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August 30, 2024
Adult Doubles Tennis Tournament at the 'Wood!
Friday, September 27 (evening) and Saturday, September 28
The Murraywood Tennis Committee is excited to announce our annual Doing Good in the 'Wood Adult Doubles Tennis Tournament (formerly known as the OKRA Tournament). Scheduled for the weekend of September 27 and 28 (Friday night and Saturday day), we are once again proud to be supporting the Saluda Slammers, our local Special Olympics tennis team. The Slammers are headed to Hilton Head in October to compete in a national tournament, and proceeds from our tournament will help offset associated costs. And of course we will gladly accept donations!
New Registration Format!
After extensive research and discussion, the tennis committee has opted to take advantage of the USTA's tournament interface to create an unsanctioned tournament (which doesn't affect your NTRP rating). The registration process will be new and different for most of us, and we are hoping this system will help publicize our event to a wider local population. This could benefit Murraywood and Special Olympics in a variety of ways:
  • The tournament will be listed on the USTA tournament website, so will have greater exposure than we normally have, possibly resulting in more participation. More participation equals more funds for the Slammers.
  • Drawing more non-members to Murraywood enables us to show off our wonderful facility. Maybe we will get some new members!
  • The USTA program will enable draws and results to be viewed on your phone and computer. Our little Club may jump into the 21st century!
So how does it work?
To register, you will need FOUR things in advance:
  1. Your USTA number (don't worry if you don't have one - we can help! And it's free to get a USTA number if you don't have one!).
  2. A doubles partner and your decision of which level to play (see levels in graphic above).
  3. Your doubles partner's USTA number.
  4. A credit or debit card for paying the $35 fee. Note: By entering your doubles partner's USTA number you are NOT obligating yourself to pay their registration; you are simply giving the system that data to hook you up as partners in the draw.
We've done some troubleshooting for you!
Because this is new, we had several members of the Tennis Committee sign up and provide feedback, and indeed, they encountered some hiccups. The Tennis Committee is prepared to help you navigate this hiccups. Of course, there may be hiccups we haven't anticipated so we encourage you to reach out with issues you face. We want to help you with the process! We may even schedule some sign-up sessions at the 'Wood so we can all sign up together!
Here are the issues we encountered, and how to overcome them:
I went to the indicated website to get my USTA number and completed all the registration steps but I'm not seeing my number anywhere.

After completing the information required to join the USTA (free!), you will be emailed your USTA number. You may also find your number by logging into your USTA account that you just created, and clicking the cog on the upper right corner.
I haven't played USTA league in 10 years. When I entered the email address associated with my account and USTA number, the computer told me I had to call the USTA!!!

We checked with our contact at USTA South Carolina, and indeed, if you've had a long hiatus from league play, you need to call them to get your account information reactivated. If you really, really hate talking to people on the phone, you can grab a different email address and create a new account. But we know you can probably handle that phone call.
I put in my credit card information but the system wouldn't let me proceed unless I agreed to let them save that information. That's not generally something I prefer to do.

According to the USTA, your card is not charged until after the deadline entry and player selections are completed. This is the reason you must have the registration process save your card.
So let's go!

Here's a link to join the USTA and get a USTA number OR retrieve your existing number if you don't have a copy of it:
Here's the link to register for the tourney (don't forgot the 4 things you need from above):
Here's a link to make an (optional) donation to the Saluda Slammers:
Murraywood Swim & Racquet Club | murraywoodswimandracquet@gmail.com | www.murraywoodswimandracquetclub.org