USTA Southern Combo Sectionals

[MRfStop]

My 7.5 team has qualified for the USTA Southern Combo Sectionals Championship in March located in Mobile. We won all of our team matches at the Georgia Combo State. This will be my first sectionals tournament and I hope it won't be my last.

Is there any one here that has qualified for this years tournament in Mobile as well? For those who have been to sectionals what was your experience? What can I look forward to? Is the competition going to be 1000x better than the state competition as I suspect it will be?

 

[ncgator]

Didn't qualify for this year's tournament, but have been several times in the past. My experience is that generally, especially at 7.5 level, the teams that do the best and win combo sectionals are the ones with players who sandbag and self-rate below their ability. A number of teams had players who only play USTA combo, and don't play in leagues that will give them a computer rating so they can continue to win state and sectional championships without ever getting bumped up since combo doesn't count toward USTA rating. The competition will not be that much better than your state championship, with the possible exception of the teams with sandbagging self-rated players. Good luck!

 

[MRfStop]

Didn't qualify for this year's tournament, but have been several times in the past. My experience is that generally, especially at 7.5 level, the teams that do the best and win combo sectionals are the ones with players who sandbag and self-rate below their ability. A number of teams had players who only play USTA combo, and don't play in leagues that will give them a computer rating so they can continue to win state and sectional championships without ever getting bumped up since combo doesn't count toward USTA rating. The competition will not be that much better than your state championship, with the possible exception of the teams with sandbagging self-rated players. Good luck!

There's only one team that shows up to combo state that does the "we only play combo". I don't think it's very smart to only play combo since you're only getting to play in one league per year and if the league is like middle GA combo leagues there are only two teams in the league.

I am looking forward to it and hope I do well. If not I will at least get to experience a different place and be able to watch people play that I have never seen before.

 

[BeyondTheTape]

My 7.5 team has qualified for the USTA Southern Combo Sectionals Championship in March located in Mobile. We won all of our team matches at the Georgia Combo State. This will be my first sectionals tournament and I hope it won't be my last.

Is there any one here that has qualified for this years tournament in Mobile as well? For those who have been to sectionals what was your experience? What can I look forward to? Is the competition going to be 1000x better than the state competition as I suspect it will be?

Good Luck!

This would be my third year going (7.5, 8.5, 8.5). My 8.5 team qualified but did not have enough players to go this year. Mobile is a great site for Combo as all matches are at one facility which eliminates any wrong facility mix-up. It is also fun to spectate all the levels on both genders all being played at one location. And the free massages help : ) I did get injured landing from an overhead my first year there. That's when i learned they have on-site physical therapists to help with injuries.

In terms of competition, i have found that you should expect the 3.5s to look like 4.0s and the 4.0s to look like 4.5s. Expect a higher level of tennis. After all, they are the best teams in the State. Look up your opponents, i'm positive a portion of their team will have already been bumped up this year from last year's rating. Southern Combo Sectionals is the only time to enjoy playing back down a level after getting bumped

Hope for good weather. Last year was a disaster with the rain. We had to play 4 game pro-sets. 4!! it was terrible. For instance, we lost the toss so we knew they would chose to serve. They did. They served and held. We got broke. They held to make it 3-0 going to 4 games in the set, the set was basically over after we got broke. It was quite anti-climatic to travel to play 4 game pro sets which wasn't a good representation of a match. But i understand they had to do it.

 

[jmc3367]

I have been once and it was fun. The competition was close. I didn't see any sandbagging players. At least I didn't think anyone was sandbagging. we also had a 7.5 team that went and all the matches were close. I would guess once you get up past 7.5 you might see some guys under rated.

 

[Moveforwardalways]

Expect sandbagging to be the norm. There are a TON of places that put the highest value on combo of any other USTA league. In other words, you tank in your regular league one season, get your C rating, and then don't play regular league for 3 years. This gives you the lower C rating to play only combo for USTA for the next 3 years but play up to your potential and have fun in local club leagues and even in USTA tournaments and USTA mixed leagues. Trust me. At 7.5 sectionals I have seen supposed 3.5s hitting consistent head high kick serves, serving and volleying, tight half volleys, don't miss overheads, huge forehands, etc. It is common to see doubles pairs where you can't tell who is the 3.5, and even sometimes you would think both players were 4.5. The "rules" you are used to locally may not apply. Just saying.

 

[MRfStop]

I have been once and it was fun. The competition was close. I didn't see any sandbagging players. At least I didn't think anyone was sandbagging. we also had a 7.5 team that went and all the matches were close. I would guess once you get up past 7.5 you might see some guys under rated.

What level did you go to sectionals for?

 

[jmc3367]

What level did you go to sectionals for?

it was 3 years ago we went at 6.5 out of Valdosta

 

[ncgator]

My 7.5 team has qualified for the USTA Southern Combo Sectionals Championship in March located in Mobile. We won all of our team matches at the Georgia Combo State. This will be my first sectionals tournament and I hope it won't be my last.

Is there any one here that has qualified for this years tournament in Mobile as well? For those who have been to sectionals what was your experience? What can I look forward to? Is the competition going to be 1000x better than the state competition as I suspect it will be?

How did it go at combo sectionals?

 

[MRfStop]

How did it go at combo sectionals?

I went 2-2 overall. Our team went 1-3. If several points went our way we would have been in the final. Too many tiebreakers that went 8-10. We came in 6th place out of 10.