2026 18+ 4.0 Men Nationals

The Middle States team has mostly borderline 4.0/4.5 level players who you'd expect to see at nationals and is very deep but has 2 kids who are clearly out of level ringers (the two who played singles in the first match of sectionals against the 2nd place team). Both play for D3 teams (but I guess registered before they committed). The most egregious is a 2-star recruit sophomore who played for the team last year (mostly at 5) but is not on the roster this year. Played both 4.0 and 4.5 USTA last year and was undefeated at both levels but somehow got a 4.0C rating. The other is a freshman (no star rating). If they get both those kids out there to play singles, they could be sneaky dangerous. If not, they are a solid and deep team, but will probably run into problems with the teams that have the out of level ringers.
 
J_R_B said:
The Middle States team has mostly borderline 4.0/4.5 level players who you'd expect to see at nationals and is very deep but has 2 kids who are clearly out of level ringers (the two who played singles in the first match of sectionals against the 2nd place team). Both play for D3 teams (but I guess registered before they committed). The most egregious is a 2-star recruit sophomore who played for the team last year (mostly at 5) but is not on the roster this year. Played both 4.0 and 4.5 USTA last year and was undefeated at both levels but somehow got a 4.0C rating. The other is a freshman (no star rating). If they get both those kids out there to play singles, they could be sneaky dangerous. If not, they are a solid and deep team, but will probably run into problems with the teams that have the out of level ringers.
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Appreciate the feedback here! Do you play in the Middle States area? If so do they have other good players besides the two mentioned above?
 
FedTennis1991 said:
Appreciate the feedback here! Do you play in the Middle States area? If so do they have other good players besides the two mentioned above?
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I play in Middle States 4.0. I didn't play any 18+ this year because I'm now 55+ eligible, though. The rest of their roster is top to bottom very solid 4.0/4.5 borderline players, probably better at doubles, which is good enough to get to nationals, but once you're there, you usually need the ringers because other team will have them.
 
I will stop by as an observer as usual, at least one or two days. I live within a 15 minute walk of Surprise courts. Haven't even looked at teams this year, and haven't played leagues in years myself.
 
I just know the UT team going from Intermountain this year isn't the usual shenanigans one. Took the year off to "focus" on 4.5 from what I heard.
 
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J_R_B said:
Pretty impressive considering that the most egregious of his players that made a mockery of 4.0 are already 5.0 rated (e.g. Balls and the Craig brothers). It's still hard to grasp how worthless winning nationals with a team 2 levels out of level must feel.
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I will admit that it felt good to hang a couple L's on their 5.0 team at sectionals knowing the history.......
 
Eastern captain here!! Keep the intel coming!!!

Schedule isn't out yet; looks like Hawaii still hasn't registered their team.
 
J_R_B said:
Pretty impressive considering that the most egregious of his players that made a mockery of 4.0 are already 5.0 rated (e.g. Balls and the Craig brothers). It's still hard to grasp how worthless winning nationals with a team 2 levels out of level must feel.
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Banners don't mention how they did it, hehe, and new members at his club don't know the real story, yet at least. His club is really nice though, very nice and the people are nice too.
 
FedTennis1991 said:
Glad to have you here, wonder when they’ll be dropping the schedule. Good luck to you guys in AZ!
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It is usually mid-September, so I was thinking this week, but time is running out ...

But if they are waiting on Hawaii to decide if they are coming or not, that might be the reason it isn't out yet.
 
schmke said:
It is usually mid-September, so I was thinking this week, but time is running out ...

But if they are waiting on Hawaii to decide if they are coming or not, that might be the reason it isn't out yet.
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Ah okay, was wondering what the holdup was. Seems like this is a super strong year for the 18+ 4.0 teams/players
 
HyFive578 said:
Registration deadline is this Friday, 9/25; still no Hawaii team as of this morning.
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It is kind of surprising (no pun intended) they wouldn't go since the event is in Surprise, AZ, which is a lot easier for them to get to than places farther east. And they haven't skipped an 18+ 4.0 men's Nationals since 2015 I believe.
 
schmke said:
It is kind of surprising (no pun intended) they wouldn't go since the event is in Surprise, AZ, which is a lot easier for them to get to than places farther east. And they haven't skipped an 18+ 4.0 men's Nationals since 2015 I believe.
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Yeah, I'd agree. I'd also imagine that's what's holding up the schedule at this point. It should have been out by now. Anxiously awaiting your "prediction" thread.
 
