ANOTHER NATIONAL CHAMPIONSHIP
By David Kjeldsen

  I would like folks to take a moment and think about singles in platform. No, I am not talking about the unmarried that play the sport. I am talking about the game of singles.

  If you haven’t seen singles played let me say up front, the players who play singles are superb athletes and players. They have and do exhibit great talent on the court. Singles play requires athleticism many times more than that of doubles play.

  The above said, I was intrigued by a recent headline on the APTA website. The headline read: “In the next stage of their quest for the re-establishment of a national title, the dedicated group of men who play singles have published this year's and previous year's Men's Singles Rankings.”

  Wow, I thought, have I missed something? Is there that much singles play across the country that there are now rankings? Is there that much singles play across the country that there is consideration being given to bring back the Singles National Championship by the APTA?  I know I have been out of the day-to-day world of platform or a few years now, but I didn’t think I had missed a new / renewed variation of the game that is sweeping the country.

  I decided to check the APTA schedule online. I found that currently there is one and only one singles event on the APTA
schedule. For the prior three years, there was also only one singles tournament on the schedule. Checking the draw, in this year’s “expanded” event twenty-four players participated.

  Is the re-establishment of an APTA sanctioned singles national title really in the future? Well, in my opinion, not until such time as single events can be held in every region of the country and the game is played by more than 24 of the doubles game’s best players.

what do you think? let me know! info@platformtennisnews.com

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