If the players in your tennis club have been taking lessons for a while and you want to give them a chance to compete, a round-robin tournament may be the answer.
Players may still play another game even if they have lost a game. They don’t get eliminated after one loss. For a tennis round robin, you can schedule games for singles or doubles.
For all the details you need to host a round robin tournament, read on.
Round Robin Tournament
Round robins are a great format for when a tournament guarantees each team or player a certain number of games. Most allow each team gets to play every other team at least once, which is why this format is sometimes called a “Play and Stay.”
Choose A Date
To fill a tournament schedule, you need to be sure that everyone can come. Otherwise, teams will have to get a bye, and that makes things harder. Contact the teams or individuals ahead of time to see if they can come or solicit players to join the tournament.
Find A Schedule
Someone else has already figured out how to schedule the tournament rounds to that each team can play each other on a schedule. Find a round robin schedule online for the number of teams or individuals in your tournament.
There will be one less round than the number of participants. For example, if you have 8 teams or individuals in your round robin, you will need to schedule 7 rounds of games.
Fill In the Schedule
Now you need to place teams on the schedule. To be fair, do this randomly.
Put each team’s name on a piece of paper and draw them from a hat. The first team name you draw goes in slot number 1, the second in number 2, etc.
After you’ve assigned each team a number and written it on the schedule, they will be able to see the details of their play time (which rounds they play in and who their opponents are).
Time to Play
After you’ve scheduled the tournament and promoted it, all that’s left to do is play the games.
Play each round in order. If you have four games per round, having four courts would expedite things. However, it also means you need to schedule more chair umpires, line umpires, and referees.
Most brackets have a place to record wins and losses. As the teams play, tally the number of wins and losses they have, and in the end, whoever has the most is the winner.
In case of a tie, use the highest percentage of matches won as a tiebreaker. If there is still a tie, you can look at the result of the match between the two players who won (remember, every player plays the others).
Hosting the Tournament
Hosting a round robin tournament is easy. Decide on singles or doubles and choose a date. Then all you need to do is fill in the schedule.
Draw the teams out of a hat, and then you’re ready to play. Record the wins and losses as games finish, and determine a winner by the most wins. Make sure to have a tiebreaker decided upon before you start.
For more information about how we can make hosting tennis events easier, contact us today.
