To promote and develop tennis in Virginia.

2011 USTA/VA Tournament Directors' Workshop Dates/Info

Tournaments - Login 

Post Tournament Checklist 

Online Player Fee Payment

USTA/MAS Tournament Directors' Packet

   Tournament Awards

Contents

 Reference Materials (Down-loadable and Printable)

• Rules, The Code and Regulations
• Tournament Director Forms
• Tournament Tennis Link Instructional Manuals
• Tournament Date Manager

Other Materials - Standings and ranking lists, for use in seeding players can be found on the USTA/MAS website - http://www.midatlantic.usta.com

Online Tournament Sanctioning:

All USTA Virginia District tournaments are sanctioned using the Tennis Link online sanction form.

 How to use the Online Sanction Application

Online Tournament Registration:

Players may register for all USTA Virginia District tournaments online.

How a Player Registers Online for a Tournament-coming soon

Online Batch Entries:

Player data and USTA membership for mail, phone and fax tournament entrants is verified using the Online Batch Entry feature.

How to use the Online Batch Entry Feature

Publishing Online Tournament Reports:

Many different types of Text Reports can be published on your tournament’s online homepage.

How to Publish Online Reports

TDM is freeware that can be downloaded an installed by any organizational USTA member on as many computers as they like.

USTA/Virginia District Tournament Directors are required to publish their tournaments' results online within 48 hours of a tournament’s completion using TDM.

TDM Homepage

TDM Manual
TDM Download & Upgrade

If you have technical questions regarding TDM USTA National Link Team can help. Call the TDM Hotline at 1.800.603.3138

Tournament Directors Rules & Guidelines

  Please review the NEW 2011 TOURNAMENT REGULATIONS before running a 2011 tournament

1)       The Friend at Court “The USTA Handbook of Tennis Rules and Regulations” must be read and understood by the Tournament Chairperson, Director, and Referee. One or more copies of the Friend at Court shall be available for reference at all times during the tournament. Familiarity with the Friend at Court is essential to administering a successful tennis tournament.

2)        Referee & Officials:

All USTA / Virginia District sanctioned tournaments must have a Referee. Neither the Tournament Chairperson nor the Tournament Director may serve as or assume the responsibilities of the Referee (61).

 USTA Certified Referee Required - The following tournament types / levels require that the referee be USTA certified:

• MAS Championships
• MAS Challengers
• USTA Virginia State Championships
• Junior Level 1, 2, 3 and 4 tournaments

 The USTA recommends the use of Referees certified by the USTA in all USTA sanctioned tournaments (65).

In Adult, NTRP or Junior L5, SS or L6 tournaments, if an uncertified referee is employed they must be thoroughly familiar with the Friend at Court and have it with them at all times during tournament play.

If a Referee is unclear as to how to handle or resolve an issue they may call USTA Certified Sectional Trainer / Evaluator Dick Cervi (757) 897-0426.

If a USTA Virginia sanctioned tournament uses more than one site for play it is strongly recommended that a certified USTA official be present at each tournament site. This strong recommendation also includes indoor and outdoor facilities with multiple banks of courts that cannot be easily monitored by one official.

All play in USTA Virginia sanctioned tournaments shall be directly monitored. At sites lacking a sufficient number of certified officials to directly monitor all courts where tournament play is occurring, Court Monitors shall be used in accordance with FAC Comment VI.G-1:

If you plan to employ certified officials it is the responsibility of the Tournament Director to contact your region's officials assigner as soon as your sanction application has been approved. Minimally, officials requests should be made three months prior to a tournament’s start date.

3)       Eligibility for a Tournament:

In order to participate in a Virginia sanctioned tournament a player must present a current USTA membership card.  Should a player not have a card (or it has expired), advise the player that USTA membership is required and they may either renew/obtain a USTA membership instantly by phone 800-990-USTA or on the web www.usta.com.

Note: Online player registration and batch registration require current USTA membership. When manually entering players either in TDM or via the Batch Entry process, contact any player without current USTA membership and instruct them to call 800-990-USTA or go online www.usta.com to become a member.

Purchasing USTA memberships at the tournament desk via cash or check using paper forms is not recommended.

Age Eligibility

Junior - a player is eligible if they have not exceeded the maximum age by the last day of the month during which the division of the tournament is scheduled to start (see pages 64 and 65 for details).

Adult – a player is eligible if they will reach the minimum age by December 31 of the year during which the division of tournament is scheduled to start (63).

Responsibilities before the tournament begins:

 1.       Entries – Every USTAVirginia Tennis sanctioned tournament must offer online registration. Players may also enter by phone, mail, or fax (if the TD chooses to accept these types of entries) but registering online must be an option for tournament players. For an example of a traditional paper entry form, entry guidelines and procedures see pages 68-69 in the Friend at Court.

Increase your Entries - If you would like an address database of all the VA ranked players for the age divisions in your event, send a request via email to CLOAKING . This is protected information that must be used exclusively for recruiting players to compete in USTA/VA sanctioned tournaments.

2.       Seeding Tournaments for Juniors/Adults/Seniors

In order to provide proper seedings for Junior, Adult, and Senior Tournaments the following are helpful guidelines. 

      a.       All Junior OPEN tournament seeding (for district and sectional events) should be done using the most current MAS standings lists.

      b.       Adult Tournament Seeding - Tournament committees should obtain year-end rankings, current standings and results from other tournaments online at http://www.midatlantic.usta.com.  Please consider results in other age divisions.  In Senior tournaments there is a great deal of cross over play, and all this information is valuable in determining fair relative seedings.

      c.        NTRP and Futures and QuickStart tournaments generally do not seed participants.

      d.       If the Tournament committee has a question about seeding please contact the USTA/Virginia Tournament Administrator.

3.       After the close of entries and at least 48hours prior to the start of tournament play, publicly create the draws and publish draws and match times online using TDM.

TDM Tip: When you internet publish the draws as soon as they are complete, players can look online (www.usta.com) for their draws and match times. Players LOVE this feature and it dramatically reduces or eliminates the Tournament Directors jobs of answering match time / draw questions and making / receiving phone calls.

4.       Post your players’ code of conduct, and draw sheet(s) at the tournament site on or prior to the first day of play.

10&Under Guidelines & Regulations:

Responsibilities once the tournament starts:

1.       Review with players the USTA/Mid-Atlantic Code of Conduct and the consequences of misconduct before sending them out for their first matches. This has proven to dramatically reduce code violations and misconduct.

2.       Singles Sticks – The Tournament Committee shall assure that each court is provided with singles sticks for singles matches using a doubles net.

3.       Should a player default from your tournament, the player should fill out a player withdrawal form.  If the player defaults out of a first round match, and therefore is never at the tournament site, the tournament director should fill out the withdrawal form. This form should be faxed, emailed or mailed to USTA/Virginia Tennis office.

4.       Consolation Draw Defaults

After losing in the main draw, players sometimes choose not to participate in the consolation draw and therefore default their back draw match.

Do NOT replace defaulting players’ names with “bye” in consolation draws. Upon entering main draw results, the TDM software will automatically place main draw losers in appropriate positions in consolation draws according to USTA regulations. If your event is USTA sanctioned as having a consolation draw, and after losing in the main draw a player informs the tournament staff that they will not stay and compete in the consolation draw, do NOT replace the player’s name in the back draw with “bye”.

Consolation defaults do appear on player records, and withdrawals/defaults at any point during a tournament do result in two MAS Category II Suspension Points being assessed to the withdrawing/defaulting player - including consolation defaults, however consolations defaults have no affect rankings or standings points. PPR points are only awarded for advancing in tournament play – points are never deducted for loses. Players that advance as a result of receiving a consolation default do receive points for the default win.

Because USTA PPR Rankings are structured so that consolation points are awarded for each round won (players get X points for every consolation match they win) unlike main draw points which are awarded for last round won (players get Y points for advancing to the finals). Consequently, replacing players’ names in back draws with byes has an effect on the points of advancing players and is prohibited.

5.       If a player displays misconduct on or off the court, a code of conduct report should be filled out by the referee and signed by the player.  This form should be mailed to USTA/Virginia Tennis office.

