GLTA News

GLTA NEWS

GLTA Master Series 2008

The GLTA Board would like to formally announce the GLTA Master Series events for 2008. There are four tournaments, selected at the Board meeting in Las Vegas, that will serve as the series and will reward winners with bonus points toward the Champions Race. The four tournaments for 2008 are:

• Art Deco XIII Championships, Miami, Florida

• USGO, San Francisco, California

• Liberty Open, New York, New York

• Zurich Rainbow Open, Zurich Switzerland

In loving memory of Michael Angel Garcia Prendes

The GLTA family suffered a great loss this past week when Michael Garcia passed away. For those of you that did not know Michael, he was a member of the founding Board of Directors for the Austin club. Michael and others were instrumental in helping to create the H.O.T. tournament held each March in Texas. Our thoughts and prayers are with all that were touched by Michael.

The Passing of a Friend

On Thursday, May 17, 2007, the GLTA and the world suffered a terrible loss when Dr. Jphn Arnot, 45, of Tampa and a proud member of Advantage Tampa Bay passed away. Born September 2nd 1961, John was a graduate of Villanova University and soon thereafter moved to Tampa, Florida where he became involved with the GLTA affiliate chapter. John traveled the GLTA tour throughout the late 1990s and 2000s (most notably) winning the B singles at the Orange Blossom Championships in Orlando, Florida.

GLTA Master Series

The GLTA Board would like to formally announce the GLTA Master Series events for 2007. Starting this year, there are four tournaments, selected at the Board meeting in London, that will serve as the series and will reward winners with bonus points toward the Champions Race. Three of the tournaments were selected based on award accolades received in 2006 and the Board rounded them out with a Board selection of their own. The four tournaments for 2007 are:

• Orange Blossom Tennis Championships, Orlando, Florida, April 6-8

• Madrid Tennis Open, Madrid, Spain, June 22-24

• Motor City Tennis Classic, Detroit, Michigan, August 17-19

• Palm Springs Open, Palm Springs, California, November 23-25

Award rules: Every match won at these events will result in double champions race points. Each player who plays in all four events will be rewarded with 10 bonus points just for playing.

The four tournaments were selected to cover one per calendar quarter, be geographically diverse with two being larger (>150 players) and two being smaller (<150 players) events. They will rotate from year to year at the Board's discretion giving all tournaments the opportunity to be a Master Series Event over time.
This is just another way to increase tournament participation and incent players to perform their best.

GLTA honors Martina Navratilova

Montreal - GLTA Ranking Director Hein Jan Lapidaire met tennis legend Martina Navratilova during a special meeting in Montreal. Martina Navratilova attended the Human Rights Conference prior to the OutGames in Montreal. During the meeting Hein Jan presented a special GLTA award to Ms. Navratilova. The text on the glass trophy sounded:

"Martina Navratilova, for your contribution to tennis and being a pillar of great inspiration. Thank you for being part of our history in the making. Gay and Lesbian Tennis Alliance, Montreal, July 2006.

Ms. Navratilova was very happy for receiving this recognition of a Gay and Lesbian tennis organization.
Besides presenting the award, Hein Jan told about the GLTA programs and invited her to visit one of the GLTA tournaments.

During the meeting and her visits to several venues at the OutGames, Martina Navratilova promoted the use of the Rainbow Card, which she launched recently.

CHANGE IN RANKING SYSTEM

The GLTA Board recently decided on a modification to the current ranking system. In the past we did not assign points for defaults and walkovers, but only for retirements.

Many players complaint about the fact that they did not get points for matches they won, because their opponent was injured or ill or for other reason not capable to play.

The GLTA board admits that this was an unfair situation to some players and modified as follows:

1. Ranking points are assigned to every match in every draw, also for retired matches, walkovers and defaults (walk overs), based on the table on page 15 of the GLTA rulebook.

2. On this rule are two exceptions: No points will be awarded for a default, retirement, walkover in a consolation match in all rounds till the final.

The other exception is that no points will be awarded for defaults (walkovers) in a first match of the opponent or for byes.

This new rule is in effect per January 1st 2006, but retro active for all tournaments dating back two years. All rankings have been recalculated recently.