The USA League Tennis program has had a remarkable history since the first National Championship was played and a national staff was hired. Here are a few of the highlights:
The 80’s:
In 1980 The USTA unanimously adopted a national league program at its annual meeting. The program initially consisted of league play for 5.5, 4.5 and 3.5 levels. Michelob Light was the title sponsor and Wilson was the official ball. There were 13,000 participants and the first National Championship was held in Chicago. By 1983 the league had grown to 50,000 participants from all 17 sections. Volvo North America Corporation became the title sponsor in 1984, the 4.0 level was added to the National Championships and the 5.5 level was replaced by the 5.0 level to keep the focus on recreational tennis. The 3.0 level of play was added to the national championships in 1986 and the first NTRP Workshop was held to assist with verification procedures. In 1987 the 2.5 level of play was added to the national championships and Penn Racquet Sports began its continuing association with league tennis as the official ball of the league program. The CompuRank computer program was added in 1989 to assign ratings based on match scores. Program participation grew to almost 125,000 by the end of the decade.
The 90’s:
In 1990, the USTA ended its six-year relationship with Volvo North America Corporation and began to sponsor as well as administer the program, now called USTA League Tennis. A national USTA Senior League Program began in 1991, consisting of the 3.0, 3.5, 4.0 and 4.5 levels. Heineken and the Citizen Watch Company became sponsors in 1996. In 1997 Infiniti began its first year as presenting sponsor and official car of the USTA League Tennis Program. There were major changes at the end of this decade. In 1999 the USTA League Tennis program changed its name to USA League Tennis; the set tie-break in lieu of the third set was authorized and instituted at USA League Tennis National Championships; USA League Tennis was expanded to include Mixed Doubles as a national program - local, sectional, and regional championships were held for teams at straight or combined NTRP levels. At the conclusion of the 90’s, the Adult Division had more than doubled to 252,592 players, there were 48,711 players in the Senior Division and another 59,028 players in Mixed Doubles - bringing the total number of players in the USA League Tennis program to 360,331.
2000 through the present:
In 2000, approval was granted to develop Dynamic NTRP – a Windows based rating system that would include the whole country in one program; TennisLink was utilized by ten sections to register players, report scores and provide standings on the world wide web; Lincoln completed its first of a five-year agreement as the presenting sponsor and official car of USA League Tennis. The 16th and last NTRP Training Workshop was held in New York in 2001 with Verifiers and Sectional League Coordinators discussing the coming transition to dynamic ratings. The stand-alone Windows based NTRP ME was launched in November of 2001. In 2002 four sections (USA Tennis New England, USTA Mid-Atlantic, USTA Northern and USTA Texas) piloted the dynamic NTRP. All sections began using the dynamic NTRP in the 2003 league season with the major change being players self-rating to enter the programs and a dynamic NTRP rating is produced for each match played. 2002 marked Penn’s 15th year as the official ball of USA league Tennis. In 2002 with the inclusion of other league programs sponsored by the sections, USA League Tennis reached half a million participants.
By Annice Seelig, USTA