Chair Training About To Begin! Come And Join Us...

This year's CHAIR TRAINING begins on August 26th and we already have a good group of people registered for the program.  This training offers any official a start toward working chairs at all levels of tennis officiating.  Those who successfully complete the training program will be eligible to begin collegiate work in January and for participation in the Chair Academy in May.  Those who complete the training have a great inroad with the ITA coordinators in Texas and Oklahoma and the training is open to all who would like to attend.

For the first time, the Chair Training has been expanded to include collegiate matches.  Be sure to check out the dates below!

Here are the requirements for the training program:

*  You must be a certified USTA official.

*  You should have a good working knowledge of the USTA and ITA rules.

*  Each training session usually lasts about 2 hours and you will usually get to chair two matches.

*  You will be required to wear a UIL shirt which can be purchased for $20-$25 for the UIL matches and an ITA shirt for the ITA matches.

*  There is no pay for the training time but it will afford you invaluable experience and special consideration by ITA and UIL coordinators.

Listed below is the schedule for training (you do not have to commit to every match but can come for training when it suits your schedule):

August 26         4:00 p.m.     UIL matches

September 9     4:00 p.m.    UIL matches

September 20   9:00 a.m.    UIL matches

September 23   4:00 p.m.    UIL matches

September 30   4:00 p.m.    UIL matches

October 3         4:00 p.m.     UIL matches

October 8         8:30 a.m.     UIL matches

October 9         4:00 p.m.     UIL matches

October 31       4:00 p.m.     ITA matches

November 1     9:00 a.m.     ITA matches

November 2     9:00 a.m.     ITA matches

November 7     4:00 p.m.     ITA matches

November 8     9:00 a.m.     ITA matches

November 9     9:00 a.m.     ITA matches

If you are interested in participating, contact Randy McDonald at 214 796 7402 or rmtennis@yahoo.com

ITA Version Of The Bryan Brothers--The Warren Brothers!

David & Daniel Warren

Rice University

The past two weeks have produced some of the best ITA tennis in the state as the Metroplex has hosted the UTD tournament and the UTA tournament.  Not only did we get to see some exciting tennis we also got to see a unique brother combination for doubles in the Warren brothers (David and Daniel) from Houston and Rice University.

In the UTD tournament, David won the singles title and then he and Daniel won the doubles title.  This week at the UTA tournament, they again won the doubles title and David finished second in the singles.

Not only do these brothers make a great doubles team they are also a credit to tennis in general and ITA tennis specifically.  Congratulations to two fine young men.  May you both go far in your tennis careers.

Chair Training Begins In August

One of the questions I am asked most frequently is, "How do I get to do chairs?"  Well, doing chairs in collegiate matches is one of the most exciting aspects of tennis officiating--but it requires training before you are ever asked to do a chair.  There are tons of chair opportunities in Texas and the Metroplex so we are working with the other ITA coordinators in Texas to offer CHAIR TRAINING here in Dallas beginning this August.  

The chair training will be on court training in real match situations with a qualified instructor by your side the entire time.  Training will be offered in every aspect of a match and offers a great opportunity for you to be considered for ITA work beginning in January, 2015.

All training will take place at Highland Park High School during their high school dual matches.  Highland Park is unquestionably the elite high school program in America so their matches will offer great on-court experience.  

Here is what is required to participate in the training program:

*  You must be a USTA certified official.

*  You should have a good working knowledge of the USTA rules.  A good understanding of ITA rules

     would also be helpful.

*  Each training session usually lasts about 2 hours and you will usually get to chair two matches.

*  You will be required to wear a UIL shirt which can be purchased for $20.

*  There is no pay for the training time but it will afford you invaluable experience in order to be considered        by ITA coordinators.  

Listed below is the schedule for training (you do not have to commit to every match but can come for training when it suits your schedule):

August 26         4:00 p.m.

September 9     4:00 p.m.

September 20   9:00 a.m.

September 23   4:00 p.m.

September 30   4:00 p.m.

October 3         4:00 p.m.

October 8         8:30 a.m.

October 9         4:00 p.m.

If you are interested in participating, contact Randy McDonald at 214 796 7402 or rmtennis@yahoo.com

Equal Pay At Wimbledon--You've Got To Be Kidding!

