Updates, US Open, & Tournaments

The USTA Super-Senior Men’s Teams (age divisions 60’s, 65’s, 70’s, 75’s and 80’s) have now been selected (4-player Team) to represent the USA at the 2009 ITF World Team Championships in Perth , Australia in November of 2009. I am a member of this USTA national committee (men’s committee) and we have been working for the last 5 weeks to determine who are the best players in the USA in their respective age divisions. We look at the entire USTA tournament records of the top 20 or so players during the previous 12 months up to the time of selection and bring the list to 6-10 of the best players. These players then are sent a notification letter that they are in the group of players, and are asked to return another sheet of paper. The player fills it out to indicate their availability, their US citizenship status, contact information, if selected would they like to captain the team, and mails it back to the USTA representative. The strongest players are then compared again in committee and the committee determines the best team, selected by the USTA to represent the USA in the international competition, which is called the ITF World Team Championships. Again, this is the equivalent to the Davis Cup for men and the Fed Cup for women. (I obviously cannot have any input whatsoever on selecting members of the 35’s team because of conflict-of-interest).

Well, the men’s players have now each received a phone call to notify them of their selection (I am the representative for the Men’s 80’s team), each will soon receive their order forms for USA uniforms, player shirts, and player-to-player gifts, and each will soon receive their USTA player stipend to cover their expenses for this specific competition (flight and housing). Those players not selected receive the turn-down letter and asks them to remain ready as an alternate.

Next stop, I will be attending the 2009 USTA Semiannual Meeting and Conference in New York City during the US Open. I am member of the USTA Senior International Competition Committee, charged with selecting the best men’s and women’s senior age-division teams (equivalent to Davis Cup and Fed Cup) to represent the USA in international competition sanctioned by the ITF, publish information about these events and the players, and to grow the game of tennis.

My next tournament will be the USTA National Category 2 Kansas City Adult Open Tennis Tournament. The tournament takes place in Kansas City, Missouri on the beautiful Plaza Tennis Center. To follow the tournament, click this link: http://tennislink.usta.com/tournaments/TournamentHome/Tournament.aspx?T=78371 I will be playing the Men’s 35’s Singles and then also Men’s 35’s Doubles with Jim Slonac (Jim was a groomsmen in my wedding and if you recall, he and I witnessed the 2008 Wimbledon Final with Nadal beating Federer in five sets!).

Following that, I will be playing the National Clays in November, 2009 in Florida.