US Open: New Location, New Format
(by Steve Hopkins)
This year’s US Open will be at the Orange County Convention Center in Orlando, Florida. This Convention Center is one of the largest in North America, and its location on the Southwest side of Orlando places it a short drive from the Disney parks as well as Universal Orlando and other area attractions.
SEPARATING ITTF “ELITE” EVENTS
The new format of the event will separate players into two tracks: Elite and Performance. The Performance track is intended for players of all levels. The Performance track competitions are intended to provide a minimum of 12-15 competitive singles matches over the course of the tournament. By design, players will face more competition in their skill and development level and this format should allow for players to have flexibility to enter doubles and classic events.
The Elite track is designed for the highest-level players and will have a stringent set of qualifications that must be met before being allowed to enter. Those in these events will play ITTF-sanctioned events and matches may affect World Ranking as well as USATT Ratings.
THREE PERFORMANCE BLOCKS
The performance track includes TIERED, AGE, and CLASSIC TABLE TENNIS. Unless a player opts out, all players will be entered into the featured event: Tiered Singles. Tiered Singles begins on Monday at 9am. Players will start in groups of six on Monday and will be seeded based upon rating. The winner of each group will move to Division 1, the runner-up will proceed into Division 2, etc. This is not unlike giant round-robin events that have become popular at major regional tournaments. Each player will compete in three round robin groups – one to determine their division, and two additional round-robins within their division. The result will be more matches, and more matches between evenly matched players.
A second tiered event is Tiered Doubles. The event format is similar to the Tiered Singles event, only it will likely have fewer entries, so should be completed more quickly.
The other Performance Blocks are AGE and CLASSIC events. Players may choose one of these two blocks only. AGE events will be similar to past US Open tournaments and one can enter multiple singles and multiple doubles events. CLASSIC events include 20 events for classic equipment and rules including hardbat, sandpaper and Liha. For CLASSIC and AGE events, the format will be a traditional round-robin followed by single elimination.
USATT looks forward to providing players with a new and improved experience.
For more information, visit USATT’s 2018 US Open Page: https://www.teamusa.org/USA-Table-Tennis/2018-US-Open-Championships/FAQs
