Prior to the 2019 Indoor Junior Provincials, Tennis Alberta published information regarding changes to the Seeding Process, including a commitment to review the process for the upcoming outdoor season. Starting April 21st, all tournaments under the Road to Nationals category will apply the following regulation:
“Seeds for each of the Selections and Provincials will be set according to Rogers Rankings. Results from 5 Star Events (Provincial and Regional Championships) outside of Alberta will not count towards these seedings as these are CLOSED events for players within the province. Out-of-Province seeds are subject to review based on recent significant results against Alberta players and their Rogers Rankings.”
The purpose of this regulation is to provide accurate seedings for our top events which influence which athletes will be representing Tennis Alberta at Tennis Canada’s Rogers Junior Nationals. Seedings are placed in tournaments to separate the top players, ensuring they do not encounter each other in early rounds. The purpose of seedings IS NOT to give an advantage to players. This process allows the results of the tournament to accurately reflect the strength of a player. When the seedings become inaccurate it leads to results which do not reflect the strength of a player. For example, if the Top 2 players were to end up on the same half of the draw, due to incorrect seeding, then it would mean a Top 2 finish for another player.
The new regulation falls in line with Tennis Canada’s Rules of the Court which states : “There are no “musts” in selecting the players to be seeded except that the process should reflect the best judgement of the Tournament Committee.”
Tennis Alberta encourages players to travel out of province, including to the Prairies and Atlantics, in order to gain additional match play, play against different players, or play in an environment different than their own. However, due to the fluctuation in the rankings, we will not be taking these points into account in terms of seeding process.
“It is recommended that rather than try to boost a player’s ranking as high as possible, you should try to maintain as accurate of a ranking to the player’s level as possible. This will allow players to gain the most amount of competitive matches as they will be able to play matches at their relative skill level. Boosting a player’s ranking above their playing level will lead to the situation where they are stuck playing in events too strong for their level. For example, a player who should be ranked around 20 gets their ranking into the Top 10, and now is only able to play in Selection events, where they are unable to win matches. Whereas if their ranking were accurate they would be able to play 3.5 and 3 Star tournaments and gain competitive match experience.” – Derek van den Berg, Technical Manager Tournaments and Provincial Planning
