The Magic of the Playoffs

From Steven Chagnon, League Director:

"The Playoffs are a different beast,"' is a statement I write to many a player in the league. When a regular season ends, the division standings show a pecking order of where the players are in reference to each other.  Players who won the minimum number of matches required to make it to the playoffs (usually 4 or 5) could have had very different stories within the same season. You might have some players who breezed through with awesome seasons and only one or two losses, whereas others had to play over 15 matches to get the needed wins.  A great aspect about our program is that a player who ends a roller-coaster season as 5 wins-12 losses can still make the playoffs.  If someone's able to connect with so many players during the regular season, an exciting playoff experience is well deserved.

When the playoffs start, the slate is just about wiped clean.  Although players with the best records start off with the highest seeds (and therefore could get a first round bye), the beauty is in the inevitable upsets. We've seen so many last seeds win the playoffs that the thinking 'the hottest player during the playoffs tends to win' is usually true.

This Winter Season has one such case; In Tennis Orange County, AJ Patel has won 5 Advanced Championships in a row. That changed this season, when Rob Ryan – who had 9 losses in a row – finally got his first big victory. It was a huge semi-final playoff win against AJ with a stunning 1-6, 7-6 (14-12), 3rd set tie-breaker 6-0 win. 

Tennis League Network's National Website is finally complete

We have finally finished the national website:
http://www.TennisLeagueNetwork.com/

Most players in their various communities aren't aware of our national product. As we move forward we plan on integrating in the national brand to give players the comfort of feeling comfortable with our various products we provide.


Let us know your thoughts.  Remember we also plan on posting your tennis stories here on our blog.

Here's two of our newest communities:  Tennis San Diego & Tennis San Antonio

Let the 2010 Australian Open Begin

Let the First Grand Slam of the Year Begin!! Australian Open is now Live!!

Exciting times for tennis players even the ones stuck in the snow. Who do you see winning the tourney this year, perennial favorites; Federer, Nadal or maybe Murray. Or maybe an upset from a player who is just playing better than the rest right now like Del Potro, Roddick or maybe Djokovic?

On the Women's Side it could be any one of a number of potential players: Henin, William Sisters?, maybe Safina, Clijsters, Jankovic or everyone's hopeful Ana Ivanovic. Day 1 results are already in and Maria Sharapova has already been bounced from the tourney by her countrywomen Maria Kirilenko.

All we really know is that there will be some great tennis, some lasting memories and the internal desire for ourselves to get out on the courts and play.

Here's some Day 1 Results:
Defending men's champion and second-seeded Rafael Nadal found his rhythm after a slow start to the first set and beat Australia's Peter Luczak 7-6 (0), 6-1, 6-4 on Monday in the first round of the Australian Open.

U.S. Open champion Juan Martin del Potro beat American Michael Russell 6-4, 6-4, 3-6, 6-2 and No. 5 Andy Murray defeated South Africa's Kevin Anderson 6-1, 6-1, 6-2.

Seventh-seeded Andy Roddick beat Thiemo de Bakker of the Netherlands 6-1, 6-4, 6-4.

American Mardy Fish, was beaten in his first-round match, losing 6-2, 1-6, 6-3, 6-3 to wild-card entry Andrey Golubev of Kazakhstan. American Wayne Odesnik beat Slovenian qualifier Blaz Kavcic 4-6, 6-1, 6-4, 6-2.

In between rain delays, No. 11-seeded Fernando Gonzalez of Chile beat Olivier Rochus of Belgium 6-3, 6-4, 3-6, 6-1 and Florian Mayer had an impressive comeback to beat Philipp Petzschner 0-6, 2-6, 6-4, 6-2 6-2.

Here are some our new cities for 2010: San Antonio Tennis, San Diego Tennis, Austin Tennis

Congrats to the 2009 Player of the Years

In each city we track the most passionate players using the Player of the Year app. Shown here is the final results for Tennis-Miami's Player of the Year. Miami was by far our most passionate base of players who fell in love with our tennis league format.

The formula is based upon number of referrals to the league and points for playing matches in the league or the partner program.

Washington DC / No. Virginia winner: Phil Harris, with a record 420 pts.
Boston: Mark Stern
Chicago: Michael Braun
Los Angeles: Robert Brombach
Orange County: Peter Tran
San Francisco: Ihsan Elouafi
Miami: Brian Beno, also won an extra $50 gift card with 10 referrals in the year

Baltimore Tennis: Michael Smit
Denver: Bala Srinivasan
Minneapolis: Mark Mitchell
NYC: Lance Jordan
Philadelphia: Dedan Tolbert
Portland: Craig Ekstrand
St. Louis: Matthew Frein

We hope to have players of the year for the new cities like Tennis Orlando, Tennis Tampa Bay and Tennis San Antonio in 2010.

