USTA Automatic Appeal System Issue

[ncgator]

A friend of mine received an email from USTA Community Tennis saying “We recently found a problem with our auto-appeal system. In our investigation of the issue, we found that you may have attempted an appeal and may have been impacted. The problem has been resolved, and if desired, your automatic appeal can be attempted again.” He appealed again, and his appeal was granted (4.5 to 4.0). Anyone know of others receiving a similar email today? It was a nice early Christmas present for my friend

 

[Jack the Hack]

A friend of mine received an email from USTA Community Tennis saying “We recently found a problem with our auto-appeal system. In our investigation of the issue, we found that you may have attempted an appeal and may have been impacted. The problem has been resolved, and if desired, your automatic appeal can be attempted again.” He appealed again, and his appeal was granted (4.5 to 4.0). Anyone know of others receiving a similar email today? It was a nice early Christmas present for my friend

I didn't get any emails like that personally, but I tried the auto appeal just now for kicks to test it... and was denied. That's not much of a surprise though as I believe my rating is somewhere in the middle of the 4.5 range and not in a place where I would automatically be moved up or down.

If your friend is in the Southern section, I wonder if the USTA is rethinking their Great Southern Bump calculation?

 

[ncgator]

Yes, my friend is in Southern Section (NC) and should legitimately be 4.0 rather than 4.5. He would be the only player I’m aware of that would be bumped down from 4.5 to 4.0. Several guys had appeals granted to stay at 4.0, but this is the only person I’m aware of in our local league to successfully appeal down from 4.5 in 2019 to 4.0 in 2020. Also not aware of anyone else who was 4.5 in 2019 to be bumped down to 4.0 in 2020.

 

[schmke]

A friend of mine received an email from USTA Community Tennis saying “We recently found a problem with our auto-appeal system. In our investigation of the issue, we found that you may have attempted an appeal and may have been impacted. The problem has been resolved, and if desired, your automatic appeal can be attempted again.” He appealed again, and his appeal was granted (4.5 to 4.0). Anyone know of others receiving a similar email today? It was a nice early Christmas present for my friend

That is remarkably proactive of the USTA to keep track of who tried to appealed and notify those that did and were impacted by whatever the goof was. Now I'm curious who it was so I can take a closer look. PM me if you care to and I'll let you know my thoughts on them staying a 4.5 and being able to (now) appeal.

 

[Moveforwardalways]

Who does this guy know at the LLC level or higher? This type of thing is essentially unheard of and it sounds like it was contrived behind the scenes.

 

[ncgator]

Nope, no USTA contacts at national level, and nothing contrived behind the scenes...

 

[BeyondTheTape]

A friend of mine received an email from USTA Community Tennis saying “We recently found a problem with our auto-appeal system. In our investigation of the issue, we found that you may have attempted an appeal and may have been impacted. The problem has been resolved, and if desired, your automatic appeal can be attempted again.” He appealed again, and his appeal was granted (4.5 to 4.0). Anyone know of others receiving a similar email today? It was a nice early Christmas present for my friend

Due to this *bug* in the software appeal process i went from 4.5C to 3.5C. thanks for the information! I think they have it spot on.

 

[Moveforwardalways]

Due to this *bug* in the software appeal process i went from 4.5C to 3.5C. thanks for the information! I think they have it spot on.

You are so going to nationals now. Congrats!

 

[Jack the Hack]

You are so going to nationals now. Congrats!

Yeah, maybe Southern can finally win a National title even! How long has it been...?

 

[brettatk]

I have noticed about 10 appeals have been granted in the past week down here in GA from 4.5 to 4.0. I'm assuming this is why. I've asked the 6 guys on my team who were bumped to try again, it can't hurt.

 

[brettatk]

Is the Auto Appeal button gone for everyone else? I just looked and it's not showing at all when I log in. I did appeal though. Maybe they made it where once you appeal the link goes away? I'm almost certain it was always there before regardless but I could be wrong.

 

[ace18]

Still there..

 

[ace18]

Also, I know of a lot of Georgia guys getting appealed down over the last several days.

 

[brettatk]

Still there..

Had you tried to appeal?

 

[ace18]

Had you tried to appeal?

I did, came back denied

 

[brettatk]

Still there..

This is what mine and another guy on my team looks like:

 

[brettatk]

I did, came back denied

Can you see the link when you hover over Auto Appeal? If so can you paste it here? I want to see if I can access it that way.

 

[schmke]

Can you see the link when you hover over Auto Appeal? If so can you paste it here? I want to see if I can access it that way.

