tournament play, I prefer 2 regular sets and a third set tiebreaker only, if needed.

I thought the 3rd set tiebreaker was instituted not to speed up the game but rather to keep people from suffering heat stroke in the hot seasons.

[cghipp]

I don't think that is much of a problem in league play. It can be a factor in a tournament, though, which (I'm sure) is why "Geezer Guy" draws a distinction.

Unfortunately I think it is part of a larger trend to push the recreational game towards mostly social, mostly doubles, tennis. I hated it when we went to the Fall Combo League instead of having a non-USTA league set up just like the spring season.

I thought it was great when the fall season was a warm-up for spring, and a time to get your team together, and learn which partners worked well together, and who was more suited to singles. It was also a good time to let everyone play the same number of matches, and then in the spring you could be more aggressive and put your best available pairs out there each week.

[Geezer Guy]

Originally Posted by marcl65

I thought the 3rd set tiebreaker was instituted not to speed up the game but rather to keep people from suffering heat stroke in the hot seasons.

Not to be pedantic, but I'd say the 3rd set tiebreaker is used to speed up the matches, and as a result the shorter matches keep people from suffering from the heat in the hot seasons and make it easier to complete the matches on time year around.

In our USTA league matches we don't use the 3rd set tiebreak rule, but we are required to complete all matches in 2 hours. If a match has not completed with 1:45, then we start this crazy short-set system that, in my opinion, really sucks.

[tennis-n-sc]

Originally Posted by Geezer Guy

Not to be pedantic, but I'd say the 3rd set tiebreaker is used to speed up the matches, and as a result the shorter matches keep people from suffering from the heat in the hot seasons and make it easier to complete the matches on time year around.

In our USTA league matches we don't use the 3rd set tiebreak rule, but we are required to complete all matches in 2 hours. If a match has not completed with 1:45, then we start this crazy short-set system that, in my opinion, really sucks.

Geezer, I would never have called you "pedantic", whatever that is. I've never heard of timed matches. Can't the players in your local vote this out?

[Geezer Guy]

We play all our winter matches indoors. The facilities don't want matches to last indefinately, so there's a 2 hour limit. There are always other matches scheduled after ours, so we can't just run over.

Here's the way it works. At exactly the 1 hour and 45 minute mark if one team is ahead by a break, they automatically win that set. If the teams are tied or there's only a 1 game difference, they play a tie-breaker to see who wins that set. At the conclusion of that tie-breaker, if the teams are tied at 1 set each they play a third-set tiebreaker only.

As you can imagine, at the 1 hour and 40 minute mark the team that's ahead starts stalling, and the team that's behind tries to go into hurry-up mode.

[tennis-n-sc]

Originally Posted by Geezer Guy

We play all our winter matches indoors. The facilities don't want matches to last indefinately, so there's a 2 hour limit. There are always other matches scheduled after ours, so we can't just run over.

Here's the way it works. At exactly the 1 hour and 45 minute mark if one team is ahead by a break, they automatically win that set. If the teams are tied or there's only a 1 game difference, they play a tie-breaker to see who wins that set. At the conclusion of that tie-breaker, if the teams are tied at 1 set each they play a third-set tiebreaker only.

As you can imagine, at the 1 hour and 40 minute mark the team that's ahead starts stalling, and the team that's behind tries to go into hurry-up mode.

Thank the tennis gods for the sunny south where we play outdoors every month of the year, sometimes in longjohns, but it gets done outdoors. This would be darn near impossible to get used to.

[Geezer Guy]

I'll be retiring in a year or two, and am looking forward to moving to either N or S Carolina, or maybe Georgia, or at least somewhere around there. I'm looking forward to outdoor tennis on nice soft courts year around - or at least most of the year. I'm getting tired of the KC winters.

There is quite a bit of opportunity to play tennis here though. At LEAST half a dozen tennis clubs in the metro area - all with either indoor or outdoor courts (several have both). And, lots and lots of public courts.

[tennis-n-sc]

GG, just heard from our league coordinator that SC has the second most USTA players in the Southern Section. Georgia has around 44,000 and SC around 33,000. Not bad for a little state. Of course, Georgia also has thousands of ALTA players in the Atlanta area.

[cghipp]

SC is great for tennis, and is getting even better. Our local public "club" is going to add a bunch of clay courts before too long! We already have eight hard courts and a center court with stands, and are getting ready to add a couple of half courts with backboards.

[Geezer Guy]

OK, thanks. 2 checks for SC.

Geezer, add another one for SC. Tennis-n was right about how we stack up in the Southern which is also by far the largest section. Its even more impressive when you consider how our population compares to the other states.

The three main areas on the coast (Hilton Head, Charleston, and Myrtle Beach) are excellent retirement spots where tennis is big. Charleston is actually the largest local league in SC.

[Matt21]

I personally prefer the 3 full sets. In the YCTA last year, we went to 2 sets with a 3rd-set tiebreak in the Spring season due to limited court availability last year (due to a number of the regular facilities all being resurfaced at the same time). I expect we'll return to full 3 sets this year; especially since the Spring season is the only season where 3 sets traditionally occurred in these parts. I was told the summer heat caused mixed to be shorted to a 3rd set tiebreak. I also heard somewhere (I think it was the tennischannel) that the ATP and WTA were considering experimenting with moving to a champions tiebreak to decide matches (two reasons I heard were to add a level of "sudden-death" excitement, as well as to help to minimize player injuries that are the result of the wear/tear of too many long matches being played during the year).

Imagine Federer or Nadal folding in a champions tiebreak to a lucky loser!