September 21, 2019

2019 Finals

Fourteenth season of RTL finished past week. We had a pretty large turnout once again and a good number of new people joining in . Men's singles had 80 players in the first session, women's was at 16 and doubles best turnout was 50 players.  Men's singles and doubles have been in line with previous seasons ,  but  women's singles numbers have been declining a bit.

RTL passed about $900 worth of gift card awards and trophies this season.

Thank you all for participating and supporting the league in many different ways , such as helping enter scores (John F, Andrew F, Manu D, Pete V, Sam B, Theo L) and  spreading  the word about RTL. 

2019 finals were scheduled for Saturday afternoon. Men's level I final had to be played on Tuesday but women's singles final and level II men's was completed on Saturday. We had some challenging weather and puddles on the courts but thanks to Bob Hubert and his trusted leaf blower we managed to clean the courts and get them ready for the finals and social doubles . Thanks to all of you that helped clean the courts and came by to play some doubles.  

Congratulations to 2019 champions and runner ups

Women's singles champion Amy Heitz
Women's singles runner up Dawn Wildfeuer

Men's singles level I champion Jason Lin
Men's singles runner up Josh Farr

Men's singles level II champion Jonathan Travathan
Men's singles level II runner up Minsuk Kim

Scores
Jason Lin vs. Josh Farr  6-4,6-2
Jonathan Travathan vs. Minsuk Kim 7-5,6-1
Amy Heitz vs. Dawn Wildfeuer 5-7,6-1,7-5

It was enjoyable to watch these very competitive matches. Trophies were presented to runner ups and champions.
Pictures from the finals below.



Final session III rankings can be viewed on the bottom of the schedule page on the link below.

http://www.rochestertennisleague.com/Schedule/


Session III format
 Historically,  session III  has a lower match completion rate than first two sessions, and this year was not an exception. We managed to play about 75% of the matches mostly thanks to the strong showing in the first 3 rounds. Unfortunately last two rounds were pretty disappointing which is too bad considering those are the rounds when we play opponents very close to our level and matches get very competitive. I am sure the weather played a role but also there is usually a bit less enthusiasm to set up matches as the season winds down.    I also noticed that a few players missed majority or all of  their matches. They never informed me that they have to drop out so I wasn't able to replace them with subs. I would strongly advise these player to switch to causal division in the future. This group plays occasional matches when they are able to without stress of scheduling matches every week and keeping up with deadlines. At least a couple of people told me that they were unaware that season is still going last two weeks. My opening email stated  that session III has 5 rounds and everyone plays until the end so I didn't think I had to send reminders about that  This session had a tournament format with consolation rounds so all you needed to do is check the schedule every week to see who you play next.

Inter league and Arch Open
Due to construction at Kutzke, Arch open was not organized this year. Now when front 8 courts have been done we hope to set it up again next year.  We came very close to bringing Inter league matches back but due to bad weather the meet  had to be canceled. We had some good communication with Farmington league and I am certain that we can set it up next season. Organizers on both sides are interested and there seem to be enough interest among players.

Playing indoors

I will be running Sunday morning singles at Rochester Tennis connection this year as well. We will probably start in October. I have about 50 players on the mailing list that occasionally play .  Time slots are 10am and 11:30 every Sunday morning. There is no obligation to play any number of matches. I email everyone every Monday to see who can play following Sunday. You get 1.5 hours of singles , I try to match up players of similar skills. Cost for public is 22 dollars per player for 1.5 hours of singles. members of the club pay $12. Each court gets a free can of balls. I have to confirm these rates with RTC but they shouldn't be much different.
If anyone else likes to get on that list let me know.

So long for this year. Hope you can get out on the courts a few more times before the winter.

See you all next spring.

Maksim Lecic
RTL founder and organizer
www.rochestertennisleague.com





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