Link appears to be custom to your login:

https://tennislink.usta.com/leagues/Appeal/Preauthorize.aspx?MemberNum=<encodedNumberHere>&source=fr&coord=***

 

[brettatk]

Link appears to be custom to your login:

https://tennislink.usta.com/leagues/Appeal/Preauthorize.aspx?MemberNum=<encodedNumberHere>&source=fr&coord=***

Thanks. That works if I copy and paste my member # and add it to the end of the link. Weird that they removed it from certain accounts.

 

[schmke]

Thanks. That works if I copy and paste my member # and add it to the end of the link. Weird that they removed it from certain accounts.

Same result?

 

[brettatk]

Same result?

I had already appealed and had it granted. I had asked the guys on my team who were bumped to appeal again. One of them emailed me this morning saying he couldn't find the Auto Appeal link. I logged in and like him it wasn't there on mine either. So I was trying to find a way for those guys to appeal again.

 

[Moveforwardalways]

Once you appeal, it disappears.

 

[schmke]

Once you appeal, it disappears.

So sounds like they reenabled it for those that had appealed and had it incorrectly denied.

I don't think they used to remove it, but when people would go click the link once a week, they probably got tired of it and removed it after you appeal once.

 

[brettatk]

Once you appeal, it disappears.

That is what I was wondering. But that doesn't explain why @ace18 can still see it, he's already appealed.

@ace18, did you appeal again? If @schmke is right maybe you should try.

 

[Vox Rationis]

Maybe it's a browser problem? Have you tried using a different browser than the one you currently use? Anecdotally I had to stop using tennislink on Chrome because a lot of the links stopped working for me for some reason.

 

[Matthew ATX]

Appeal button still there for me. I've tried and been denied multiple times.

 

[Shankadelic]

In my local section of SC, 17 appeals were given for newly bumped 5.0s without having to hit the appeal button again. I tried again but was denied.

Not sure if a 5.0 league will take now.

 

[J_R_B]

I just tried my appeal, which was predictably denied - I'm nowhere close to being down to 3.5, just to see if the link disappeared, and it did not.

This whole thing sounds like the USTA is coming to terms with the great Southern bump now being considered something between an overreaction and a mistake.

 

[Matthew ATX]

They need to correct Texas too. Some really stupid bumps here.

 

[Jack the Hack]

This whole thing sounds like the USTA is coming to terms with the great Southern bump now being considered something between an overreaction and a mistake.

Now if the USTA would just come to the realization that the format change in the 40 & Over league was a mistake, we'd be talking...

 

[ace18]

That is what I was wondering. But that doesn't explain why @ace18 can still see it, he's already appealed.

@ace18, did you appeal again? If @schmke is right maybe you should try.

I just tried for grins. It was denied and I still see the Appeal Rating Level link.

 

[kevrol]

Link appears to be custom to your login:

https://tennislink.usta.com/leagues/Appeal/Preauthorize.aspx?MemberNum=<encodedNumberHere>&source=fr&coord=***

You used to be able to do this without being the player actually logged in. USTA finally fixed that about 2 years ago. For instance I could have plugged in anyone's usta number and appealed them up or down without actually being logged in as them. And in case you were wondering their USTA member number used to be included in the URL for their match results. So up until 2 years ago you could appeal any USTA player rating without their knowledge or consent. Not that anyone would have done such a thing.

 

[schmke]

You used to be able to do this without being the player actually logged in. USTA finally fixed that about 2 years ago. For instance I could have plugged in anyone's usta number and appealed them up or down without actually being logged in as them. And in case you were wondering their USTA member number used to be included in the URL for their match results. So up until 2 years ago you could appeal any USTA player rating without their knowledge or consent. Not that anyone would have done such a thing.

There were other gaping holes in TennisLink a few years ago too ...

 

[kylebarendrick]

You mean like when you used to be able to to hit the appeal button and then look at the web page code to see the exact dynamic rating?

Oh, and you could do that with anyone...

There were other gaping holes in TennisLink a few years ago too ...

 

[denoted]

You mean like when you used to be able to to hit the appeal button and then look at the web page code to see the exact dynamic rating?

Oh, and you could do that with anyone...

No ****. Maybe that's how TR got so accurate.

 

[brettatk]

You also used to be able to find anyone's email address and phone number via their USTA number. Found that helpful many times but they locked that up a few years ago as well.

 

[schmke]

I just heard from someone that says they appealed when ratings came out and was denied, and they didn't try appealing again or get a letter about any mistake, but when they went to register for a team it shows their appeal down was granted and were the level down from their year-end level. It is like they re-did the appeal automatically after fixing whatever the issue was.

