Talk About Tennis 2.0

ponchi101 wrote:It felt like a good session, and that is what matters. My grips by now need replacement, as they have lost all adherence, and my calluses are not enough to give me a proper control. I need a little tackiness in there.
About preparation: to me, one of the big differences between us weekend hacks and the pros. They rotate and start their swing the moment they reach the hitting spot. Many of us get to the spot, and don't turn immediately. If you turn immediately, you are ready to uncoil when needed, even if the ball is slow and you have a little extra time. But if you have not turned, then you will always be late. Worth practicing.

ashkor87 wrote: ↑Wed Sep 20, 2023 2:45 pm Had to play with a racket I bought here in India..didn't realize how hard it is to play with a different size grip..we get only 4 3/8 and smaller here! The economics of tennis here is such..only kids play tennis in large numbers, not adults, so nobody sells rackets with adult grips! Sad...

ponchi101 wrote:You don't know what grip size you use? I am frigging maniacal about grips and sizes. 4 3/8 for me, and I will replace my overgrips every two sessions. if the grip is not tacky, my level drops a lot.

ashkor87 wrote: ↑Thu Sep 21, 2023 1:06 am Oh it is popular in India but only with parents who push their kids to play.. then when they get to the last year of high school, parents want them to stop, so they can focus on board exams and entrance exams to the big engineering and medical colleges..so when they are out of college they don't play any more...stupid, destructive system..

Fastbackss wrote: ↑Fri Feb 23, 2024 12:29 am I enjoy my leagues but frankly I enjoy tournaments more. There are probably 15 per year but they aren't sanctioned. They are fun but to me doesn't have the same cache. There is a serious dearth of USTA tournaments in the area. When they exist they aren't popular.

Well there is an organizer who has partnered with a club to run them essentially once a month. Interestingly they are being run as WTN (as any USTA member now has both a NTRP ranking and a more granular WTN number). WTN lower the number the better.

It is advertised that the entries will be split into any WTN 29 and under and anyone 30 and up. Generally it has held pretty close to this. But the size of each flight has varied.

This week's looked like was going to have 14 entries. I mapped out everyone and tried to "estimate" where the split would be because I am a massive nerd. At the last second it became 15.

There are entries from 23-36* WTN.

The top 5 are significantly "ahead" of the rest of the group - with rankings from 23-27.

*The bottom 5 are new - just joined - and don't even have a ranking yet. This automatically places them in the bottom flight.

Surprisingly (to me anyway) the organizer decided to essentially split down the middle. 8 in top flight and 7 in bottom.

So, based on the earlier bottom 5 comment - there are two spots "left" in the bottom flight.

Based on WTN I would be the 2nd - and thus the top seed in the lower flight.
The gentleman just above me is 1.5 points better ranking (and a 4.0 vs my 3.5). In the last tournament I beat him though.

So...imagine my surprise when I see I'm in the top flight and he is the #1 seed in the bottom flight.

Here is the question - would I be an arsehole in questioning the organizer as to how this was derived? It seems pretty clear to me that something is up - and I am sensing a choice was made based on past results. But that is speculation. Curiosity is killing me.

Further confounding me is that there is Nobody within 1.5 points by him. So if organizer had simply made flight 7 and 8 instead - both flights would have been way tighter.

Further this annoyance is
A) thought was going to be a one-day tournament and now I have to go two days as my first match is tomorrow night and it's over an hour away
B) I drew the #1 overall seed - a 4.5 who has won the last three tournaments