Newsletter #8

Hello everybody

After 8 weeks of competition we are done with session I. We had 40 players in the main men's draw, 7 in challenger league and 11 in women's division. So with 58 active players, this turned out to the the largest attendance in league's history.

We had a great start with very small number of matches missed. As the session went on our completion rate went down. We had some injuries, and the weather made it difficult to schedule matches. Also, historically looking back at previous seasons, it seems like players get little bit less enthusiastic to play the tournament phase of session I. We had 161 matches scheduled and 119 were completed, the rest of them were forfeits, and DNPs. This puts as at our about 74% completion rate, which is a little below our usual 80%. When you look closer at the scores one thing jumps out . It seems like a couple people hardly played any matches. So if you take out these two players , despite bad weather the rest of the league did great. I thank you all for your dedication to the league, and trying your best to keep up with the schedule.

If you want to see your final session I rankings please to the link below and scroll down to the bottom of the page. http://www.rochestertennisleague.com/#/standings/4536195633

Congratulations to Ashley Bryant who ended up winning session I, and John Urdahl who won the Challenger division. Session I scores and standings will be moved to the history page of the web site by the end of this week. This page has scores and standings from previous 4 seasons as well.

Session II
Session II starts this week. Players are divided to 4 different divisions (levels) according to their past scores. This session will be 9 weeks long, and it will have round robin format where you get to play everyone in your division. Session II results will be used to set up brackets for session III which is a single match elimination tournament.
We lost 14 players in between sessions. Three are moving out of town, 6 are injured, and 5 couldn't commit due to other activities. To cover these openings I moved some players from the women's league who wanted to join men's, and also filled some with members of the challenger league. So we have 39 players now in 4 divisions, we have one more opening in division 4. . Aside from the main draw we have a wild card group. Most of the openings were in the bottom level and these 4 players are more at intermediate level, so I decided to create a separate group for them so they can have more competitive matches. If I get more new players I will add them to this group.

Reporting matches
Matches need to be completed and reported by Monday night. Players can ask for one day extension to play their match on Tuesday if they were not able to do it by Monday night. A request for an extension has to be submitted by Monday night, otherwise the match gets reported as DNP. Players can take two extensions per a session. All matches that are not reported by Monday night will be recorded as DNP and players will lose half of a point as a penalty. This rule will be enforced without exceptions. I will not be sending e mail reminders for pending matches. Players will be responsible for reporting matches on time.

Matches can be played ahead of time but they can't be postponed. If you know you will be away for an entire week you can try to schedule your match ahead of time or forfeit it. As a courtesy to your opponent, I ask players who are unavailable to request a sub by emailing me. This way your opponent still gets to play a match. Points won by a sub don't count, and the match is still recorded forfeit.

Inter league match
Weather permitting RTL team should be going to Cannon falls this Saturday. The inter league match vs. FAT league is at 10:30. If any of you are interested in participating please e mail Keegan Hakala
nageek4@hotmail.com
He will be organizing our team. We should have singles and various doubles matches set up and players of all levels are welcome.

Mayo HS courts
Mayo High School courts were locked last week. I don't know if this will be permanent , but I will try to find out. If anyone knows anything more about this let me know and I will post it in the next newsletter.

So long for now have a great week, and have fun playing tennis out there.