Newsletter # 9

Session II is under way, and looking at the scores we had some very close matches in the first round. We had 20 matches done out of 23 scheduled . It looks like the weather is improving and helpfully scheduling matches will get a little bit easier. You can check the scores and updated standings at www.rochestertennisleague.com

I hope this session will bring you a lot competitive matches with opponents close to your level.

Next round needs to be done and reported by Monday night July 5th. I won't be sending reminders about pending matches. Matches not reported by the deadline will be automatically recorded as DNP(did not play).

Interleague match

First ever interleague match for RTL team happened last Saturday, June 26th. We went up to Cannon Falls to meet FAT league team for a varsity style competition. This was initiated last year by Josiah Hakala (the FAT league organizer), and I am glad we were finally able to do it. It was very fun to play in this event and hopefully we will keep doing this in the future. Thanks to Keegan Hakala for doing a great job organizing our team for this meet. Cannon Falls turned out to be a great venue for a tennis meet . We were all amazed by 8 great quality tennis courts with drainage system and lights on 4 of them. We quickly noticed that they have as many lighted public courts as entire Rochester and Cannon falls has a population of 5000.

Finall score was FAT League 4- RTL 3

Liz Johnson def. Ranita Quale 6-4,6-3

Jack Olwell def. Keegan Hakala 6-0,6-0

Josiah Hakala def. Maksim Lecic 6-3,6-2

Steve Soltis def. David Baldes 8-0

Robert Brewer/Marlo Pranke def. Kate Fish/Bob Hubert 6-3,6-1

Jerrod Austin/Suresh Ravipati def. Dana Frederixon/Randy Pearson 4-6,6-4,(10-5)

Ethan Lillie/Tony Lillie def. David Baldes/Greg Manthey 8-6

The Farmington league already set up couple of meets with other local leagues, and we might try to do the same . We plan to meet FAT league again later this summer. Hopefully more players from our league will be able to participate.

Mayo HS courts

Just a quick note that Mayo High School courts are accessible again.

Coin flip

As you know during the tournament phase of the session I, I was doing a coin flip to determine who wins a match that was not completed (DNP). In order to set up next round matches we needed to determine a winner somehow. This of course is not an ideal way to do it, but to keep us on the schedule we had to move along and set up next rounds. One of you suggested to actually give a win to the player who was ranked higher in the group phase rather than flip a coin. This might be a good idea to implement for session III. One problem that might come up is if a higher ranked player purposely avoids to schedule a match because he knows he would advance anyway. Any suggestions or ideas are welcome. You can use the message board on this blog to post your comments.

Some of you might wonder why these rules have to be so strict and why we can't let people postpone a match to lets say Wednesday or Thursday following week. Postponing one match would mean that everyone else would be entitled to do the same and this would create a domino effect where the schedule becomes a mess and ultimately the league wouldn't get done on time. Postponing one match to Wednesday has an effect on next two matches these players are scheduled to play . So two more players are effected because now they have only between Thursday and Monday to play their matches. So their time to set up matches is reduced and eventually they might need to postpone as well. This inevitably puts us behind the schedule and we run in trouble finishing session III before the winter weather comes.

I think the scheduling format is flexible enough with 8 days to play a match (9 days counting extensions) . Sometimes the schedules just don't match and it gets impossible to set it up. We just have to go with it and hope it doesn't happen too often. Most players are very flexible and dedicated to the league and that makes this competition successful. The rules have been working well for the past 5 years and we didn't have to change them much since the opening season.

So long for now have a great week and good luck in your coming matches.