TennisLink is gone! Well, sort of ... For tournaments at least
- Thread starter schmke
- Start date
RiverRat
Professional
I have now specified I'm an adult, interested in adult tournaments. They won't let me play the juniors anymore, although I think one could put together quite an interesting cross-generational invitational.
socallefty
G.O.A.T.
If the USTA were infiltrated by Foreign agents whose goal was to disrupt and create chaos within American tennis, do you think they would do anything different than how the USTA operates today? It almost seems like the USTA loves to shoot itself in the foot and screw up every program or tool they have that is popular with players.
schmke
Legend
The USTA is behind getting all sections on board with the new "Serve Tennis" site, and so some areas don't have their tournaments on the site yet. Sounds like Mid-Atlantic is one of those. Or TDs are leery of planning events for the next several months?
That said, I haven't looked in the last couple weeks, but I saw a lot of additional tournaments added during November and early December, so they are (slowly) getting there.
oiler90
Rookie
The Junior Circuit represents more current and future dollars for USTA. I’m not one for saying no to making a buck or two, but the obvious direction the USTA has gone concerning adult tourneys really stings this guy
oiler90
Rookie
I’m in the section east of the Mississippi and west of Pennsylvania, so I can’t answer with certainty, but I will say that your aggravation is felt nation-wide.
What a disgrace of an organization, web site is horrendous, in this day and age unforgivable not to have a functional web site. People should be fired or thrown in jail for the money wasted.
schmke
Legend
I just took another look and wrote more on my blog, but the number of tournaments has more than doubled in the past 3 weeks, but at least for Adult tournaments, more than half are in Florida and Texas. Are there really more than 20 states that don't have plans for more than a handful of tournaments in 2021? Certainly COVID restrictions may be causing some TDs to not add their tournaments to the site yet, but the numbers still seem quite low.
As someone who has been actively trying to participate in as many tournaments as possible and improve my NTRP for a few years, this experience has caused me great stress. Covid is not the problem here as everything was still running on TennisLink as shortly as a couple weeks ago. I was in tournaments via TennisLink in mid-December and now there is nothing for the whole year?! I have always participated in leagues outside of the USTA and I suppose I need to really commit to them now. They really want tennis enthusiasts to quit playing or what?
ATX Tennis
Rookie
We have tournaments scheduled here in Texas, but my experience with the first one highlights to me how frustrating it must be for tourney directors. Lots of control seems to have been taken from the TDs, and the process is anything but smooth.
schmke
Legend
Can you elaborate on what has changed? Is the new system "one size fits all" without any options or ability to tailor the setup of the tournament in the new system?
ATX Tennis
Rookie
Certainly seems one size fits all. Because of the changes to mixed, we had to sign up separately in an unsanctioned tourney within a tourney. No place to put partner’s name or shirt size, so had to fill out google form type deal afterwards. Can’t see who people are partnering with because of that. Seeds and draws usually out by now, but they are hoping to have it out by tomorrow. So not even sure what we will see then. Email went out just before registration deadline saying you are the only team registered in your division and to go online and withdraw or play in another age division; tourney director says he has no idea how and why that email went out.
just tried to register for a mixed-dubs tourney in my area next weekend. what an 'enhancement'! first of all, the formatting stinks -- huge font sizes/graphics = having to scroll all over the place to find one simple link. second, it no longer allows you to register multiple players in one shot (was entering for myself and my wife). so convenient!
congrats to whatever over-priced consulting firm fooled the fools at USTA HQ to think they have a better solution now...good grief...
I reached out to the TD's that intended to have tourneys to see what's up. Of course what they told me is kind of what we suspected. The USTA is responsible for training everyone on the new system and getting all of the tournaments uploaded on said system. Both TD's told me the USTA is behind schedule in doing this. So they are ready and have all of their info ready but the USTA is not. Shocker...
atatu
Legend
So here's an update on a big doubles tournament in Austin, they have been issues with the new system for weeks apparently and particularly having issues getting the draws posted, meanwhile people were getting more and more impatient as the tournament is supposed to start on Friday. Finally about 8pm tonight they publish the draws....on Tennislink ! I guess they just gave up trying to get it done on the new site and resorted to tennislink because they ran out of time.
schmke
Legend
O
M
G
It is true, they've now made it hard to search on TennisLink to find it, but it is there. Search Link
Tennis Sam
Rookie
It's crazy. I can't find any results on the new site for 2021. For example, checkout this tournament:
Agape - Grand Slam I - Junior Tournament
Click on Draws ... blank page!
