Dallas Challenger Information

World class men’s professional tennis action will once again be headed to the metroplex as T Bar M Racquet Club hosts the USTA Challenger of Dallas for the 16^th consecutive year. Top pros from over 25 countries will be competing.

 The $100,000 Challenger of Dallas will be held on February 1 through February 8, 2014 (qualifying rounds are 2/1 and 2/2 and main draw matches are 2/3 through 2/8). The Challenger of Dallas is one of the top-rated stops on the USTA Pro Circuit and is followed by fans around the world. Top past competitors include the Bryan brothers, Sam Querrey, David Nalbandian, James Blake, Ryan Harrison and Jack Sock.

The Challenger proudly supports several local charities including the Dallas Tennis Association’s Invest in a Child, Maureen Connolly Brinker Tennis Foundation and the Dallas County Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure®. Over the past 15 years, the Challenger has helped raise in excess of $500,000 for local charities.

Along with exciting professional tennis, the Challenger will also include several family-friendly events including: “Challenger goes Pink Day,” the Latino Tennis Festival, Dallas Junior Night as well as clinics for children and adults.

Opening round play begins at $12 and increases to $40 for the championship match. To see every match, all-session passes are available at a cost of $220. Children two years of age and under get in free, and tickets for children 3-12 years of age will be sold at half price.

Tickets can be ordered online through Ticketmaster or by phone at 972-385-3628. For more information, visit www.challengerofdallas.com.

  

Pro Line Clinic Being Offered

Training opportunity being offered for those interested in learning Pro Lines.

Basic Line Training:  January 31, 2014 from 6:30 p.m. until 8:00 p.m.

Place:  T Bar M Racquet Club
           6060 Dilbeck Lane
           Dallas, Texas  75240

Meet in the lounge area.

Email Terry Gatzki, tmgatzki@yahoo.com to register for the Line Clinic or if you have questions.

Letter From Our MTOA President

Dear MTOA Members,

I am excited and honored to be voted, by the Board, the new president of MTOA. As I look forward to this new year of tennis there are three items that stand out to me as most important.

The first is recruiting new officials. Every year we lose a few officials for various reasons and we have some weekends that have a very high volume of tournaments and it has been difficult to staff all those commitments.  I would encourage your input on how best to recruit and retain officials.

Next is education and training. I feel MTOA does a great job of providing training opportunities. For newly certified officials, MTOA offers the Roving 101 Class, and shadowing to get them started. For new and re-certifying officials there are two certification schools in the Metroplex. There are also opportunities to do chair training and line training if one wishes to go past the grassroots level.

The third item would be how to grow tennis in the Mertroplex area. It is in all our best interest to keep tennis growing, weather it is at the junior, adult, and pro level.  We can do this by providing high quality tennis officials at all levels through education and training, working with tournaments and their directors to provide the best tennis experience for those participating, and encourage new tennis players at all levels.

Again, I would like to thank the Board for your confidence and encourage you to help to make this a great year for tennis.

Sincerely,

Terry Gatzki

MTOA President

MTOA Board Elects Officers For 2014

The Board of Directors of the Metroplex Tennis Officials Association elected officers to serve for 2014.  The new officers are:

President:  Terry Gatzki
Vice-President:  Susan Wertenberger
Secretary:  Roz Tuerk
Treasurer:  Randall Edwards

In addition, the Board also appointed Dwayne Enderle to serve out a vacated term on the board.

The current members of the Board of Directors are listed on the right hand side of the blog.

2014 Dallas Officials School Information

The 2014 DFW National School will take place at Grapevine High School (3223 Mustang Drive, Grapevine, TX 76051) on Sunday, January 26^th.   The day's class schedule is:

USTA               8 am to noon

Lunch              noon to 1 on your own

Referee 1 to 3

ITA                  3 to 5

All Texas officials must sign up for the Certification Schools through a registration form at http://www.tx10isofficials.com.  Non Texas officials should sign up on Nucula.

All certification tests must be completed PRIOR to attending class (the tests and the 2014 Friend at Court are available on Nucula).

PRINT OUT YOUR PROOF OF PASSING AND BRING IT AND THE TEST(S) WITH YOU TO CLASS.  These tests are open book using the 2014 Friend at Court.

Everyone must take the USTA test.  You do not need to take the Referee and ITA tests unless you plan to attend the respective classes.