HyFive578 said:
Yeah, I'd agree. I'd also imagine that's what's holding up the schedule at this point. It should have been out by now. Anxiously awaiting your "prediction" thread.
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Well, I haven't seen or heard that _any_ schedule is out yet. They are well past the "mid-September" date they'd put out. And for 18+, I think Sectionals have been done for a bit and some events have the full 17 teams signed up already.
 
Totally agree with you guys, super odd they haven’t put draws out. Even if Hawaii doesn’t come there’s been previous years where a team doesn’t show up, hoping they get out the schedule soon.
 
I just took a look at how many players are registered for Nationals versus how many are rostered on the team and wrote about it on my blog.

It is still over a week until the 18+ 4.0M registration deadline is so I didn't look at it yet, but looking at the events for the first weekend (Oct 8-10) the registered numbers are surprisingly small. At most levels, just 2-4 players more than the minimum and registered, and some regular season rosters were quite large, many genders/levels having the largest roster well into the 20s, and averages in the high teens.
 
schmke said:
I just took a look at how many players are registered for Nationals versus how many are rostered on the team and wrote about it on my blog.

It is still over a week until the 18+ 4.0M registration deadline is so I didn't look at it yet, but looking at the events for the first weekend (Oct 8-10) the registered numbers are surprisingly small. At most levels, just 2-4 players more than the minimum and registered, and some regular season rosters were quite large, many genders/levels having the largest roster well into the 20s, and averages in the high teens.
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I have a full roster, i.e. 24 players. But of that number, only 14 are actually eligible for Nationals and of the 14, only 12 can make it. In my experience, that is the perfect number. It allows me to give my top 8 guys the most playing time, allows the balance to get a few matches in to make it worth it for them to make the trip across the country and allows for backups in case someone gets hurt, tired, etc.
 
schmke said:
I just took a look at how many players are registered for Nationals versus how many are rostered on the team and wrote about it on my blog.

It is still over a week until the 18+ 4.0M registration deadline is so I didn't look at it yet, but looking at the events for the first weekend (Oct 8-10) the registered numbers are surprisingly small. At most levels, just 2-4 players more than the minimum and registered, and some regular season rosters were quite large, many genders/levels having the largest roster well into the 20s, and averages in the high teens.
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I am going to 40+ 4.0 nationals. Our team was an underdog coming into the sectionals tournament, but we pulled off a couple upsets on the first two days and found ourselves alone in first at 4-0 after the second day with just one match against a 1-3 team standing in the way between us and nationals. The captain ran the math and found that we only had 11 players eligible for nationals going into the last match, so he had to play two guys in the final match who hadn't played yet (one with an injured wrist who should be healed by nationals and another who was like the next man up emergency player for sectionals but wasn't in the lineup) to get them a third match just so we'd have enough players to go to nationals with. It was a risk, but with only 11 eligible, including 1 who couldn't go, going to 40+ nationals with 10 players and a 9 man lineup would have been extremely difficult. We were playing to win obviously, but I'm not sure how many people actually thought we'd be in that position going into the last match. We ended up losing the last match as the injured guy and the substitute guy who hadn't played yet both lost, but fortunately, the second place team behind us was scheduled before us and we knew they had lost another match before we went on, so it didn't matter. Still, we're going with only 12, which is probably one or two short of ideal. I'm 55 with arthritic knees. It's really hard for me to play twice in a day, especially against high level competition every time.
 