Here are some other tournaments that I know had results from last week:
Boca Delray Level 6 Championships
New Years 12-18's Junior OPEN @ Bay Area Racquet Club presented by Dassani Dentistry
Miller Tennis Center New Year's Challenge BG12-18 SD, MXD (16 Draw)
All have Draws page cause they had results, but every one is blank. Or is it just my browser?
What are people doing that are playing tournaments this weekend? How are they getting the information out? On TennisLink, I can only find one tournament in 2021.
Agape - Grand Slam I - Junior Tournament
Click on Draws ... blank page!
Here are some other tournaments that I know had results from last week:
Boca Delray Level 6 Championships
New Years 12-18's Junior OPEN @ Bay Area Racquet Club presented by Dassani Dentistry
Miller Tennis Center New Year's Challenge BG12-18 SD, MXD (16 Draw)
All have Draws page cause they had results, but every one is blank. Or is it just my browser?
What are people doing that are playing tournaments this weekend? How are they getting the information out? On TennisLink, I can only find one tournament in 2021.
schmke
Legend
I don't know why one has results and not another, but this one does: https://playtennis.usta.com/Competi...Overview/09DDD677-43F1-48A1-B34F-82FD7BFF1555. Note it is also a Miller Tennis Center event but seems different some how? Is it related?
I do like the text I see when using the MTC link you provided:
PLEASE CHECK THE DRAWS AS TIMES MAY HAVE CHANGE DUE TO WEBSITE TECHNICAL DIFFICULTIES. THE SYSTEM IS VERY DIFFICULT AND THEY HAD MAJOR TECHNICAL ISSUES.
Tennis Sam
Rookie
Yeah, that's not a glaring endorsement. So it looks like round robins may display, but anything with a draw doesn't (?). I notice in the Boy's 18 singles event in the tournament you linked to there are 2 scores that say "[object Object] -". That's a new one to me.
UPDATE: It all appears to be working now. 7:36 PM PST
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Does anyone know how the level rankings work? What's a level 5 tourney vs level 6? Is there not a tournament ranking in your section anymore? https://www.usta.com/en/home/play/a...l/usta-adult-tournament-changes-for-2021.html is only showing age divisions.
schmke
Legend
Hmmm, I was just able to search for a player by name on the "USTA League" tab and see the teams they've played on. I can even search on The "Tournaments" tab, but only to find an archive of rankings. But then again, I don't recall that the search by name on Tournaments ever showed playing history.
Thanks. I should have been more specific.
When I click on the NTRP rating info for a player, it used to allow you to click on their name and you could see all their teams since around 2002. Now when I do it, it just has no result found in red.
schmke
Legend
Ok, yeah, that's broken ... Not sure why it broke, it doesn't have anything to do with deprecating tournaments on TennisLink.
Tennis Sam
Rookie
I don't think anyone is a huge fan of Tennislink, but I think they may have pulled the plug on that platform too soon.
J011yroger
Talk Tennis Guru
Tennis Sam
Rookie
So $23M to Deloitte for a revamp of the website (basically news). Does anyone know how much ClubSpark was paid to replace TennisLink? It doesn't seem to be going well.
Most tournament pages have complaints in the messages of the tournament home page saying how bad the system is, and now the ranking page has similar messages:
https://www.usta.com/en/home/play/rankings.html#tab=junior
Because of these findings, the decision was made to delay the publishing of the National Standings Lists scheduled for publication on Wednesday, 1/27. This delay will allow for the incorporation of this missing information, with the goal of publishing the updated lists the week of 2/1.
Following this upcoming publication, the National Standings Lists will continue to be audited going forward, enabling us to systematically rectify all known issues and continue to refine the system.
