USTA Announces Additional Cancellations of National Junior Events; Three US ITF Junior Tournaments, Including B1 Pan American Closed, Canceled; Halep Among Three Women Withdrawing from US Open
The USTA today announced the cancellation of all USTA National level Junior events through October 12th and all its adult events through 2020. In addition to USTA tournaments, the International Tennis Federation's junior events scheduled in the US in September and October are also off, including the biggest tournament of the fall, the ITF Grade B1 Pan American Closed.
From the USTA release:
USTA STATEMENT ON EVENT CANCELLATIONS
Due to the situation surrounding COVID-19, the USTA has canceled all National junior events through Oct. 12, as well as all adult Category 1 events, comprising the Adult, Open, Family, and Age divisions, through the end of 2020.
The decision to cancel was made to ensure the health and safety of all those involved as the interstate travel required for these tournaments carries an increased risk. In addition, the different regulations, restrictions and quarantine periods, dependent upon the localities involved, both at the site of the event and in the participants’ home states were considered.
The safety of the actual tennis being played did not factor into the decision to cancel the events. In order to encourage local play opportunities that do not require extensive travel, junior and adult players will now be able to earn national rankings points at select Section-level events.
The list of USTA National and ITF Junior events canceled:
September National Level 3 (Sept. 12-14)
Zimmerman/Johnson National Level 2 (Sept. 18-20)
McKinney Texas Grade 5 ITF (Sept. 19-26)
Corpus Christi Grade 4 ITF (Sept. 26-Oct. 3)
Pan American Grade B1 ITF (Oct. 3-10)
October National Level 2 (Oct. 10-12)
Allstate Sugar Bowl Level 3 (Nov. 14-16)
The list of adult tournaments canceled is much longer. It can be found here.
The mention in the release of national points for sectional play is new and should be a prompt to contact your section's junior competition department for more on the options available.
The Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl, two top ITF junior events in the US remaining for 2020, are still on the ITF Junior calendar, but as I noted several weeks ago, the ITF has made a decision to provide only level 3 points as the maximum number available at all ITF Junior events this year. The ITF's explanation of the junior rankings and points available through 2020 is here; there is a mention of the French Open junior championships receiving an exemption to the continue as a Grade A, but that tournament still does not appear on the ITF junior calendar in October. The calendar now does show the ITF Grade A Osaka Mayor's Cup in Japan in October as canceled. As with the ITF men's and women's events, it appears most of the junior opportunities to compete will be in Europe this fall.
Three more women withdrew from the US Open today, including world No. 2 Simona Halep. (Su-Wei Hsieh(TPE) and Priscilla Hon(AUS) are the others). That leaves just four of the WTA Top 10 competing in New York, but does provide more opportunities for Americans, with Usue Arconada moving into the main draw on her own ranking, and Allie Kiick receiving Arconada's wild card. Four US women have moved up into the main draw, freeing up wild cards; A fifth wild card, Whitney Osuigwe, is now three spots out of the main draw.
The men's field has been remarkably stable, given the circumstances, with only one withdrawal in the past ten days. The current women's entry list is here.
10 comments:
Why do you think golf has been able to play so many junior events around the country? Just look at the AJGA website. They have junior kids traveling to different parts of the country. Similarly, the US Amateur this past weekend had plenty of golfers traveling to Oregon, even some foreign nationals. I believe the Women’s Amateur was the week before. What is golf doing differently that allows so many junior/amateur events to take place?
@Wondering Golf unlike Tennis has a National body that regulates all competition. USTA is comprised of Individual Entities (Sections) that have almost complete autonomy. I'm guessing this decentralized approach will result in some future changes.
Junior and amateur tennis is in disarray. The USTA seems to be muddled, like SeminoleG said, the sections are pretty much drifting in various directions. ITF juniors is also wandering aimlessly right now. UTR stepped in with some UTR-ITA junior/college events and some money events that have been well attended.
