Assuming he is telling you the truth and not just making up the story, then you need to report him and his captain (again assuming the captain was behind it). Anything less and all the complaining in the world on chat boards will be an exercise in futility.
I returned to tennis after a 4 year layoff at the end of 2004. I met the cheating player that I referred to at the 4.5+ men's night at my club and was impressed by his speed and outstanding volleys (he's a very talented doubles player). 2004 was the year that he went to nationals and he was bumped up to his rightful skill level at the end of that year. It wasn't until this year that I played on a serious USTA league team again, so that guy's two year sandbagging trick never effected me directly as it happened well before I got back in the game. However, seeing what he did gave me insight into this loophole in the system. (The captain of that team has not played for the past couple years, so reporting all of this now seems pretty futile.)
Ok, what evidence did your research uncover, and more importantly, what did you do with that evidence once you had it?
The most outrageous thing we found was this:
One of the teams we faced at sectionals had a self rated player at #1 singles that only played two matches during the regular season (one in doubles), but suddenly he won all of his district matches easily over players with excellent records. We looked his name up on the Internet, and the only thing we could find was someone with the exact same name who played in multiple ITF Futures events in Europe, India, and Africa. Sure enough, when I went out to play this guy, he was from overseas. He got up 5-0 after about 10 minutes, blasting winner after winner. On one point, he came to the net and I hit a shot to his forehand as hard as I can hit, which he volleyed right back to me and moved over to cover the down the line shot. I then blasted my next shot cross-court, which was away from where he had anticipated... but he reached around behind his back and volleyed the ball away for a winner. I've never seen anybody with the racquet skills to do what he did except in the 5.0+ Open level!
At that point, I began asking him questions during the changeovers, thinking of the grievance we would file. (Sample question: Where did you learn to play like that? Answer: I've only been hitting with my friends for a year - I've never played organized tennis before.) Once I started asking questions, all of a sudden the guy started to throw games. In the first 5 games, he was hitting big serves and hammering topspin backhands. Next thing I know, he's just spinning his serve in and slicing his backhand down the middle of the court. I won a few games in a row, and then he served the set out. The second set went pretty much the same. It was clear to me that he was toying around, just trying to make the match close enough so that he wouldn't get a strike.
Anyway, after that match, we filed a grievance against not only that player, but several others on that team that we felt had suspicious records/ratings. (As it turned out, all of the other teams that played them in the tournament also filed grievances). We showed the USTA Sectional League Coordinator the ITF results that we had found on the Internet, and the evidence that this team might have been hiding ringers. To her credit, we felt the USTA person took our appeal seriously and she had a discussion with the captain of that team and their player. In the end, he denied that he was the player that we found on the Internet, and there was no way for the USTA to prove that he was the same person. Interestingly, he did admit that he had played some college tennis in India, but it supposedly was no higher than junior college play in the US (the USTA had no way to verify this). However, to me, that showed he was a liar because he had told me that he had never played organized tennis before (which I knew was BS).
That is obviously an assumption on your part.
Yes, it is an assumption that other teams would find this apparent loophole in the system. It kind of sounds like you don't believe that teams would actually stoop to this... but consider:
The NorCal 4.0 team that went to nationals this year is currently being accused of using players that were not really on their team. In other words, they substituted 5.0 level players in place of guys on their team and just had the ringers use their identity.
And then there is this gem from another thread where the poster was describing what happened when they tried to implement a more dynamic or fair rating system at his club:
Here's the cheating part. When you enter scores you can tell immediately how it affects your rating. In TPI (our version) used the DNTRP algoritm. You could tell how much different a 6-1, 6-1 win would affect your score, versus a 6-4, 6-4 win. Winners would fudge the scores so they didn't move their rating. Losers would be happy not to be go down. Or folks would sandbag to ensure their ratings weren't moving. Or they would put scores in for friends they didn't play against, who aren't following the scores because they are injured and haven't been on the court for months. Or they would borrow people's names and ratings to put in a foursome where 3 players had numbers, and the fourth was about the same rating they figured. You need more than a few to participate, you need buy in from all the players for the scores to be entered correctly and people to be checking the scores. At our club we were on the system because of a few players, and the rest made it into a joke so even the few players couldn't get decent readings out of it.
Unfortunately, while I believe that most people are honest and fair, there are also a bunch of rotten apples out there that will win at all costs... and competition just brings the worst out in them.
While a captain or team can find many ways to cheat if they are so inclined, the only way to put a stop to it is file a grievance against the offending team. The thing that puzzles me with the story is that it is unnessarelily elaborate, with much less effort needed to accomplish the same level of cheating. Additionally, you have to question a persons veracity that will freely admit to such now after the fact. Are they willing to come forward and expose the previous fraud? If not, why risk having you bring it too the USTA's attention?
As I mentioned, in the case I know about, the cheating occurred over two years ago and the player doesn't even play league tennis anymore... at least not at the incorrect level. The captain is out of the game completely as far as I know. They went to nationals and lost. They have nothing to gain or lose now.
Not to sound like a broken record, but once the time was taken to research these type of irregular playing patterns, what did you or your captain do with the information?
See above; we filed a grievance with the sectional League coordinator.
I would agree with you on this point, and that is why it is imperative that a team such as yourselves who feel you have been the victim of systemic cheating bring your findings to the light of day. Otherwise what is the point of complaining if you are unwilling to stand up for yourselves?
Again, see above. We filed the proper grievance. Our section coordinator did an investigation, but couldn't/didn't do anything. That team won, and now 6 of their players have been bumped up.
The point of my posts isn't really to complain about our experience. Playing on that team and going to sectionals was one of the best experiences I have had in tennis. In the district finals, we were tied at 2-2, and I won a third set super tiebreaker 12-10 to win the match for our team. I've never felt this before, but the hair on the back of my neck felt like it was standing up and I literally got goosebumps when I won that match. (I've won a lot of tournaments in my 20+ years of tennis, but that was the best feeling ever.) Seeing what was going on at sectionals and hearing other's stories about nationals is what concerns me... but I am not bitter about our particular situation. Rather, I am just pointing out some of the large holes in the system that me and my friends have observed - and how I don't like the idea of eliminating the dynamic DQ in the playoffs because of this... there has to be a better way.
On that note, here's another loophole that we thought of:
What's to stop a player from moving into a new area and signing up for a USTA membership with an assumed name or nickname? If nobody knew who you were, you could self rate as whatever level you wanted and nobody could trace it. From what I've seen, the USTA doesn't actually check IDs at tournaments or league playoffs (although, I guess that might change if what NorCal is accused of doing turns out to be true).
