Went to my very first UTR event last weekend to try and establish a rating and had the complete opposite experience. Picked out something low-key, local, and inexpensive. $30 with about 10 players. "all ages and levels welcome for UTR matchplay".
I showed up and it was all high school freshmen or younger with their parents watching. I'm 34
Of course that wasn't the worst of it. There were two round robin flights. Group A had some decent players that would have given me a good match. Unfortunately I had no rating when the draws were made, so they put me in Group B. Group B was basically NTRP 3.0-3.5.
I had four one-set matches. 6-0, 6-1, 6-0, 6-1. Boy did I feel like a chump. Especially hearing the parents yell out "keep fighting!" and "go after his backhand!" when I've just won the last 10 points in a row. A part of me wanted to ease up and make the games more competitive... but I figured it's better to just rip this Band-Aid off quickly and get the hell out of there.
Funniest part was on my way walking back to my car my wife showed up. "Hey I had some time between errands and figured I would stop by to watch you play." "Err.. nothing to see here. Meet you at home"
So next time I'll be looking a lot closer at the entrants before signing up to a UTR event. Although now that I'm digging in to it, there seems to be a big rift between beginner and advanced play. Lots of high school events in the UTR 4 and below range for $30. Also a good amount of tournament events in the UTR 6-12+ range for $75-$100
I'd really love to find something in-between. After those four matches it says my projected UTR is 3.75. I'm guessing my actual skill level is about UTR 5.5-6.
So do I go back to a high school event and beat down some more teenagers to bump my rating another point? Or do I pay $75 to get demolished at a tournament? Neither sounds like a good option. I don't mind losing badly, but losing the $75 on top makes it hard to justify.