USTA divides the country (Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa and Guam) into 17 regional sections. Each section “maintains its own staff to administer USTA programs, establishes its own tournament schedule and issues its own rankings.” They are employees of the USTA.
- USTA Caribbean
- USTA Eastern
- USTA Florida
- USTA Hawaii Pacific
- USTA Intermountain
- USTA Mid-Atlantic
- USTA Middle States
- USTA Midwest
- USTA Missouri Valley
- USTA New England
- USTA Northern
- USTA Northern California
- USTA Pacific Northwest
- USTA Southern
- USTA Southern California
- USTA Southwest
- USTA Texas
USTA Eastern has six regions:
- Long Island
- Metro: New York City five boroughs
- New Jersey
- Northern: Albany
- Southern New York: Westchester
- Western: Buffalo
Each region appoints a Local League Coordinator who has a steady day job but plenty free time in front of a computer screen to manage the region from A to Z, as the side gag. They have their own rules, in addition to the USTA’s. Under them, are the flight coordinator to run each event: Manhattan mixed doubles 7.0. They are all compensated. The mass emails show many work in real estate, IT, government and event planning – a profession that provides abundant screen time.
USTA organizational structure:
- USTA
- Lauren Bull, Adult League Manager, www.eastern.usta.com
- Deborah-Rose Andrews, Local League Coordinator – Metro (Cathy Miller of Long Island)
- Sheila Astudillo <astudillo@columbia.edu>
The timeline of a Metro season
Met Manhattan mixed 2013:
- Sept 22, 2012: Call for Captain
- Oct 1, 2012: to email the coordinator that you want to captain a team
- Oct 4, 2012: preliminary roster due
- Oct 25, 2012: the captain’s meeting
- .. match schedule and rules sent to the captains ..
- Nov 5, 2012 – Feb 6, 2013: the regular season
- Dec 15, 2012: Registration deadline (sign up for a team)
- Feb 25 – Mar 3: the Flight playoff
- May 5: the Regional playoff
- May 31 – June 2: the Sectional playoff
- ..: the National
Metro Summer 2013:
- Apr 30: Call for Captain
- May 7: email the coordinator that you want to captain a team
- May 7: preliminary roster
- May 21: Captain’s meeting
- Apr 10 – Jul 14: the regular season
- July 1: Registration deadline (sign up for a team)
- July 23: the Local playoff (Manhattan; Queens, etc.)
- Aug 2: the (Metro) Regional
- Aug 9: the Sectional
- Oct 25: the National
LI mixed doubles 2013
- 9/30/2012: email from LLC
- 10/12: deadline to register a team
- 12/14: must have three men/women registered on the team
- 10/19: schedule: suggests the weekend; 2 captains work out the details
- 11/11 – 4/26 the season
- 1/1/2013: registration deadline
- 5/5: playoff
The rating
To level the playing field the USTA developed a rating system, NTRP (National Tennis Rating Program). The definition of each level determines where one could play. The lowest level is 1.5 who is just starting out with the ability to get the ball into play to 7.0 like Serena and Roger. The 7.0 I’m writing about is the combined rating of two players. It could be 3.0/4.0 or 3.5/3.5.
The Metro region rules:
