Tennis Competitions Workshop

This document appears on the ITF Competition Formats website courtesy of the LTA of Great Britain.

Mini Tennis CompetitionsMINI TENNIS COMPETITIONS

(COMPETITION ORGANISERS WORKSHOP)

Contents
About competition
Round Robin competitions
Choosing competition format and scoring method
Adapting formats for tricky numbers, mixed abilities, and unexpected situations and Mini Tennis Rules & References

ABOUT COMPETITION

WHY IS COMPETITION IMPORTANT ?

WHAT ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT CHARACTERSITICS FOR COMPETITIONS ?

WHAT COMPETITIONS AND WHO CAN PLAY

All competitions can be singles, doubles or teams, ‘Intra Club’ or ‘Open’
In Mini Tennis Competitions the emphasis should be on team and Multi-Sport competitions

Competition

Who can play

Mini Tennis Red

for Red players & early orange players

Mini Tennis Orange

for Orange players and early Green players, no tennis players or rated players

Mini Tennis Green

for Green players and early Tennis players, no 7.1 rated players

Robinsons Tennis Competitions (intra- club) –

for any junior tennis players in the club

Robinsons Tennis Challenge

for lesser rated players in the club or from nearby clubs

Robinsons Masters Series

for better rated players (requiring official referees)

‘Matchplays’ or Ratings tournaments

for all rated players

Age group sanctioned tournaments

for all rated players or any player 10&U

CONSIDERATIONS FOR AGE & STAGE

Competition is a gradual process. Consider each of the following in relation to age and stage with shorter and easier competition at Red progressing through Orange and Green building towards JNR Tennis

1. Length of competition

RED

ORANGE

GREEN

JNR TENNIS

2-3 hrs

3 hrs

3-4 hrs

½ - full day

2. Length of matches

RED

ORANGE

GREEN

JNR TENNIS

7-10mins

15-20mins

20-35mins

45-90mins

3. Who scores?

RED

ORANGE

GREEN

JNR TENNIS

scorers

supervisors

self scoring

self scoring

4. Boy/Girl differences

At all levels organisers must be sensitive to the needs of girls being different from boys. Some girls are happily mixed with boys while others are not. Try to arrange girls competitions where possible or girls groups within a competition.

5. Prizes

All players should be given a small prize at end, bigger prizes for winners or group winners. Medals are very popular and inexpensive. Mini sweets good for small prizes. Certificates also good.

6. Need for ratings

If players in a Robinsons Challenge Event are rated then the organiser should consider that it might be helpful to use a scoring system which would help them with their rating. Remember that 7.3 and 7.2 rated players do not benefit from 1 set matches for their rating.

7. Role of parents

Parents are a vital and readily available source of assistance and must be wisely used. A few golden rules:-

  • Use for scoring only at the lower stages of Mini Tennis
  • Brief the parents about rules, court lines and scoring method
  • Parents only score games which do not include their own children
  • Parents asked to avoid getting involved in coaching
  • Parents who are not helping to stay away from the courts

Parents must understand that they too are undergoing a gradual process of removing themselves from the matches. As the children progress the parents should be less and less involved and leave the children to play

COMPETITION FORMATS

Always choose formats which provide maximum participation for all players and which can be sensitive to the age and ability of the players.

The following formats can be used for team competitions or singles & doubles events

  1. ‘Challenges & Matches’ – a series or circuit of fun challenge activities and short matches

  2. Multi Sport – short fun matches in Mini Tennis combined with Mini Soccer, Mini Hockey etc

  3. Matches - ROUND ROBIN alone

  4. Matches - Round Robin followed by knockouts & consolations

  5. Matches - Knockouts with playbacks with perfect draw of 8 or 16 (also called Two Way events)

Basic principles are

Short matches for the very young (5,6,7 years) mixed with skills or other sports - as they progress, matches get longer and fewer. Team competition is always better than individual events.

SCORING METHODS

Choose according to time, courts, age, stage and ability. Tie break scoring is the basis for Mini Tennis scoring and can be used flexibly. At the Mini Tennis Green stage the scoring can be tie breaks or abbreviated tennis scoring thus building towards scoring full tennis.

The table below shows the graduated nature of the recommended scoring methods and the average length of matches.

 

Scoring

Average time

Red
  • Tie break to 7, 2 clear or sudden death
  • Extended tie break to 11, 2 clear or sudden death
  • 7 mins
  • 10 mins

Orange

  • Tie break to 7
  • Extended tie break to 11
  • 2 tie breaks (can produce a draw)
  • Best of 3 tie breaks
  • 10 mins
  • 13 mins
  • 18 mins
  • 25 mins

Green
  • Tie break to 7
  • Extended tie break to 11
  • 2 tie breaks (can produce a draw)
  • Best of 3 tie breaks
  • One ‘short set’ to 4 with tie break at 4-4
  • 10 mins
  • 13 mins
  • 18 mins
  • 25 mins
  • 20 mins

JNR Tennis
  • One set to 6, tie break at 6-6
  • Best of 3 - 2 short sets & third set tie break ‘game’*
  • Best of 3 short sets
  • 2 sets to 6 with tie break at 6-6. Third set as tie break game*

*occasionally these matches can be much longer; be prepared for the odd exception
  • 35 mins
  • 45 mins
  • 55 mins
  • 75 mins

 

ROUND ROBIN BOXES

Easily the most appropriate format for ‘child friendly’ competition – Round Robin boxes are best played as stand alone but where a winner is required such as in Robinsons JNR Challenge they can be played as qualifiers for a knockout draw with consolations

How many matches in a group ?

Group size

No of matches

Simple formula is
Group size  x Group size less 1 and
divide by 2 (2 players in each match)

3

3

4

6

5

10

Example for group of 6
Group size (6) x Group size less 1 (5) (=30)
Divide by 2 =15 matches

6

15

7

21

 Sorting out the Groups

Option 1- when players are of different standards
- group players according to ability as you know it and they play RR only

Option 2 – when players are of similar abilities and you have reason to follow RR with knockouts
- put players in groups with ‘seeds’ and follow RR with a knockout and consolation knockouts so that everyone continues to be involved

Putting players into groups

Option 1 – find out as much about the players as possible and put like abilities together taking age and boy/girl into consideration also

Option 2  -
1. Placing ‘seeds’ in a box - put seed 1 at top of box and if you have a second seed put in the place that would mean they meet in their last match eg in a box of 5 at place D

2. Placing other players in boxes
- consider friendships, players from same groups/clubs, avoid putting players with same name into same box.

Transferring players to Knockout
- always try to put 2 players through to top knockout in case you have the best players in the same group. This is harder to do in JNR matches where matches are longer. Put all other players into consolation knockouts. Prepare KO sheets with all players (A1 is 1st in Group A, B2 is 2nd in B etc)

How to complete a Round Robin box

- See sample on following pages

How to work out final positions in a box

Ties - In the case of a tie between two or more players in a group there are various methods of calculating the positions

Ties in competitions where scoring is one tie break game of any length

Mini Tennis CompetitionsIn competitions where scoring is 2 or 3 tie breaks

ROUND ROBIN FOLLOWED BY KNOCKOUT

Where Round Robin boxes are followed by knockout, the knockout sheet must be prepared with every player having a place in the main knockout (Wimbledon) or one of the consolation knockouts, depending on their results in the Round Robin Groups.
Example shows a knockout draw following 4 boxes of 5 where players are of similar ability.

A1 represents the player who came 1st in box A, A2 is the player who came 2nd in box A and so on.

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