No idea! Maybe the B1 members of the Metro tennis committee know, but anyway
at least we have a reversal for this tournament so thanks for
questioning the decision... Now to get them to send out the draws in a
format that we can all access and improve their online booking system.
Maria-----Original Message-----
From: b1-tennis-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:b1-tennis-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Nikhil Nair
Sent: 18 March 2016 06:58
To: b1-tennis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [b1-tennis] Re: Urgent: Major concerns over B1 section policies
(fwd)
Hi Maria,
Oh, how interesting: as you know, I was at the Metro tournament, but I'd
assumed the gender split was based on the preference of the B1 players who
go to the regular Metro club sessions. Obviously not... which leaves me to
wonder who made the decision there, and why.
N.
On Fri, 18 Mar 2016, Maria Oshodi wrote:
Thanks for sharing Nickel - Metro separated their B1 players in their[mailto:b1-tennis-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
tournament last month along gender lines. I wasn't happy about this
but there was no consultation and as it wasn't a regional, I let it go.
I have sent my preference to Gill
Maria
-----Original Message-----
From: b1-tennis-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
On Behalf Of Nikhil Nairfrom
Sent: 17 March 2016 19:16
To: b1-tennis@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [b1-tennis] Urgent: Major concerns over B1 section policies (fwd)
Hi all,
Those of you who are registered for Sutton will have received an email
Kirsty, asking you to vote on two issues (split gender draws vs mixed, andto
the original format vs a longer one involving two shorter sets). Kirsty
didn't distribute to you the details of the issues I was raising, however,
when I contacted her yesterday. (No, I know, you'd never have guessed the
player who raised his voice might have been me. What? Outspoken? Moi?)
I do think the issues are important ones, so I hope you'll take the time
read the email I sent to Kirsty, which I'm copying below. This affectsyou
everyone, in my view, not just those who are playing at Sutton.
If you're registered for Sutton, I will urge you to vote. I won't urge
to vote in any particular direction, but I hope you'll consider what, inwith
your personal opinion, is in the best interest of the sport, as well as
what's best for you as a player.
Cheers,
Nikhil.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
Date: Wed, 16 Mar 2016 21:06:10 +0000 (GMT)
From: Nikhil Nair <nnair@xxxxxxxxx>
To: Kirsty Thomson <Kirsty.Thomson@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Cc: Gill Andersson <gillandersson@xxxxxxxxx>
Subject: Urgent: Major concerns over B1 section policies
Dear Kirsty,
I've just had a conversation with Gill Andersson regarding the draws for
Sunday's Sutton tournament. As a result, I have some major concerns about
changes of policy which seem to have been introduced at the 11th hour,
neither consultation nor a clear announcement: I would wager that themakes
majority of B1 players registered for Sutton are unaware of them, and, due
to the precedent set, they affect the players from elsewhere in the
country, as well.
The central question, to my mind, is this: does the TF consider that one
gender in B1 tennis has a significant advantage over the other - enough to
split them into separate competitions? Or, on the other hand, are the
genders balanced enough that putting them together in one competition
more sense?women
I'm not entirely sure what the answer to this question should be. In the
2015 nationals, 3 men and 3 women made the latter stages; 2 men and 2
made the semis; 1 man and 1 woman made the final. On the other hand, it'sthough
possible that the men are starting to get a heavier weight of serve,
the women mayy have less of a problem with over-hitting their returns.play
The more important aspect, to my mind, is that we, as players, get a
consistent message on this from the TF, and that our competitions reflect
that message. This has been the case for the last few years: in all the
competitions I played in 2014 and 2015, men and women faced each other as
equals, with no distinction between them; and, in the B1 doubles in the
2015 nationals, anyone could pair with anyone else.
My understanding until this evening was that this message, and the formats
that go with it, were to continue through the regional series and into the
2016 nationals. However, it now seems that the men and women are to be in
separate draws in the first of the regional tournaments - while, on the
other hand, the doubles is to remain "gender blind", as it were.
