USTA St. Louis 55 & Over Men’s Team Earns 5th-Place Nationals Finish
A USTA St. Louis 55 & Over 9.0 men’s team co-captained by Steve Arnstein and John Novatny had a strong showing at 2023 USTA League Nationals. With a 3-1 record, the squad finished fifth — just one spot away from progressing to semifinal action and a shot to win the title — at the USTA National Training Center in Orlando on October 27-29.
“It was really close — there were six teams that finished 3-1 and it came down to tiebreakers,” Novatny said. “A bunch of us watched the finals on Sunday. No disrespect to any other team at all — everybody is great — but there is no overpowering, dominating team. We could have all been there. It comes down to the close matches and tiebreakers. We won our fair share of close matches, too. It just shows you how close it is across the whole country and what kind of parity there is.”
After opening USTA League National play with a 2-1 loss to USTA Eastern on Friday, the USTA St. Louis team repping USTA Missouri Valley bounced back that day with a 2-1 win over USTA Intermountain. The group then knocked off USTA Southwest 2-1 before besting USTA Southern 2-1 in Saturday action to claim three straight victories.
In all three of those results, USTA Missouri Valley won a third-set tiebreaker en route to the dual-match win. With the top-four finishers of the 15 competing teams advancing to the semifinal round, USTA Missouri Valley just missed the cut with its fifth-place finish.
“We’re all 55-plus obviously and have played tennis forever,” Novatny said. “Most of us played college tennis. But you still get a little nervous even after all this time playing.”
Novatny noted USTA SoCal, which started the weekend 3-0, rested some players in its final pool-play match against rival USTA NorCal. NorCal won that matchup by a 3-0 margin, bumping them into the final four and nudging USTA Missouri Valley out of that slot. USTA NorCal went on to win the national championship with a 2-1 win over that same USTA SoCal squad.
“We gave it our best. Just fell a little bit short,” Novatny said. “Everybody played at least two matches, so that was a good thing. We got everybody in the mix. Everybody contributed. It was a good time, a good team. Everybody had a good experience.”
Nine members of the USTA St. Louis squad competed at USTA Nationals with several of the players’ wives making the trip to Florida as well. The crew went out to dinner together each night, hung out at the hotel pool and purchased some USTA apparel. Several stuck around to watch the championship match on Sunday morning.
“The only downside is once you make Nationals, you have to break up the team and only keep three people from the previous team,” Novatny said. “It’s great camaraderie. It’s a blast to be together. Everybody had a really, really good time. Everybody gets along great. But the downside is you probably don’t get to do it again next year.”
Novatny said that’s particularly true in the difficult USTA Missouri Valley, where quality teams from USTA Oklahoma and USTA Heart of America emerge each year to provide stiff competition. This go-round, USTA St. Louis beat both those teams twice apiece by identical 2-1 scorelines in the Section Championship in early August.
“Our section is really tough,” Novatny said. “The two teams we played at section championships were as good as any team we played down there. We tend to rotate.”
Novatny was likewise part of the USTA St. Louis 55 & Over team that advanced to USTA League Nationals in 2019. That squad earned a third-place finish at Nationals. The core of that team made another strong run at a national title this year and hopes to get back on the same stage again.
“The most proud thing we all talk about is we are 55 and over and still doing this,” Novatny said. “Still competing, still doing well, still staying healthy. Most of us are 60 and over. We just think it’s really important we keep staying active and doing this. The fact we can compete and compete well — that’s the fun part for us.”
To read a previously published USTA St. Louis article on the 55 & Over 9.0 men’s team, click here.
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