TennisLink Tiebreak Glitch?

[Cindysphinx]

My team played its first match last night. Something is weird about the way Tennislink is viewing the results.

Five courts. We won all of the courts but one. Our winning scores were:

-0 and -0
-0 and -2
-3 and -1
-0 and -2

On the one court we lost, my player took the first set 6-4. Opponent won second set 3-6. Opponent won third set match tiebreak.

Tennislink shows the team as having lost two sets, which makes sense if you count the third set tiebreak as a set.

But it also shows the games lost as 19, not 18. Does that mean Tennislink considers the third set tiebreak to be both a set and a game lost? Why?

 

[J_R_B]

My team played its first match last night. Something is weird about the way Tennislink is viewing the results.

Five courts. We won all of the courts but one. Our winning scores were:

-0 and -0
-0 and -2
-3 and -1
-0 and -2

On the one court we lost, my player took the first set 6-4. Opponent won second set 3-6. Opponent won third set match tiebreak.

Tennislink shows the team as having lost two sets, which makes sense if you count the third set tiebreak as a set.

But it also shows the games lost as 19, not 18. Does that mean Tennislink considers the third set tiebreak to be both a set and a game lost? Why?

Match tiebreakers are entered as a set with a score of 1-0, so yes, it is a set and one game. Why? Who knows. I'd guess it was because they needed some way to fit it into the system from an IT standpoint, but that's just a guess. I don't think it is particularly unfair. A tiebreaker at the end of a 6-6 set counts as a game as well.

 

[JavierLW]

It counts as a set and a game.

And why not?, you did after all play a game....

The game tiebreaker is separate from the set tiebreaker so there is nothing unfair about it.

 

[athiker]

As mentioned since the 10 point tiebreaker is played in lieu of a playing out a full 3rd set it is still counted as a set. Since it is entered as 1-0 it is only counted as 1 game. I guess if it was entered as 6-0 it would give an inaccurate depiction of how close the match really was. If you see a 1-0 you know the match was settled by a tiebreak.

"Games Won" is not a season tiebreaker, only "Sets Lost", in this case 1 for the losing team, and then "Games Lost", also 1 for the losing team, and these are the last two on the list. If it was entered 6-0 then the losing team would have 6 games added to their Games Lost column...seems unfair for a tight match as the winning team would have zero added to theirs.

I guess it could be entered 6-4 or maybe 7-6 so that there is only a small differential, but what would be the advantage of that? Seeing that score is less descriptive of what actually occurred IMHO. It also puts both teams involved at a substantial disadvantage to other teams that only play 2 sets when it comes to team season ranking tiebreaks. A 1-0 game loss is only a small penalty in line with the fact that they had to go 3 "sets" to determine a winner in the match. Since they already lost 1 of the 2 sets their Games Lost count is probably already fairly high for the match...6 at a minimum for the winner, 7 for the loser...minimum.

Putting the actual tiebreak score, 10-8 say, or maybe 14-12 if it takes that long for one team to win by 2, is not useful for entering into the season team ranking columns.

The full order of season tiebreaks on Tennis Link appears to be Team Wins, Team Losses, Individual Wins, Individual Losses, Sets Lost, Games Lost.

 

[OrangePower]

What has always seemed strange to me is that in my area, we have the option of playing a full third set, but even in this case, the third set score is entered as 1-0 rather than say 6-3. I can't imagine why system would not support entering in full score in this case.

 

[dizzlmcwizzl]

What has always seemed strange to me is that in my area, we have the option of playing a full third set, but even in this case, the third set score is entered as 1-0 rather than say 6-3. I can't imagine why system would not support entering in full score in this case.

Odd ... this is not a tennis link thing so it must be a section or district decision. Here we can either put in 1-0 for a super tiebreak or the actual set score if you play it out.

 

[decades]

you guys all need to move up and start losing....

 

[OrangePower]

Odd ... this is not a tennis link thing so it must be a section or district decision. Here we can either put in 1-0 for a super tiebreak or the actual set score if you play it out.

This is Norcal's site. Are you entering scores directly into tennislink or does your section have its own site?

 

[Cindysphinx]

Thanks everyone. Your explanations make sense.

 

[dizzlmcwizzl]

This is Norcal's site. Are you entering scores directly into tennislink or does your section have its own site?

No, we enter scores directly into tennis link.

 

[Blade0324]

The reason tennislink just enters the third set as 1-0 even if you play the full set is to keep things even at the end of the season when it comes down to tie breakers for districts etc. A team that played all full third sets would have many more games won, even if they lost the 3rd sets than a team that played only tie breaks in lieu of 3rd sets. For example team A plays 4 third sets over their season and is 2-2 in those third sets with scores of 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 5-7. Team B on the other hand plays 4 tie breaks in lieu of third sets and is also 2-2 in those. Team A gets 21 games won along with 2 sets won. Team B would only get 2 games won along with 2 sets won. Team A would get the advantage and go to districts even though the results were the same. Just because they played 3rd sets.

 

[cll30]

The full order of season tiebreaks on Tennis Link appears to be Team Wins, Team Losses, Individual Wins, Individual Losses, Sets Lost, Games Lost.

What about head-to-head if your team won the match against the team you're tied with? Does that come into play at all?

 

[athiker]

Good question...I think head-to-head does come into play but I'm don't know when. I actually haven't looked up the tie-breakers in the rules/regs I just listed them according to how they are listed going across the standings in TennisLink from left to right so in my post above I'm making an assumption that that's the tiebreak order.

I may try to look it up later today if I get the chance.

 

[Blade0324]

What about head-to-head if your team won the match against the team you're tied with? Does that come into play at all?

Head to head is the last possible tie breaker that USTA looks at when determining who would go to districts etc.

 

[OrangePower]

The reason tennislink just enters the third set as 1-0 even if you play the full set is to keep things even at the end of the season when it comes down to tie breakers for districts etc. A team that played all full third sets would have many more games won, even if they lost the 3rd sets than a team that played only tie breaks in lieu of 3rd sets. For example team A plays 4 third sets over their season and is 2-2 in those third sets with scores of 6-3, 6-4, 4-6, 5-7. Team B on the other hand plays 4 tie breaks in lieu of third sets and is also 2-2 in those. Team A gets 21 games won along with 2 sets won. Team B would only get 2 games won along with 2 sets won. Team A would get the advantage and go to districts even though the results were the same. Just because they played 3rd sets.

Good answer. But the option to enter in full 3rd set score could be accomodated with a simple algorithm, so that when adding up games won, add only one game for a third set win, and zero games for a third set loss, regardless of the actual set score. That way the totals would work the same way they do now, but the entered information would be more accurate.