The USTA announced today that Electric Line Calling will be used for the first time at USTA Level 1 events at next month's National Indoor Championships. This rollout is for the 12s and 16s division only in four sites. Today's USTA release:
2024 Boys’ and Girls’ 16s and 12s National Indoors to Become Inaugural
USTA Junior National Championships to Feature ELC
ORLANDO, Fla., October 31, 2024 – The USTA today announced that the upcoming USTA Junior National Indoor Championships will utilize PlayReplay electronic line-calling in competition, marking the first time USTA national junior tournaments have formally featured ELC in play. The Boys’ and Girls’ 16s and 12s tournaments being played November 29-December 2 at four different indoor facilities will have the PlayReplay system available for challenges in all singles and doubles matches.
PlayReplay’s ELC system utilizes a minimally intrusive camera solution that provides an unprecedented level of accuracy and precision for ELC systems priced for recreational competition. Players competing in the select National Indoor Championships will have access to courtside touchscreens to immediately access ball-tracking data, “challenge” a line call and receive a visual representation of where the ball landed and an in/out ruling within approximately 20 seconds.
The facilities hosting these events utilizing PlayReplay are the Baseline Tennis Center in Minneapolis (G16s); the Manchester Athletic Club in Manchester, Mass. (G12s); XS Tennis Village in Chicago (B16s); and the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing, N.Y. (B12s).
PlayReplay is a tennis technology company that was tabbed in the spring for the inaugural investment of USTA Ventures, the USTA’s strategic investment initiative focused on acquiring potential equity stakes in technologies and other companies that will help advance the USTA’s mission.
The USTA has tested the PlayReplay system at lower-level junior tournaments throughout 2024, with a surveyed group of 64 players, parents, tournament staff and officials rating their ‘overall impression’ of the technology 9.4 out of 10, on average.
The PlayReplay system is the same as the one used at last month's men's ITA All-American tournament in Tulsa, but a college tennis major is different from a junior event in that all matches have chair umpires, who can immediately call up the point in question and provide a ruling. (This is not the same system as at the US Open, where the calls are made by the system, not by the players themselves). In junior tennis events, even at Level 1, roving umpires are the rule until the very end of the tournament, which means the players will be checking the tablet themselves when a dispute arises. There is no limit on these "challenges," but the expectation is that they will take no more than 20 seconds total, and they will not be frequent.
I was a guest today on the
Parenting Aces podcast with host Lisa Stone, and after a discussion on the new ITF decision to allow coaching at all levels, we delved into the ELC. Lisa had been at tournaments where a different system was used, and reported positive feedback from competitors in those tournaments.You can hear more of her impressions
here, beginning at the 23-minute mark. I do think it would be helpful for the USTA to provide a webinar on the system and how it will be implemented at the four National Indoor Championships, or at the very least, provide a Frequently Asked Questions document to send to all players accepted into the tournament.
One of my questions was whether there would be any difference in implementation if there is a chair umpire, and I was told there would not, although the umpire could be the person calling up the shot in question, rather than a player.
I've been a fan of ELC from its introduction (for juniors) at the 2021 US Open, so it's encouraging to see it making its way to lower profile junior events in just three years.
The next pilot for the PlayReplay system in a Division I college event is at the West Sectional at University of Southern California November 7-10. For more on the upcoming college events using it, see
this ITA article.
The ITA Sectional Championships are one of the two remaining events that will determine the final 28 singles players and 15 doubles teams competing in next month's NCAAs, with the Conference Masters event the other.
The fields for the Conference Masters have been posted, although there are not 32 players currently listed for either the men or women. It was up to conferences to decide how to select their representatives. I know some, but not all, had tournaments for that purpose.
The representatives of the Power 4 + Ivy conferences are:
ACC W: Katja Wiersholm, Cal
ACC M: Sebastian Dominko, Notre Dame
Big 12 W: Gracie Epps, Oklahoma State
Big 12 M: Zsombor Velcz, Baylor
Big Ten W: Fatima Gutierrez, Purdue
Big Ten M: Niels Hoffmann, Southern California
Ivy League W: Shyla Aggarwal, Yale
Ivy League M: Zhengqing Ji
Southeastern W: Carmen Andreea Herea, Texas
Southeastern M: Thomas Paulsell, Georgia
There was a big upset in second round action today at the USTA Pro Circuit women's
W25 in Norman Oklahoma, with North Carolina State sophomore Kristina Paskauskas of Great Britain beating top seed Jaimee Fourlis of Australia 6-4, 7-6(6). The 20-year-old qualifier, who has had success in ITF women's World Tennis Tour W15s, had not won a match on the W35 level until this week. She will face unseeded Central Florida sophomore Olivia Lincer of Poland in the quarterfinals.
Americans advancing to the quarterfinals are unseeded Maribella Zamarripa(Texas), No. 4 seed Jessica Failla(USC, Pepperdine) and No. 3 seed Anna Rogers(NC State), who faces Zamarripa in the quarterfinals.
At the
ATP Challenger 75 in Charlottesville Virginia, unseeded Americans Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) and Ethan Quinn(Georgia) picked up wins today to join Colton Smith(Arizona) and Learner Tien[2](USC) in the quarterfinals. 2023 NCAA champion Quinn defeated No. 5 seed Maks Kasnikowski of Poland 7-5, 6-0 and Basavareddy rolled past qualifier Patrick Zahraj(UCLA) of Germany 6-2, 6-0. Zahraj had taken out top seed Christopher Eubanks(Georgia Tech) in the opening round.
Basavareddy's opponent in the quarterfinals will be lucky loser Chris Rodesch of Luxembourg, the former Virginia All-American, who came from a set and 5-2 down to beat No. 8 seed and 2019 NCAA champion Paul Jubb(South Carolina) of Great Britain, 6-7(5), 7-5, 6-4. Quinn will face the winner of tonight's late match between Virginia sophomore Dylan Dietrich of Switzerland, a wild card, and Alexis Galarneau(NC State) of Canada.
Tien is the only seed to reach the quarterfinals.
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