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2014 Little Mo InternationalsToday’s Guest Post is from a parent in the Southern California section . . .
Kudos to the USTA Junior Competition Committee for changing back to 192 draws and direct acceptance into the 2015 summer Clay and Hardcourt National Championship tournaments. Now, the medium level and aspiring players from strong sections need to be allowed back into the national championships.
For Winter Nationals, quotas currently do not factor in that more West coast players will want to attend while more Eastern and Southern players will choose to play Eddie Herr and Orange Bowl. They should. For a player ranked over 1000 Nationally from a larger section to get into the Winter Nationals in B18 while someone ranked Nationally in the 200’s or 300’s cannot because their section is strong or more proximate to the tournament site doesn’t fit in with USTA’s goal.
There are a few simple options to make the quota/National ranking balance more fair:
1) Revert back to the 1/2 quotas and half NSL selection criteria after wild cards and championship list (direct acceptance)
2)Compromise: Reduce the quota ratio to include some NSL spots i.e. 60-75% quota /40-25% NSL
3) Require the section’s quota players to have a minimum National ranking i.e. 500 or some other reasonable minimum ranking per age division (12s could be lower)
4) For Clays and Hardcourts have the selection criteria include 64 NSL spots that were the qualies spots in 2014. I heard that was being considered.
Looking forward . . .
Mike Gealer
Coach/Parent
