Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
USTA schedule changes causing racket
A field of 128 boys 12 and younger have been scattered across Burns Park in North Little Rock since Sunday, trying to decide a national tennis champion in that age group.
If the tournament returns to Little Rock in two years, though, that field will be cut in half.
The United States Tennis Association passed recently changes to its junior tournament schedules, hoping to spark interest among players at the lowest level while shifiting the focus from national tournaments to sectional competitions and cutting travel cost for players and their families.
Those adjustments were the subject of a meeting of about 80 players, coaches and parents with members of the USTA, including Patrick McEnroe, at the Burns Park Hospitality House on Tuesday.
While players were playing doubles matches on the courts, McEnroe, who is general manager of player development for the USTA while not serving as a tennis analyst for ESPN, was explaining why the USTA implemented the changes that will go into effect Jan. 1, 2014.
McEnroe said the USTA’s aim is to attract new players with more local tournaments rather than place focus on national tournaments that can be costly for families.
“We’re trying to get more kids to play tennis,” McEnroe said. “It’s a great game. It’s healthy, [the changes are] great for the USTA. ... We’re trying to look at the whole country. What’s the best way to get them in the system?”
The changes will eliminate the spring nationals event, replace the winter nationals event with a team event aimed at attracting college coaches and will take the automatic qualifier into larger national tournaments away from national open events, like the one Burns Park hosted in July for players 14 and under.
All national tournaments at the 12-year-old level, like the one that being played at Burns Park through Friday, will be limited to 64 players rather than 128.
It’s all in an effort by the USTA to prioritize local events — if there are fewer national events, local events will become a bigger draw, the organization maintains — and to eliminate blowout losses in the first round of the large tournaments.
In this weekend’s tournament, 19 of the 64 first-round matches were won in two sets where the loser didn’t win a game.
But coaches and parents, many of whom gathered to listen to McEnroe and USTA’s Jeff Russell speak Tuesday, said the adjustments eliminate competitive opportunities for players at the youngest of age levels, and that de-emphasizing national tournaments could turn players away from the game.
“The paradigm needs to change,” Russell said. “You’re competing nationally, but it may not be at the national tournament.”
Tom Walker is the tennis director at the Kalamazoo, Mich., YMCA, and brought a player to this week’s tournament who won the Midwest Junior Closed Outdoor championship in June. Bill Duo was seeded No. 16 this week, but lost Tuesday in the round of 16 to second-seeded Andrew Fenty of Washington, D.C., 61, 6-1.
Walker said that experience could be valuable for his player, but might not have been possible with a smaller field.
“He’s No. 1 in the Midwest and he got waxed today,” Walker said. “Does that make that experience bad? No. It shows him what he has to work at in the future.
“The biggest problem is that they’re taking away opportunities to play.”
Deanna Garretson, executive director of the Arkansas Tennis Association, sees both sides of the debate. But she said the most frequent complaint she’s heard is the USTA eliminating opportunities for the youngest players could stunt development.
“With this age group, you’re not really going to know what they’re going to be like when they’re 18,” she said. “If you cut half of those kids out, some of those kids in the lower 60s, could be great when they’re 18.
“If you start limiting it, they can get discouraged and stop playing.”