Are players not interested in competition? Or are tournament directors just not wanting to deal with tournaments given COVID protocols, potential liability, and not knowing if advertising a tournament for several months will find new restrictions precluding it being played?
Kevin, my understanding is that the Washington State open wasn't held because back in April or May, the sponsors wanted a commitment or guarantee that there would be a full field. With the pandemic situation back then, STC couldn't agree to that and so the sponsors pulled out. The 60's indoors were a gold ball tournament that lost their gold ball status due to the USTA limited level 1 tournaments, and for primarily that reason it isn't being held any longer.
The one tournament I played in was a level 5, and apparently Adam Hutchinson agreed to move it up from a level 6 in order to get more players and to support the tournament. It didn't help. In my 60's age group, there were, I think five players. There was something a bit weird in that there were a lot more tournament players listed a couple of days prior to the end of registration, so I entered. I then got hurt, thought about pulling out, went to the website, and saw that a number of those players disappeared and I think at that time there were only two or maybe three in my age group, so I could have gone directly into the finals. I thought I'd support the tournament by showing up and giving whoever else it was at least a match. Somehow after the deadline, a few more players got into the draw, but there were only two guys at the 4.5 level - I was one of them and played the other in the final.
Actually, now that I think about it, there was another age group tournament, held a few months ago at Galbraith. There was only one other guy in the 60s and so I would have gone directly into the finals against him - I looked up his USTA record and he was a 3.5. The tournament director called and said we would be put into the 50's along with the 55's, to get at least eight guys. I declined but looking back at it, I should have played. I thought tournaments would be plentiful and I'd have lots of opportunities as the baby of my age group.
I'm captaining our 55+ 9.0 team again and we actually have three teams in the league versus two last year. A couple of guys on my team are also babies of their age group and are interested in competing but haven't been willing to make the drive to the tournaments. That one tournament I played in was in Olympia - my first match was 3 p.m. Friday and it was nearly a three hour drive in heavy traffic to get there. Galbraith is closer - only about 90 minutes in traffic and that's where the October tournament is. And so far, of the three teams, one team doesn't have half of the players at level so I don't know what's going to come of that. On my team, I have a guy who is perennial top five in tournament rankings so I would think he would play if he could. The age group tournament next January that our club normally holds appears to be on track.
What do you think? Are you seeing much interest in competition among the players in your club and in your general area?
).... definitely way busier than a couple years ago