Yes, Southern, but also a female not male.

 

[Vox Rationis]

I wonder how large a scale this is happening? From what the forum is saying it sounds like Atlanta and Charleston have had a lot of appeals automatically go through but those are both top 10 in the country for USTA league population. Is there news of this happening frequently all over? I know my city has barely had any appeals accepted at all, let alone done automatically.

 

[brettatk]

Unfortunately none of the 6 that were bumped on my team were able to appeal down. All were denied again.

 

[brettatk]

Another wierd thing is I've noticed that USTA has DQ'ed several guys in our 4.0 18+ league. This was after ratings had came out and they were bumped to 4.5. These were C rated players at the end of 2018.

 

[schmke]

Another wierd thing is I've noticed that USTA has DQ'ed several guys in our 4.0 18+ league. This was after ratings had came out and they were bumped to 4.5. These were C rated players at the end of 2018.

This is a standard thing that has been in the rules for awhile, but probably triggered more this year with the adjustments made.

When someone plays in an ESL as a 4.0 and is bumped up to 4.5 at year-end, Southern allows them to keep playing on the ESL team as a 4.0 through Sectionals (not allowed by National rule to play at Nationals though), unless, their rating is so high into the 4.5 range (the "clearly above" mark) that they consider it not fair to let them keep playing as a 4.0, 2018 C rating or not. So I'm guessing these players were bumped up and exceeded that threshold, thus this rule kicked in.

 

[Snarf]

So far, I’m aware of seven people in my area who were granted appeals after their attempt to hit the button was initially denied. Southern section. All men. Some did nothing while some emailed the state coordinator to complain.

 

[Brilliant]

What state/city are you in?

 

[brettatk]

This morning I've had 3 people on my 18+ team who were bumped receive an email from USTA saying their appeal back down was granted. They didn't do anything to initiate the appeal today. They appealed once when ratings were out then again about 2 weeks ago.

 

[schmke]

This morning I've had 3 people on my 18+ team who were bumped receive an email from USTA saying their appeal back down was granted. They didn't do anything to initiate the appeal today. They appealed once when ratings were out then again about 2 weeks ago.

It appears Georgia at least automatically "re-appealed" players that had tried original when someone was wrong on TennisLink.

 

[Vox Rationis]

It appears Georgia at least automatically "re-appealed" players that had tried original when someone was wrong on TennisLink.

Are states individually doing this on their own or is this coming from sectional/national?

 

[schmke]

Are states individually doing this on their own or is this coming from sectional/national?

My impression is Georgia did it on their own. I think there were reports that other states had sent an e-mail to players telling them they should try appealing again.

 

[Snarf]

Our state coordinator said she was going through everyone’s rating and forwarding any that were close to the line for review. She claimed not to know the criteria used that would be used.

 

[BeyondTheTape]

This is wild. From my observation - appeal rated players are having a hard time finding teams locally. The season is underway and teams have a roster cap max of 21 players. Due to the great southern bump, the top teams in leagues lost numerous players and generally the top teams usually keep a full stable each year at 21 players. Captains of these teams (once the new 2020 ratings came out) had recruited and re-loaded the wagon for the new season fulfilling their max quota. 5-6 weeks pass since the ratings holiday, leagues begin and southern LLC's send out emails about re-appealing again for the rating to be granted. A rated unicorns are now in a frenzy sending out texts to captains asking if they can join their team. And since leagues have started they cant (obviously) form a new team. Captains are turning away unicorns being maxxed out.

Now some A unicorns are sitting this winter's league.

 

[schmke]

Here is text from an e-mail I was forwarded in one of the cases where appeals were re-done for players by the USTA:

USTA National discovered a glitch on TennisLink that caused many appeals to be denied when ratings were within the appealable range. USTA Georgia pulled up the list of players that had been denied and resubmitted their appeals. The ones that were eligible got approved.

If you are one the players affected by this technical encounter and would like to switch teams for the spring season, email <LC names removed>. You must enclose the league, level, team name and team number of the team you are registered for along with the league, level, team name and team number of the team you would like to move to. It is very important for you to include all this information to ensure a quick fix.

With the late notice of the rating appeal changes, we are:

1. extending the deadline for team creation until Monday, January 13, 2020.
2. waiving the 50% rule for the 2020 spring season so that players may stay on the teams they had joined if they wish. If you only have two teams at your level, you must have 40% of your players at the NTRP level of your team per USTA regulations.

We are very sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused and are working diligently with USTA Georgia to place everyone on their respective teams.