I recommend all the Nationals championships be held at this location. All the courts were equipped with Playsight so you can record your matches and the USTA Campus has live viewing of all the courts so folks from home could watch the action. Numerous courts available with both har-tru and hard courts so they need to make this venue the #1 pick for all or the majority of championships.
Thanks for the write-up! I'm glad Nationals in Orlando worked out well for you guys.
That said, historically, the experience of USTA League Nationals at the Lake Nona campus has been hit and miss in October and November, mostly due to the unpredictability of the weather. That timeframe sits at the end of the hurricane and tropical storm season for Florida and mid-October is considered the "second peak" for that type of weather each year:
When my 40 and over 4.5+ team went to Nationals in Orlando, we had heavy rain off and on throughout the Friday and Saturday. Our first match was at 8:00 AM on Friday and we got it finished using regular scoring. Shortly afterward, we started getting blasted with downpours and heavy winds every 2 hours or so. Just as the courts would dry out, there would be another downpour, so matches kept getting stopped and started over and over. This backed up the schedule and forced the tournament to go to Fast Four no-ad scoring. On both Friday and Saturday, teams had to play late into the night, with many finishing past 11:00 PM. On top of all this, several of us had pleaded with the USTA to either let us play on the indoor courts or the Har-Tru, which becomes playable faster than hard courts. In both cases, the ideas were denied. The USTA had junior lessons and pro players practicing on the indoor courts and a local junior tournament on the clay, so they decided that was more important. This despite hundreds of players spending thousands of dollars to travel to Orlando for a NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP and knowing that the storms were coming, the USTA was negligent in planning to book out the indoor courts or clay as a contingency. (To me, this really showed the low priority that the USTA puts on dues paying adult members and USTA League - it ranks way, way lower than junior tennis and out of season practicing pros.)
As for the Playsight, the networks were down at the USTA campus the entire weekend we were there. In other words, not only was WiFi not working, but the Playsight systems were unusable as well. So much for friends and family watching back home.
In the end, our group was super tight and had an unbelievable time. The entire team rented a mansion close by that had something like 9 or 10 bedrooms, an indoor pool, a huge kitchen, and a massive TV. Therefore, when we weren't at the tennis center trying to get our matches in, we were all hanging out at the house like it was a big party, eating our meals together, playing pool, swimming, and watching college football and NBA games on TV. The Thursday before the tournament started, several people went on an alcohol run. The kitchen had a large island in the middle, and when they put the liquor bottles on the island, the entire thing was covered. I think that's the most booze I've ever seen outside of a distillery! I thought there was no way this is all getting ingested in 5 days. But my team was no quitters... every drop was consumed.
Anyway, we got super lucky in the tournament. The Fast Four format enabled us to knock off several teams in tiebreakers and we unexpectedly finished 4-0 in the round robin, which put us into the semis. In the semifinals on Sunday, it was sunny, but super hot and muggy. Probably about 95 degrees and 90% humidity. We played a team that was better than us on paper, but our 5.0 guy beat their reigning National Grass Court Champion 5.0 in an epic match, we got lucky to win third doubles when a player of theirs pulled a muscle or cramped up, and then we won the second singles match 10-6 in a super-breaker when our guy put everything he had left into being aggressive in those final points to steal the win. In the final, we played a super stacked Southern team with no weaknesses. Our 5.0 singles player and our normal 4.5 singles player could not play the final as both were exhausted and in full body cramps after the semifinal. We shuffled the lineup around and put our two remaining 5.0s together in doubles. We lost #1 singles and #3 doubles in blowouts. However, in second doubles, our team played amazing and actually had two match points, but lost 11-13 in the third set breaker. That clinched it for Southern and they walked away from the remaining matches, so the final score was 2-3. In those two matches that were abandoned, we were actually winning 2nd singles, but were down a set in #1 doubles. I'm not sure what would have happened if we had all our top players available or if we had won that second doubles line... but Southern deserved the win and we were more than thrilled to have made it to the finals.
On the flight home, I ran into several other participants from other Nationals teams. Most were very unhappy with how the weekend had gone. They felt cheated by the Fast Four format and the fact the USTA didn't provide alternative ways to finish the matches (using the indoor courts or clay). I also heard from several people that the USTA player party on Saturday night was a total disaster. Because matches were still going on, many teams couldn't attend. And those people that did go reported a dead scene with cold hotdogs and water for dinner. Our team was back at the house by 6:00 PM and hanging out together, prepping for the semifinals, so we didn't go to the party.
Bottom line, we had an amazing experience despite the issues in Orlando. However, this might have been influenced by the fact that we had a good group, a great place to stay, and we made the final. Other people on other teams were definitely not happy, so Orlando was a mixed bag depending on who you talked to. Therefore, I'm not sure that "all" USTA League National events should be held there, especially if they aren't willing to use the indoor courts or the clay as a contingency. Also, I think it might be more equitable to have a mix of locations in the west, middle, and eastern parts of the country to even out the travel time and cost. Western teams shouldn't have to go all the way to Florida each year, just like Eastern teams shouldn't have to go all the way to Arizona or California each year.