Please refer to the individual tournament home pages for selection and seeding processes during this time.
Our ultimate goal is to provide accurate and complete information. We apologize for this situation and appreciate your patience as we work through this process.
They were supposed to do selections for next week's L2's based on the 1/13 lists but had a problem, extended registrations, and said they were going to use the 1/20 lists instead which weren't posted until 1/22. This week they just punted altogether and are saying hopefully they will update the lists next week.
Every other organization in the world posts live or weekly rankings. How hard is it to add up points properly?
I assume they have paid millions of dollars for the TennisLink replacement. It's crazy how bad the rollout of this new system has been.
Most tournament pages have complaints in the messages of the tournament home page saying how bad the system is, and now the ranking page has similar messages:
https://www.usta.com/en/home/play/rankings.html#tab=junior
Following an analysis of the National Standings Lists published in 2021, it has been determined that there have been inaccuracies due to results from 2020 not properly being migrated to the new system.
Because of these findings, the decision was made to delay the publishing of the National Standings Lists scheduled for publication on Wednesday, 1/27. This delay will allow for the incorporation of this missing information, with the goal of publishing the updated lists the week of 2/1.
Following this upcoming publication, the National Standings Lists will continue to be audited going forward, enabling us to systematically rectify all known issues and continue to refine the system.
Please refer to the individual tournament home pages for selection and seeding processes during this time.
Our ultimate goal is to provide accurate and complete information. We apologize for this situation and appreciate your patience as we work through this process.
They were supposed to do selections for next week's L2's based on the 1/13 lists but had a problem, extended registrations, and said they were going to use the 1/20 lists instead which weren't posted until 1/22. This week they just punted altogether and are saying hopefully they will update the lists next week.
Every other organization in the world posts live or weekly rankings. How hard is it to add up points properly?
I assume they have paid millions of dollars for the TennisLink replacement. It's crazy how bad the rollout of this new system has been.
happyandbob
Legend
Not trying to defend Deloitte, but I'm sure some of the blame has to go to the USTA itself. I'm betting the list of requirements the USTA gave them was disorganized and disjointed.
NTRP_3.75_Patrick_Rafter
Rookie
This would not surprise me regarding Covid and the tournaments. My little town in South Carolina just built a nice public facility a couple years ago. Obviously most of the interest in building it was for juniors and whatnot but they've held a few tournaments there for adults. IIRC in 2018 they actually held 2. In 2019 and 2020 one in March. It was actually right before Covid got 'real' last year and everything started shutting down. I don't see it on the website this year and last year I am pretty sure they hosted the hard court open tourney. I'll ask the pro on Wednesday if I play men's night.
Jack the Hack
Hall of Fame
I just got this email update from the USTA today regarding tournaments and the new website:
"The past 12 months have been tough for all of us. But, tough people shine in tough times, and one thing we've proven is that by working together, tennis has not only survived, but has thrived. This sport and this industry have come together like never before, and, according to the most recent Physical Activity Council study, four million more people are playing our sport.
Even before this remarkable rise in participation, though, USTA staff and volunteers recognized that aspects of the tennis structure and tennis delivery system needed to change in order to better attract and retain players. In January of this year, the USTA officially rolled out a new competitive pathway to address this need. The new pathway created a unified, national tournament structure to ensure equal opportunity and fairness for all players, across all 17 Sections. The resulting competitive pathway has simplified and nationalized the tournament structure, creating seven levels of competition, as opposed to what had previously been 120 distinct and disparate nomenclatures and tournament levels across the nation.
Alongside this rollout, a new digital platform was introduced to support the new pathway. This new platform replaced TennisLink, which was not capable of supporting the new structure.
However, as we introduced the new platform, the resulting functionality was not ready. We were not fully prepared for the challenges with the historical data housed in TennisLink, and that has led to complexities in the transfer and migration of information and data from the various events, formats, and regions into one centralized system. A number of issues resulted, and we recognize that this has adversely affected players, tournament directors and providers throughout the country.
