how does one determine precisely which USTA leagues count toward NTRP?

wallymann

Semi-Pro
talking exclusively singles here. i played in several USTA singles leagues last year assuming they'd all count.

i'm in a USTA singles league right now and now i just heard that "some leagues count, some dont" but i have yet to hear how to establish w/o uncertainty whether any specific league counts or not.

I searched the forum and found some threads asking this question, but no definitive answers. example https://tt.tennis-warehouse.com/index.php?threads/which-league-count-toward-year-end-rating.605490/

i read the USTA FAQ and it's not there, either.
 

wallymann

Semi-Pro
sounds like you are talking about a flex league and those don't count towards your rating.

i dont know that i've been playing in flex leagues. i'm on teams pitted against other teams on specified dates with specified pairings and we record our scores and report them in to the USTA. and at the end of the league a team is crowned champion. seems like "normal" leagues to me.

wouldnt a "flex league" be named as such?
 

TennisOTM

Professional
It's even deeper than each checking each section, you have to check each district/area. My district has leagues that are only run here and not in any other state in the section, so checking the Section website would be no help.

The only place I've seen with public information on which of our leagues count is on a posted Google sheet with the league calendar - there is a little note below the calendar that says which leagues count toward NTRP.

Then there are tournaments - I could not find any information on which of our local tournaments count online - I had to email someone to get an answer.

Tennisrecord can sometimes give you an idea - if the results of a match are colored in green, then it probably doesn't count, and the black ones do count. However, they get some of them wrong, especially tournaments.
 

wallymann

Semi-Pro
i got confirmation from the USTA rep:

"in SE Michigan, the league matches used for year-end rating are the adult leagues played in the summer: Adult 18 & Over, Adult 40 & Over, Adult 55 & Over and Adult 65 & Over."
 

schmke

Legend
i got confirmation from the USTA rep:

"in SE Michigan, the league matches used for year-end rating are the adult leagues played in the summer: Adult 18 & Over, Adult 40 & Over, Adult 55 & Over and Adult 65 & Over."
Except last year at least, there are players that only played Tri-Level and got a 2023 year-end rating. So the data suggests Tri-Level counts too. So what answer can you really trust?
 

wallymann

Semi-Pro
Except last year at least, there are players that only played Tri-Level and got a 2023 year-end rating. So the data suggests Tri-Level counts too. So what answer can you really trust?

i got a more concise answer to this from my local rep:

National is responsible for the calculation process & determines which leagues it uses. They only use Nationally recognized programs. The matches that count for year-end rating are:
  • Adult 18 & Over
  • Adult 40 & Over
  • Adult 55 & Over
  • Adult 65 & Over
  • All Tri-Level League matches
If you only play mixed doubles - a mixed exclusive rating is generated from matches in the 18 & Over Mixed and 40 & Over Mixed.

No other league matches are included in year-end ratings.
 

schmke

Legend
i got a more concise answer to this from my local rep:

National is responsible for the calculation process & determines which leagues it uses. They only use Nationally recognized programs. The matches that count for year-end rating are:
  • Adult 18 & Over
  • Adult 40 & Over
  • Adult 55 & Over
  • Adult 65 & Over
  • All Tri-Level League matches
If you only play mixed doubles - a mixed exclusive rating is generated from matches in the 18 & Over Mixed and 40 & Over Mixed.

No other league matches are included in year-end ratings.
I agree that is nice and concise.

But I'll disagree with the first sentence as a general rule for all sections as I know it isn't true. What is listed may be true for SEM or even all of MiddleWest, but I know for certain that in PNW there are some singles Flex leagues that count (and some that don't), in SoCal they have alternate doubles leagues that count, Mid-Atlantic has other leagues that count, in Florida Combo counts, and I could go on. So it is up to the section to decide what they want counted.
 
Agree with schmke. National does prescribe the ones listed, but the Sections are given freedom to count other non-advancing leagues, they can delegate this downward to the local Areas. But, it is also difficult to get reliable information on that - I have had instances where I was told it counted but it didn't, and vice versa (usually due to a screwup in setting up the league on TennisLink). I have also seen cases where the non-advancing league did not count, but its playoffs did.

Oddly enough, the most reliable data on performance is probably to tell people the league doesn't count, and then to count it. Sort of a Heisenberg thing - to observe a system is to perturb it.
 

wallymann

Semi-Pro
that this whole topic is...a topic at all...is just so backwards.

we pay money for a USTA membership, we pay money to join USTA leagues, we pay money to play USTA matches. why not just make every USTA league match matter towards our ranking?!

clearly this is why theres an opportunity for UTR to make inroads.
 

Moon Shooter

Hall of Fame
With respect to a singles tournament even the guy running it couldn’t tell me. Then you have usta wtn events. They usually would not count toward your ntrp.
 

Moon Shooter

Hall of Fame
that this whole topic is...a topic at all...is just so backwards.

we pay money for a USTA membership, we pay money to join USTA leagues, we pay money to play USTA matches. why not just make every USTA league match matter towards our ranking?!

clearly this is why theres an opportunity for UTR to make inroads.

Even if we didn’t pay USTA makes huge profits on their monopoly control of the pro game. They are supposed to use those profits to promote tennis. Instead they make us pay for these confusing leagues and it takes them years to get basic things done poorly. For example, Tennis link does not allow you to open multiple tabs. Since it pretty much always just times out anyway I guess it doesn’t matter. But hey the internet is still new I guess we should not expect a webpage as good as TR (which is free and put together in spite of USA instead with the help of usta) to look at other teams and player histories.
 
Top