But US junior tennis is pretty much directionless right now. UTR has a opening to take over but they would need to improve their algorithm in regards to juniors to lessen the withdrawals and ramp up the quantity and quality of the officials at their events.
Thanks guys. Check out the entry list to the Junior Players Championship in a few weeks at TPC Sawgrass in Fla.
https://www.ajga.org/tournaments/2020/the-junior-players-championship/the-junior-players-championship-applications-received
The participants are from everywhere. It’s a shame we can’t have a decent 16s or 18s event.....somewhere.
The only thing different is how the tennis parent has become more vocal and a presence on Social Media. The game is the same. The College Coaches are the same. The talent is basically the same... kids win... kids lose ... but their total records and their character remain the the same. JK... ur not the first parent on this website that thinks their kids aren’t getting a fair shot. Practice.... practice... practice.... your kid is only as good as their next match....stop being a disgruntled parent and teach your kids everything outside of the lines.... good luck...
@jon King, had a conversation with a few parents who's kids were playing Hi-Level ITF Jrs, and 15-25K events. They are dismayed at the lack of effort to do anything, something by the governing bodies. Tennis had a small window to capture an audience before Sports ramped back up. Now you got NBA, Baseball, Football are starting up or in full swing. Add to that college football so when the CEO's of the various alphabet soup of tennis get together I only hope they enjoy their 2020 Salary they have not earned.
@Jon King - re: "Junior and amateur tennis is in disarray" .... Add that to the list. It's a long one. Big 10 and Pac 10 cancel Fall football season; ACC, SEC, Big 12 playing (for now). In my state no one wants to make a decision on Fall high school sports, still up in the air. @Seminole - even if tennis threw something together in June it would not have been that big of a deal. People were thinking having baseball, basketball and hockey going right now would be amazing. It's nice, but ratings aren't amazing and the impact is much less than what was expected. It's a weird time right now. Things kind of suck for everyone all around. If the UTR algorithm is your biggest problem right now, life is pretty good...@tired of complaining - nailed it....HAVING SAID that - how about a zootennis podcast w/ JK and Seminole? They are insightful and have a lot of passion, would be interesting to hear. It would also free up the space in the comments section for others....
Its certainly not true that the only changes is tennis parents are more vocal on social media. The entire junior tennis system has changed.
Old system, play USTA and get points per round. Have a bad match, no big deal. Beat a lower ranked kid in a very close match 2-6, 6-4, 10-8 in tiebreak, get same points per round as if you won 6-0.6-0. Parents and players see change in rankings with points added in 2 weeks or so.
New system, play and see UTR change the next morning. Beat a lower ranked kid, but in a close match, and see the UTR decrease.
This is an entirely new way for parents and kids to view their standings in tennis. It has changed everything in junior tennis. Way more stress and obsession with rating than back in the day.
I think it is pretty much common knowledge that parents in all youth sports have become way more micro managing than in the past. Parents have no problem chewing out officials, coaches, refs and making the overall experience worse for volunteers and professionals as well as their own kids. I firmly believe that cheating and matching dodging is primarily caused by the parents directly or the pressure put on by parents. If your child is blatantly cheating the best person to stop this is the parent who is sitting behind the fence (same with poor behavior). Is it the parent or player who is over analyzing UTR updates?
I love parents who spend entire game yelling at refs during a team sport and never acknowledge one call that went their way. The bad draws, bad bounces, and for most part calls even out over a career.
Here is another great question, at what age does UTR even matter? Any recruitment by a college is not legitimate until sophomore year so should not matter until then?
We are in a global pandemic, I am not sure it is a good idea to travel around the county and world playing tennis tournaments right now. Here in California all youth sports competition is banned indefinitely. I know there are team competitions going on nationally and some are banning teams from hot states. We have seen what is happening as colleges open up and have huge spike in covide. Hard to know what the answer is and it also depends a lot on how old the kid is and how much the players needs exposure and results
I agree with you “Boca Tennis Mom”....Correction...you have always been Viocal😎
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