My understanding from Gill was that the draws are being done separately in
order to reduce the total number of matches, given that the individual
matches are to be increased in length to 2 short sets plus a super
tie-break. The latter, on its own, is a concern, in that there's been no
announcement of the greater length, nor time for any of the players to
any practice matches of that length in preparation for the tournament.Had
I not spoken to Gill, I wouldn't have been aware of the format change; andestimate
I suspect the majority of the other players have yet to hear about it -
just 3 days before the tournament.
However, splitting the draw only reduces the total number of matches from
14 to 12, i.e. a reduction of only 14%. I calculate the number of matches
as follows:
Single gender: 6 players, so 2 get a bye; 2 first round matches; 2
semi-finals; 1 final; 1 consolation for the first round losers; total 6.
Double that for 2 genders, hence 12 matches.
Mixed genders: 12 players, so 4 byes; 4 first round matches; 4
quarter-finals; 2 semi-finals; 1 final; 4 in the consolation section, so 3
more matches (semi-finals and final); total 14 matches.
On the other hand, the format change more than doubles the match length.
I'd suggest that, if you have seerious concerns about fitting in all the
matches with the longer format, splitting the genders into separate draws
will barely begin to square that circle. I believe, at the nationals, the
B1 singles matches averaged around 30 minutes each; so even if you
only 1 hour per match (which seems a bit optimistic to me), that's 12hours
of court time. If you have 2 courts for the B1s, that leaves only 2 hoursin
for the doubles, which would be disappointing - particularly given that,
the information circulated prior to the regional series, the B1 doubleswas
outlined as having the same format as the singles.tournaments
But that's just logistics for this tournament. While any one regional
tournament is important, the effect on the series as a whole, and on the
nationals, is even more so - and this sets a precedent.
So, is the intention to have a mixed division for the nationals, or
separate men and women? And are we going to have some regional
with mixed genders, and others with separate ones?maths
Assuming the nationals stays mixed, then having all the regional
tournaments as separate genders would pose a couple of problems. First,
you'd have insufficient information to do the seedings for the nationals
fairly, since, while you could seed women relative to each other, and the
same for the men, you wouldn't have any matches between women and men to
seed them relative to each other. Second, a hopeful woman, for instance,
would have had no opportunity to play against the stronger male players,
and would be pitched against them for the first time at the nationals. If
it's true that some of the men have heavier serves than most of the women,
that woman player would have had no opportunity to get used to facing the
faster serves through the year, but would come up against that suddenly at
the nationals.
If, on the other hand, you split the genders for the singles in all
tournaments, you vastly reduce the number of pairings who can produce the
highest quality tennis. I think it's fairly obvious that there are only a
minority of players, so far, who are able to return a fair percentage of
serves as well as to serve consistently themselves. If there were 2 such
women (A and B) and 2 such men (C and D), then, with separate genders, you
get only 2 pairings between them (A/B and C/D); while, with a mixed
division, you get 6 pairings between them (A/B, A/C, A/D, B/C, B/D and
C/D). That means you get a lot more high quality tennis with the mixed
division than with separate ones.
(In practice, I think 2 women and 2 men is an under-estimate, but the
works similarly with slightly higher numbers.)players
In addition, if you separate the genders for singles, implying that one
gender (whichever that may be) has an unfair advantage over the other, how
do you justify not doing so for doubles?
In summary, then, I believe changing the policy on mixing (or not mixing)
the genders in B1 tennis is actually a huge issue, and not to be done on a
whim or lightly, without a significant amount of thought and consultation.
Even doing so for one regional tournament, particularly the first, sets a
strong precedent, and poses some very awkward questions for the following
regionals as well as for the nationals.
And, whatever is decided on this, clear communication to all the B1
(not just those registered for this tournament) is very important, because
any such precedents and effects on further tournaments affects everyone,
not just this few. There has been absolutely no discussion of this issue
on either the B1 players' email list or the VI Tennis UK Facebook group,
and I'm sure there would have been if the players were aware a change was
in the wind.
I appreciate there's very little time before the Sutton tournament, but I
hope you'll have time to give this issue the attention that I believe I've
shown it deserves.
Best wishes,
Nikhil.
