The 1st Generation Gap Tournament that took place this on August 29-30 at Stanford University provided a unique opportunity that is so rare in competitive tournament play — juniors and adults united and played WITH and AGAINST each other on a level-playing field. We were fortunate to have over 60 players apply, which allowed us to break the competition into several Compass draws and Round Robins based on UTR and NTRP for both Singles and Doubles competition.
When juniors and adults compete separately each develops their own language/ranking and the two separate spheres can’t communicate. Using the power of ratings creates a leveled playing field and is a language that can be used by every tennis player regardless of age. The Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) rating system includes every junior playing yellow ball tournaments and adults playing MWOp, ITF, ATP and WTA. This past weekend was a testament to how UTR can create a truly open experience by eliminating the age barrier.
Tournaments and league competition based on level, not on age, has been applied successfully in many countries in Europe for decades. In the U.S., tennis players miss out on the many opportunities and benefits of level-based competition.
The age barrier keeps juniors and adults completely separate and shrinks the potential pool of competition for juniors by 75%. Instead of having 40,000 players to play against in NorCal, juniors can only play against 10,000 of those.
GenGap is a great opportunity for NorCal players who are hungry for strong competition, to compete against a variety of playing styles. It also shows them firsthand that tennis is the sport of a lifetime.
Congratulations to our Champions and Finalists:
| Men’s Singles Group A | Men’s Singles Group B | Men’s Singles Group C |
| Senthil Chidambaram – Champion | Jordan Chiu – Champion | Aaron Lautman – Champion |
| Andras Bori – Finalist | Tai Tran – Finalist | Joseph Huang – Finalist |
| Women’s Singles Group A | Women’s Singles Group B | Women’s Singles Group C |
| Claire Casper – Champion | Julia Marks – Champion | Johanna Fekadu – Champion |
| Anastasia Bryan-Ajania – Finalist | Laura Cao – Finalist | Rashmi Ghonasgi – Finalist |
| Men’s Doubles Group A | Men’s Doubles Group B |
| Rus Garber/Lenny Lin – Champion | Nicholas Saquilayan/Tai Tran – Champion |
| Senthil Chidambaram/Alex Neumann – Finalist | Jordan Chiu/Michael Sutton – Finalist |
| Women’s Doubles |
| Olivia Howard/Daisy Yan – Champion |
| Johanna Fekadu/Rashmi Ghonasgi – Finalist |
Thanks once again to everyone that came out and competed this past weekend!