Players can now submit ratings on the tennis courts page

On our courts page:  Charlotte Tennis Courts, Miami Tennis Courts & Austin Tennis Courts players can now submit ratings based upon surface rating, lighting, management and busyness of the courts.  This has greatly improved the valuable information we are providing our members.

Each court can also be broken down by this data:

Key Biscayne - Crandon Park Tennis Ctr

Region:

Coral Gables & South Miami

Total # Tennis Courts: 26
# Clay Courts: 6
# Lighted Courts: 6
Has hitting wall?: No
Fee (Per Hour): None that we know about
Address: 6908 Rickenbacker Causeway
City, State Zip Code: Key Biscayne, FL 33149
Directions: Get Directions
Phone Number: (305) 365-2300

Matches Played Here: 127
Admin Notes: This will be where the 2009 Tennis League Network National Tourney will be run.

Success for Tennis League Network’s First National Tennis Tournament

Press release from Nov. 15, 2009

The first annual national tournament of the Tennis League Network(TLN), (http://www.tennisleaguenetwork.com/) which sponsors local online tennis communities in 34 cities, 'was a big success' says TLN CEO Steve Chagnon. Held Nov. 6-8 at Crandon Park Tennis Center in Key Biscayne, FL.

We crowned 4 national champions:
Men's 4.0: Steve Kushner out of Chicago
Men's 3.5: Jorge Vasquez out of Philadelphia
Men's 3.0: Gokul Venkatesan out of Chicago
Women's: Darlene Dykas out of Boston

The metro area leagues under the TLN umbrella serve to connect local, dedicated tennis players who want to play a lot of tennis. Matches are played predominantely on free public courts. Since 2006, there have been more than 42,000 matches played in which 2009 saw a 51% increase in on court connections.

Registration begins for 2010 programs on Jan. 1st. We plan on having an even bigger and better year with connecting players on the courts in the various communties:

DC: http://www.tennisdc.com/
Boston: http://www.tennisnortheast.com/
Chicago: http://www.chitowntennis.com/
Los Angeles: http://www.tennislosangeles.com/
Philadelphia: http://www.tennisphilly.com/
Miami: http://www.tennis-miami.com/
New York: http://www.tennisnewyork.com/
Orange County: http://www.tennisoc.com/
SF: http://www.tennissf.com/
Denver: http://www.tennisdenver.com/
Raleigh: http://www.tennis-raleigh-durham.com/
St. Louis: http://www.tennisstlouis.com/
Portland: http://www.tennisportland.com/
Seattle: http://www.tennis-seattle.com/
Atlanta: http://www.tennis-atlanta.com/
Baltimore: http://www.tennis-baltimore.com/
Charlotte: http://www.tennis-charlotte.com/
Cincinnati: http://www.tenniscincy.com/
Cleveland: http://www.tenniscleveland.com/
Twin Cities: http://www.tennisminneapolis.com/
Austin: http://www.tennis-austin.com/
Houston: http://www.tennis-houston.com/
Dallas: http://www.tennis-dfw.com/
San Antonio: http://www.tennissanantonio.com/
Phoenix: http://www.tennisphoenix.com/
San Jose: http://www.tennissanjose.com/
Orlando: http://www.tennis-orlando.com/
Tampa: http://www.tennistampabay.com/
San Diego: http://www.tennissd.com/
Indy: http://www.tennisindianapolis.com/
Richmond: http://www.tennisrichmond.com/

Free Tennis Partner Program has been kicked off in Raleigh-Durham

The first of several Free Tennis Partner programs has been kicked off in the Raleigh-Durham location. We're communicating with the community to get as many tennis players as we can connected out on the courts. The goodwill program is also being offered in Dallas, Orange County and Miami.

First 20 Match Player of 2008: Robert Nazy, Tennis LosAngeles

Congrats to Robert Nazy on meeting up with 20 Tennis Los Angeles Partners over the 10 week Spring season. It takes a great amount of effort and passion to make it happen. 
Per the $10 for 10 rule, Tennis League Network has given Robert a free season for his dedication. Here's Roberts comments on the season: "Thank YOU for setting up the league. I enjoyed playing all the guys and it was a challenge adapting to the different styles of play. Most all the guys were friendly, personable, and most importantly, all had decent weapons on the court with which to compete at a high level of play. I had some very tough matches, which were the most enjoyable. It’s much more fun when the game is close and I get pushed physically and mentally."

Announcing TennisDenver.com

In our effort to servicing all the major metropolitan locations, we proudly announce the 12th location in the Tennis League Network: www.TennisDenver.com Metro Denver's online Tennis League. We'll be working hard to try to get a Fall League together for the participants.

4/3 New Software has arrived

The league constantly working to improve the over-all experience for the players. Connecting players with other great partners just isn't good enough.  So we have got the beta version of the new software layout online for Tennis Philly participants. We now have login access for player's contact information, more information for players who are members and the new Tennis Partner Program software.  The plan is to have all the cities online with the new software by May.