Over the past two months, we have worked diligently to fix and address issues with the goal to deliver correct information surrounding National Standings Lists. We have put into place, and continue to work through, an extensive audit of the rankings information, and have requested feedback from users to help us identify bugs and areas of concern, so as to increase accuracy. In addition, we have had extensive dialogue with Tournament Directors and have undergone intensive revisions on the back-end of the system to better enable the running of tournaments and events.
This week, we made a significant shift in strategy that will enable us to continue to deliver tennis via the new competitive pathway, while utilizing specific platforms to increase functionality, as we address issues within the platform.
By making this move:
• Tournament Directors will have access to multiple platforms to run events
• National Standings Lists for Juniors will be published weekly beginning March 10, while we continue to refine the system during this process
• Functionality surrounding Net Generation PlayTracker has been accelerated, with suggested ball color event designation inclusion, enabling a more engaging platform for 10 and under tennis to be accessible by early March; and a more robust Player Profile available in April
The implementation of this strategy has already begun. Once these areas have been addressed, we will next prioritize work surrounding the release of National Standings Lists for Adult and Wheelchair play, as well as complete Player Profiles for Junior, Adult and Wheelchair.
In addition to the technological fixes that we will deploy over the coming weeks and months, we continue to work with the Junior Competition Committee and Section Player Development Managers to find solutions for Junior players that have been affected by the ongoing audit of the National Standings Lists.
Although there may be issues along the way, we are confident that the final result will be a digital platform that will support and service the tennis community for years to come. Our end goal is to grow and provide tennis at the grassroots level, in the best possible way. The new competitive pathway and tournament structure, together with the new digital platform in its final form, will accomplish exactly that, helping to deliver this sport better than ever before.
Once again, we appreciate your patience as we continue to move forward."
"The past 12 months have been tough for all of us. But, tough people shine in tough times, and one thing we've proven is that by working together, tennis has not only survived, but has thrived. This sport and this industry have come together like never before, and, according to the most recent Physical Activity Council study, four million more people are playing our sport.
Even before this remarkable rise in participation, though, USTA staff and volunteers recognized that aspects of the tennis structure and tennis delivery system needed to change in order to better attract and retain players. In January of this year, the USTA officially rolled out a new competitive pathway to address this need. The new pathway created a unified, national tournament structure to ensure equal opportunity and fairness for all players, across all 17 Sections. The resulting competitive pathway has simplified and nationalized the tournament structure, creating seven levels of competition, as opposed to what had previously been 120 distinct and disparate nomenclatures and tournament levels across the nation.
Alongside this rollout, a new digital platform was introduced to support the new pathway. This new platform replaced TennisLink, which was not capable of supporting the new structure.
However, as we introduced the new platform, the resulting functionality was not ready. We were not fully prepared for the challenges with the historical data housed in TennisLink, and that has led to complexities in the transfer and migration of information and data from the various events, formats, and regions into one centralized system. A number of issues resulted, and we recognize that this has adversely affected players, tournament directors and providers throughout the country.
Over the past two months, we have worked diligently to fix and address issues with the goal to deliver correct information surrounding National Standings Lists. We have put into place, and continue to work through, an extensive audit of the rankings information, and have requested feedback from users to help us identify bugs and areas of concern, so as to increase accuracy. In addition, we have had extensive dialogue with Tournament Directors and have undergone intensive revisions on the back-end of the system to better enable the running of tournaments and events.
This week, we made a significant shift in strategy that will enable us to continue to deliver tennis via the new competitive pathway, while utilizing specific platforms to increase functionality, as we address issues within the platform.
By making this move:
• Tournament Directors will have access to multiple platforms to run events
• National Standings Lists for Juniors will be published weekly beginning March 10, while we continue to refine the system during this process
• Functionality surrounding Net Generation PlayTracker has been accelerated, with suggested ball color event designation inclusion, enabling a more engaging platform for 10 and under tennis to be accessible by early March; and a more robust Player Profile available in April
The implementation of this strategy has already begun. Once these areas have been addressed, we will next prioritize work surrounding the release of National Standings Lists for Adult and Wheelchair play, as well as complete Player Profiles for Junior, Adult and Wheelchair.