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J_R_B said:
I am going to 40+ 4.0 nationals. Our team was an underdog coming into the sectionals tournament, but we pulled off a couple upsets on the first two days and found ourselves alone in first at 4-0 after the second day with just one match against a 1-3 team standing in the way between us and nationals. The captain ran the math and found that we only had 11 players eligible for nationals going into the last match, so he had to play two guys in the final match who hadn't played yet (one with an injured wrist who should be healed by nationals and another who was like the next man up emergency player for sectionals but wasn't in the lineup) to get them a third match just so we'd have enough players to go to nationals with. It was a risk, but with only 11 eligible, including 1 who couldn't go, going to 40+ nationals with 10 players and a 9 man lineup would have been extremely difficult. We were playing to win obviously, but I'm not sure how any people actually thought we'd be in that position going into the last match. We ended up losing the last match as the injured guy and the substitute guy who hadn't played yet both lost, but fortunately, the second place team behind us was scheduled before us and we knew they had lost another match before we went on, so it didn't matter. Still, we're going with only 12, which is probably one or two short of ideal. I'm 55 with arthritic knees. It's really hard for me to play twice in a day, especially against high level competition every time.
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Two years ago we went to 40+ 4.0 with 12 and that was about the minimum you'd want. It helps there is only one singles court so while you have to play 9 each match, 8 of those are playing doubles. With 12 you can everyone play three matches, but we had two play four and two play two which worked.
 
J_R_B said:
I am going to 40+ 4.0 nationals. Our team was an underdog coming into the sectionals tournament, but we pulled off a couple upsets on the first two days and found ourselves alone in first at 4-0 after the second day with just one match against a 1-3 team standing in the way between us and nationals. The captain ran the math and found that we only had 11 players eligible for nationals going into the last match, so he had to play two guys in the final match who hadn't played yet (one with an injured wrist who should be healed by nationals and another who was like the next man up emergency player for sectionals but wasn't in the lineup) to get them a third match just so we'd have enough players to go to nationals with. It was a risk, but with only 11 eligible, including 1 who couldn't go, going to 40+ nationals with 10 players and a 9 man lineup would have been extremely difficult. We were playing to win obviously, but I'm not sure how any people actually thought we'd be in that position going into the last match. We ended up losing the last match as the injured guy and the substitute guy who hadn't played yet both lost, but fortunately, the second place team behind us was scheduled before us and we knew they had lost another match before we went on, so it didn't matter. Still, we're going with only 12, which is probably one or two short of ideal. I'm 55 with arthritic knees. It's really hard for me to play twice in a day, especially against high level competition every time.
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good luck!!!
 
schmke said:
Two years ago we went to 40+ 4.0 with 12 and that was about the minimum you'd want. It helps there is only one singles court so while you have to play 9 each match, 8 of those are playing doubles. With 12 you can everyone play three matches, but we had two play four and two play two which worked.
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With my 12, I have 8 guys playing 3 and 4 guys playing 2 assuming we don't make Sunday and if we do, I'll have to see how everyone feels at that point
 
schmke said:
Two years ago we went to 40+ 4.0 with 12 and that was about the minimum you'd want. It helps there is only one singles court so while you have to play 9 each match, 8 of those are playing doubles. With 12 you can everyone play three matches, but we had two play four and two play two which worked.
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We have a couple of younger guys (early 40s) who are definitely in better shape than me who will likely play four and I'll likely just play one a day. I played 5 matches when I went when I was 42. At 55, my knees would fall off if I tried that.
 
I haven't seen schedules for the 2nd week of Nationals yet (40+ 4.0 and 4.5) let alone the 18+ 4.0, which feels woefully late given they said mid-September and schedules for week 1 came out 8 days ago, but anyway.

What is more interesting is that on TennisLink every non-week 1 Adult Nationals (18+ 4.0, 40+ everything, 55+ everything, men and women for all) shows two teams; Southern and Texas. I'm sure this is just partial data entry, the full list of teams shows up on the match team tennis app, but it has been this way a few days now and amusingly looks like all these Nationals are just a Southern and Texas invitational!
 
Two weeks out and still no schedule. I asked USTA about it this morning and the answer was "they're dealing with a hurricane and weather for all of the championships this weekend". Can't really complain with that response.
 
HyFive578 said:
Two weeks out and still no schedule. I asked USTA about it this morning and the answer was "they're dealing with a hurricane and weather for all of the championships this weekend". Can't really complain with that response.
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They could have published the schedule before the madness of this week ...
 
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