USTA MS
Archive Bulletins:
PRESS
RELEASE AUG 05
Six
Districts. 60 Teams. 600 Players. 25 Years.
USTA/Middle
States Section
USA
League Tennis Championships
Begin
Friday, August 19
17,500
Middle States
USA
League Tennis Players have been Whittled Down to the Top 60 Teams
to
Vie for Spots in National Championships
VALLEY FORGE,
Pa.
-- Well, it’s happened.
After a long season of battling both the elements and the competition, the top
60 teams in Middle States are set to converge on
Princeton
,
N.J.
the weekend of Aug. 19-21.
Playing
in this year’s championships has a particular significance: it is the 25th
anniversary of USA League Tennis, the United States Tennis Association’s most
popular and successful program.
“USA
League Tennis provides a recreational player with an opportunity to advance to a
national tournament,” says Sally Baird, Middle States’ Director of
Competitive Tennis. “Competition is so fierce in local leagues that winners
are often not decided until the last week of play. Nowhere else can a player go
to experience the thrill of helping the team advance from one level of
competition to the next, culminating with a tournament where players meet
contemporaries from all around the country to play in competitive matches.”
In
USA League Tennis, players are grouped into six different ability levels,
ranging from beginner (2.5) to advanced (5.0). Play consists of singles and
doubles matches, with the outcome based on team scoring.
Winners
of the six district championships, which have taken place over the last month,
have earned the right to compete in this year’s USTA/Middle States Section
USA
League Sectional Championships. The six districts
that make up Middle States are
Allegheny
Mountain
,
Central Pennsylvania
,
Eastern Pennsylvania
,
Philadelphia Area Tennis,
Delaware
and
New Jersey
districts.
Play
begins daily at
8:30
a.m.
Individual matches are the best of two tiebreak sets with a match
tiebreak in lieu of the third set. A full round-robin is planned for each level
of play.
It
takes more than 60 volunteers to help administer and manage the USA League
Tennis program during the season throughout Middle States. “It would be
impossible to administer such a large program without the dedicated
participation of so many willing volunteers,” says Baird. “Their
participation ensures that our league program is a success.”
The
USA League Tennis program marks its 25th anniversary in 2005.
Established in 1980, it has grown from 13,000 participants in its first year to
more than 570,000 players across the nation today, making it the world’s
largest recreational tennis program.
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Publisher
©2005 - County Newsfax, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
There
are USA League Tennis programs for adults (age 19 and above), seniors (age 50
and above) and super seniors (age 60 and above). Each year, more than 17,000
people play USA League Tennis in Middle States.
Penn
is in its 18th year as the official ball of USA League Tennis.
USTA/MS
25th Anniversary
USA
League Tennis Factoids:
Eastern
Pennsylvania District
1980:
For the first time, MSTA (as the USTA/MS was then called) sponsored and
organized league play. The unique aspect of MSTA League Play was the use of
level-of-ability ratings in order to create competitive play for players of
different caliber. MSTA began with only one level-of-ability, expanding it to
four levels in 1981.
1985:
3.5
men from
Wilkes-Barre
, captained by Doug Foster, beat out
San Antonio
,
Texas
for the national title in
Las Vegas
, with a 4-0 win record. This Eastern
Pennsylvania District team was one of three Middle States teams to win at the
national championships this year.
1987:
MSTA has the fourth-largest USTA-Volvo League program, with 6,000 participants,
despite ranking ninth in USTA membership. The 4.5
men from
Avoca
,
Pa.
were just barely edged out by Missouri Valley
Section, 3-2, at the national championships in
Las Vegas
.
1993:
The USTA/MS captured all four divisions (at that time, there were only 3.5, 4.0,
4.5 and 5.0) at the fourth annual North Atlantic Region Mixed Doubles
Championships, which served as the national championships for mixed doubles.
04:
Aunt Sally, Middle States USA League Tennis spokes-cartoon, appeared on the
scene. The irrepressible Maven of Tennis Manners is loosely based on Director of
Competitive Tennis Sally Baird, who began her stint with Middle States as a
player and volunteer, and has now worked on staff for nine years. Aunt Sally,
one of the section’s most popular icons, answers those nagging tennis
questions on a biweekly basis.
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