In addition to the technological fixes that we will deploy over the coming weeks and months, we continue to work with the Junior Competition Committee and Section Player Development Managers to find solutions for Junior players that have been affected by the ongoing audit of the National Standings Lists.
Although there may be issues along the way, we are confident that the final result will be a digital platform that will support and service the tennis community for years to come. Our end goal is to grow and provide tennis at the grassroots level, in the best possible way. The new competitive pathway and tournament structure, together with the new digital platform in its final form, will accomplish exactly that, helping to deliver this sport better than ever before.
Once again, we appreciate your patience as we continue to move forward."
McLovin
Legend
You mean like Windows v(insert number here)? Or a few of the recent iOS or OS-X releases?I received the same email. How dumb to release an untested product ... Someone took their (our) money and ran
Software companies release not-fully-tested products all the time. I’m not absolving them of any blame, but we’ve (consumers) accepted half-baked software for decades. We have to accept some of the blame also.
True, but I'm not sure a tennis platform is expected to be open-source as an end product. We keep giving our money so you are correct that we are also to blame.
LOBALOT
Hall of Fame
Yes, I got the e-mail too. Working in IT I can definitely sense a vendor being driven toward a fixed deadline launch by the USTA. I would have parallel tested the application including with a tournament entering data in both systems, tracking ranking points in both systems, etc. There is no way gaps in this functionality should have made their way into a production launch.
We were at a tournament a few weeks ago where a kid got hurt in the middle of the event and there was no way to enter a score of say "6-2, 3-1 Retired Injured" in the system. There is no way that simple failure in a use case should have gotten into production without being found in testing.
Parallel testing should have occurred for adult league, 10 and under, etc. None of that obviously occurred.
Poor on the vendor? Yes... Many times worse on the USTA as they are the customer and responsible for making sure that the system is tested and these gaps do not find there way into production.
We were at a tournament a few weeks ago where a kid got hurt in the middle of the event and there was no way to enter a score of say "6-2, 3-1 Retired Injured" in the system. There is no way that simple failure in a use case should have gotten into production without being found in testing.
Parallel testing should have occurred for adult league, 10 and under, etc. None of that obviously occurred.
Poor on the vendor? Yes... Many times worse on the USTA as they are the customer and responsible for making sure that the system is tested and these gaps do not find there way into production.
ATX Tennis
Rookie
Ok this is ridiculous. Draws are coming out a couple of days before tourney starts which is a problem if you’re coming from out of town. What will be interesting is how PlayTennis will do with singles nationals this weekend. Tourney starts Friday and draws not out as of Monday afternoon.
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Jack the Hack
Hall of Fame
For the Wilson World Tennis Classic in Palm Springs, which is typically one of the biggest senior tournaments in California outside of the surfaced based category 1 nationals, it looks like they took registrations through the new USTA site, but had to resort to putting their draws into TennisLink.
worldtennisclassic.net
So yeah, this is still going great!
Wilson World Tennis Classic
the Nation's Largest Amateur Tennis Tournament World Tennis Classic! Register Now Important Dates Schedule of Play The Nation's Largest Amateur Tennis Tournament World Tennis Classic! Register Now Important Dates Schedule of Play Compete against 750 of the top amateur players from...
worldtennisclassic.net
So yeah, this is still going great!
JackSockIsTheBest
Professional
Same as me for junior events it's pissing me off
atatu
Legend
Same for the 50's nationals in Orlando (aka ignore the 40 and over on the website nationals) but the good news is they are very excited about their virtual tournament desk app
.Interesting, the tournament is now showing up on tennislink
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schmke
Legend
Yep, it appears the "challenges" with the new system continue. While the main page for each event appears on the Play Tennis site, the draws do not and a link to TennisLink is provided to get to the draws.Same for the 50's nationals in Orlando (aka ignore the 40 and over on the website nationals) but the good news is they are very excited about their virtual tournament desk app
Interesting, the tournament is now showing up on tennislink
I would have thought the premier NTRP tournament events, run by USTA National, would have been a primary use case/scenario for the requirements for the new site, so it is kind of sad that 5+ months after the new site was launched it still can't support the NTRP Tournament Nationals events.
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