USTA Junior Competition Changes for 2023 Includes Exclusive Use of World Tennis Number, Smaller Draws, Fewer National Team Events

With 2022 coming to a close, the USTA last week released a synopsis of the changes (areas of focus) for junior competition in 2023.

There's a great deal of interest in the one-page document, including adoption of the World Tennis Number rating system for all USTA tournaments in 2023. With the use of "exclusive" in describing the change, it appears the Universal Tennis rating system will not be allowed, although there is no mention of seeding in the reference.

As I noted a few months ago, the draws for the 16s and 18s Clays and Hard Courts will be reduced from 224 to 192 and the L2 draws for those age divisions in May and July will be reduced from 64 to 32.  The 2023 USTA National Tournament calendar shows those draws correctly, but the Nationals are still showing 224, which I'm sure will be amended shortly.

National team events are dwindling, with the Spring Team Nationals and the Battle of the Sections for the 16s and 18s age divisions the extent of team competition on the national level. The article states: "other national team events—Intersectional Championships, Zone Team Championships and National Team Championships—will not be held in 2023. Additional resources will be made available to encourage team event competitions at the local level as the USTA continues to evaluate its national team products."

The emphasis will move to team events at the local level, with Level 2 and Level 4 Closed Intersectional team events and more team events added to Level 3 Opens.

The National Junior Team Tennis finals will not be held going forward, with emphasis local competition in that format as well. 

Although not included in last week's release, I have heard that a format change is coming for the USTA 12s division, with standard best of three matches in the main draw of National Championships, beginning with the Easter Bowl. The 12s currently play a match tiebreaker in lieu of a third set, and after watching the Eddie Herr (using a match tiebreaker) and Junior Orange Bowl (full best of three), I think the latter is better for the development of players when they are playing just one match per day. I understand the need for the truncated third sets in events that are long weekends, and for consolation draws, which often require two matches a day, but it isn't necessary for the main draw of summer nationals.