$3,000,000 Prize Money For Each Winner

Novak Djokovic and Petra Kvitova

Men's & Women's Singles Champions 2014

After the thrilling and competitive men's final at Wimbledon, the discussion soon turned to the equal prize money ($3,000,000) that is awarded to the men's and women's singles champions.  Since this is quite an interesting and hot topic, we might consider a few pertinent facts in this discussion.

*  Is it equal pay for equal pay?  Not hardly considering the women play best of three sets and the men play best of five sets.  In the final, the women played for 55 minutes and the men played for well over 4 hours.

*  Is it equal pay for equal drawing power?  No way considering the lack of interest and attendance at women's events. 

*  Is equal pay the product of the emphasis on diversity?  Probably so. 

*  Is equal pay right and fair?  Guess the answer is in the eye of the beholder--as is beauty. 

Just for further consideration and after searching for a comparable field of consideration--GOLF--here is the breakdown of the golf prize money at the US Open:

US Open Men's Winner:  $1.44 million

US Open Women's Winner:  $585,000

Not to offend anyone and knowing that this is politically incorrect, perhaps its time that Wimbledon (and the US Open Tennis Tournament) give a little thought to reality.  Of course, if they were to make any changes they would be sued in today's politically correct world.  Maybe the answer would be to pay them for "minutes played" in each match...

We would welcome your thoughts on this unique and interesting topic.

And The Champions Are Crowned!

Vasek Pospisil & Jack Sock

MEN'S DOUBLES CHAMPIONS

Novak Djokovic

MEN'S SINGLES CHAMPION

Petra Kvitova

WOMEN'S SINGLES CHAMPION

Equal Punishment For Equal Participation?

On an average day in an average Texas public school if you are caught fighting, both participants are suspended--regardless of who initiated the fight.  Doesn't seem to be the case at Texas Tech.  Check out the story below...

Texas Tech women’s basketball player Amber Battle has been suspended from competition for the entire month of November after her role in a fight Saturday at the school’s student recreation center, athletic director Kirby Hocutt and women’s basketball coach Candi Whitaker announced Friday morning in a news release.

Battle admitted to initiating first contact in a fight during a pick-up basketball game last week with incoming Texas Tech football player Nigel Bethel II.

Bethel was dismissed from the team Sunday after reportedly punching Battle in the face and forcing the Lady Raider to have surgery.

“During a pickup basketball game on June 28, I was involved in an incident with Texas Tech football player Nigel Bethel,” Battle said in a statement.  “I initiated the first contact and I take full responsibility for my actions.  I want to take this time to apologize to Nigel, the Texas Tech community, my teammates, coaches and fans.  Nothing I can say can truly repair the harm I have already caused.  I did not represent the Double T like I am supposed to and I promise to hold myself to a higher standard from here on.”

The news release states “Texas Tech Athletics does not tolerate violence against women.”

Their view is abundantly clear but the question still remains:  Do they tolerate violence against men or just punish it differently?

Was It A Virus Or What? Here's Martina's Opinion

All eyes were glued to Serena Williams when she and Venus went on court for their doubles match--and the sight wasn't pretty.  Serena was stumbling around and nearly incoherent in her speech and the explanation was that it was a "viral infection."  Here is Martina Navratilova's response:

No less an authority than Martina Navratilova has said what many are thinking about Serena Williams’ bizarre breakdown Tuesday at Wimbledon.

After Williams stumbled around the court for three games of a doubles match with sister Venus, badly bobbling her tosses and blundering through four hideous double faults when it was her turn to serve — this after a 13-minute medical break before the match even started — Serena retired with what she called a “bug” and “viral illness.”

Navratilova isn’t buying that excuse.

“I think virus, whatever they’re saying it was, I don’t think that was it,” Navratilova told ESPNw. “I think it’s clear that’s not the case. I don’t know what it is, but I hope Serena will be OK.”

Though Navratilova did not go as far as to suggest what she thought “it” was — something chemical? a Richie Tenenbaum moment? — the nine-time Wimbledon champ was baffled Serena even made it on the court in her distressed condition.

“It’s the most inexplicable thing of all that she was clearly in no state to play a match and that with all the people around her, that they didn’t stop her from getting on the court,” Navratilova said.

“The coach said he hadn’t seen her for two days. He didn’t know anything. How can you be a coach and not know anything? That’s wrong. And Venus was just kind of there. You don’t know what’s going on, but virus was not it, that much is clear.”

Serena posted a kind of recovery photo to Instagram on Wednesday.