2019: I was a bench warmer with a losing record that played on a very successful 40s 4.5+ National team.
2020: I didn't play any USTA League or tournaments.
2021: I only played two USTA matches all year, a close win and horrible loss, in doubles.
My USTA membership expired in October and I've felt no need to renew. With no membership and only two matches since 2019, I'm not sure what the computer is going to do. I'm assuming I'll stay at 4.5, but maybe it won't generate anything and I'll have to self rate to get back in someday.
Right now, I'm unhappy with many of the changes that have happened in USTA League and I'm not particularly motivated to participate anymore. Having won literally hundreds of League matches over the many years (I'm old) and been on a team that made it to the top, I guess I have nothing left to prove. I only played on a team this year because a good friend of mine begged me to join since he was short on players. I didn't care too much, but felt like we got screwed by losing only one team match all season (we were 5-1 against other teams) but losing out on going to Sectionals because another team had more points from individual matches than us (they were 3-3 and we beat them). This kind of BS only strengthened my disdain for the USTA.
I'm not sure what I'm going to do with tennis in the next few years. I still love the game and occasionally play really awesome between injuries. However, in my personal life, I recently got a promotion at work that is sucking up a bunch of time and I'm also attending grad school to finish my PhD. So basically, tennis is great, but it's not the most important priority for me right now. My kids are almost all grown up, so when I finish my doctorate, maybe I'll take a high paying gig somewhere else where it's sunny and nobody knows who I am. Maybe I'll move to Houston or Salt Lake City and join a 3.5 or 4.0 team under a new name.
