Can someone answer my questions about the USTA?

Question

I'm currently 14 and interested in competing in USTA tournaments in New Jersey... (I'm not new at playing tennis, just at tournaments)

Can someone explain to me what these tournaments are, and what they're like?

What I can do to prepare, besides the obvious answer of practicing a lot.

Are they hard?

What can you benefit from doing them?

Does joining the USTA cost money?

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Any additional info is helpful. Thanks.

Answer 1

Signing up for the USTA costs a tiny bit of money, if I remember correctly. To sign up for tournaments, it definitely costs money ($20-30, I think).

The difficulty really depends on many different factors. I have no idea about New Jersey; is the level of play there very high? I live in Texas, where tennis is huge, so most of the tournaments I have to enter are really high level (So I always lose :[ ).

There are ranking tournaments were you can gain points and go up in ranking. Here they're called ZATs, I'm not sure if it's the same there. Here, if you win a ZAT (Or get so many points) you are promoted to what's called a "Champ," and you play in different tournaments with other champs. From there you can go on to become a Super Champ. Here in Texas, there are even separate levels within the Super Champs.

Joining the USTA is good in that you are able to play other players who are serious about tennis and who are near your skill level. Also, if you're serious about tennis, you will get the experience of playing in tournaments (Great if you're playing on your school's team). You will be able to gauge your improvement if you up through the ranks, also.

Still, I am not sure at all about how the USTA Junior things work in other parts of the country. Do you have a coach? Ask them, as they will probably know a lot more.

But you should definitely sign up for USTA and enter some tournaments, it's great experience