Hello everyone
Another season of the tennis league is coming up . I am sure a lot of you who don't play in the winter are eager to dust off your rackets and start hitting the fuzzy yellow ball. It could be some time before we can get out on the courts, but it's not too early to start planning the next season.. As of now, the plan is to get the doubles league going April 16th and singles on April 29th.
You will be getting an e mail from me soon about session I signup for the doubles division and about a week later for the singles. Just like last year, in the singles league we will be divided in levels/divisions. Your previous scores will be used to place you accordingly. In some situations I might ask you to play a pre-season match to determine what division you will end up in. Session I will be 7 weeks long and each division should have 8 players. Top two players from each division will move a level up for the next session and bottom two will drop down. As before, aside from the main singles (co-ed) league we will have a women's singles division as well.
Doubles league
As you remember , we ran a doubles league for the first time last spring. We had a pretty good turnout and will try to set it up this year as well. Our goal is to finish one 7 week long session of doubles before the summer USTA league starts in early June. Hopefully the weather will be kind to us . Just like in singles, our goal is to minimize number of matches missed, so each team will be required to sign up 3 players on their roster. Weather permitting, the teams will be expected to play on a designated nights each week . In case of bad weather, the backup day will be Sunday or whenever two teams agree on. Most likely RTL doubles league will play Monday evenings. Christopher Jones will be in charge of the doubles league once again. He did a great job running the pilot session and also entertaining us with his insightful blog posts.
So if you are planing to play RTL doubles, it's time to start looking for partners. The signup starts next week The doubles league was very fun and competitive last year and I hope to have a good turnout once again. The teams can be men's , women's or mixed doubles.
As some of you know, USTA is expanding their options in Rochester area, so number of tennis competitions this spring will be abundant. Players will have numerous leagues to pick from.
Rochester Tennis League will continue to provide a wide range of opportunities for players utilizing public courts.
USTA will be running a doubles competition with a similar set up as RTL through the spring as well, and also 40+ USTA league will be added . We will try our best to coordinate designated doubles days so we don't overlap but with these new USTA leagues some overlap is inevitable .
USTA matches are played at RAC and Rochester Tennis Connection. You have to be a USTA member to participate, and also pay a registration fee for each league you play. Also, players are charged a court fee in amount of $10 per a match. A good person to contact for details regarding USTA competitions would be Brian Davies brian.andrew.davies@gmail.com
Assistant organizers
I will be looking for volunteers who are willing to help us update the scores and standings on the web site. If anyone is interested, drop me an e mail and I will send you more info about it.
RAC season opener
There is possibility that we will set up a doubles mixer at the RAC sometime before we start the season. I will let you know as soon as the date is set. So far I know that we can get 1.5 hours of doubles and the court fee will be $8 per player.
Suggestions/ ideas
The league has been evolving over the past 7 years and we are always looking for ways to improve . If you have suggestions or ideas about new opportunities to play tennis let me know. This is good time to talk about possible changes or modifications.
Supplying balls
The issue about bringing tennis balls for league matches comes up from time to time, especially after someone gets frustrated because they supply balls week after week while their opponents never bring any.
One way to regulate this is to ask both players to bring a new can of balls for every match. One set of balls can be used for the match and the other one can go to the winner.
Running late
We did a little poll on this blog last year regarding appropriate waiting time for your opponent to show up . It seems like majority thought that 15 minutes is the maximum amount of time that anyone should wait for their opponent to show up. We will use this time frame as our suggested guideline. If you are late longer than 15 minutes your opponent can leave and record a forfeit win should they chose to do so. As always, good communication is the key, most people will wait longer if their opponent lets them know that something came up and that they are running late. I am sure everyone's primary goal is to play a match rather than record a forfeit win.
New players/ signup fees
The league will be open to new players once again this spring. If you know someone who is interested you can send them my way. Sign up fee for new players is still $10 per each session they attend during their initial year. All of you that participated in the league last year will play for free. Voluntary donations to the league can be made through "donate" Paypal buttons on this blog and our main site. Just like in the previous years , depending on number of new players and donations we might be able to pass some gift card awards and trophies.
So long for now, you will hear from me soon regarding the session I sign up.
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