6.       If you have to limit your draws due to lack of court time, please call the USTA/Virginia Tennis office so that the rules and regulations can be brought to your attention.

7.       Match Formats – In 70 and over and 10 and under age divisions a match tie-break in lieu of a third set MAY be used. Junior L3, L4, L5, SS and L6 may use either "best 2 of 3 sets" or "tie-break in lieu of a 3rd set" - specify which format will be used on the tournament homepage.

*MAS Adult standings and rankings will include only "best 2 of 3 sets" results with the exception of 70+ age divisions. MAS doubles standings and rankings include all FAC allowable match formats.*

For One-Day tournament match format information please visit www.virginiatennis.com

8.       Inclement Weather / Alternative Match Formats

      a.       Every possible effort should be made to enable matches to be completed using the original format.

      b.       Every possible effort should also be made to complete tournaments within their scheduled dates. It is the responsibility of the tournament director to appropriately schedule their event, allowing for some longer-than-average matches and the possibility of brief weather related delays.

      c.        Should your tournament experience weather related delays refer to Completing delayed tournaments on page 99 of the Friend at Court before utilizing one of the acceptable alternatives described in the next section.

      d.       If extended rain delays will prevent the event from being completed within its scheduled dates, match tie-breaks in lieu of third sets or / and no-add scoring may be used. Eight game Pro-Sets may be also be used in any doubles division - but the only singles divisions where Pro-Sets may be used are Futures/Novice junior divisions.

      i.      Alternative formats should not be employed to compensate for a tournament director failing to allot adequate court time or other scheduling errors.

      e.        Rain dates should be established and published on entry forms, and players should be made aware of rain dates during registration. If due to extended weather delays the event cannot be completed during the scheduled dates, the rain date(s) may be used. This option is the last resort because many players plan their schedules well in advance and may intend to compete in other events during subsequent dates.

9.       Play Limitations – Please be aware of and abide by play limitations as set forth in the Mid-Atlantic Tournament Players Handbook. Tournament Directors not adhering to play limitations may have any remaining event sanctions revoked and future sanction applications denied.

Responsibilities after the tournament:

1.      Within 48hours of the completion of the tournament: publish draws and results online using TDM.

2.     Complete the Online Post-Tournament Checklist

If the Player Fee payment has not been received by USTA Virginia Tennis office within 30 days of a tournament’s completion, a $20 Late / Invoicing Fee will be charged in addition to the player fees.

3.       Tournament Directors who do not report their results on time, will be reviewed for probationary action. Current Players Standings depend upon tournament results being published online immediately following a tournament’s completion.

4.      Complete an online Tournament Evaluation Form (within 10 days of the tournament’s completion).

5.  Complete an online USTA Sanction Application

Payment for the subsequent year’s Sanction Fees shall be submitted along with all forms and player fee payment within 10 days of the tournament’s completion. This secures the corresponding dates for your tournament the following year.

If a sanction fee payment for the following year is not received by USTA Virginia Tennis office within 30 days of a tournament’s completion, the tournament dates will not be reserved for your event the subsequent year. [More than 300 USTA sanctioned tournaments are held in Virginia each year, and securing the dates insures that your tournament will be the only event of its type in the area.]

 For new events, online sanctions should be paid and submitted ideally 90 days or more prior to the tournament start.

       Junior Tournament Level Sanctioning Information:

Level / (points)

• L1 (660) and L2 (330) tournaments are sanctioned by the USTA Mid-Atlantic Section - (800) 532-8782

• L3 (220) - VA is currently limited to eight L3 tournaments annually. These eight events are usually renewed year to year. When one does become available an invitation to bid on its sanction will be sent via email to all tournament directors in Virginia. USTA certified officials must be present at all sites for the duration of the event.

• L4 (165) - premier satellite tournaments.  USTA certified officials must be present at all sites for the duration of the event. Each of the four regions of VA may have up to one L4 tournament per month. Regions are illustrated here: http://www.usta-va.com/tournament/region_map.jpg. Most L4 tournaments are outstanding L5 events that are upgraded to L4, though in some instances L4 status may be awarded to a new event if it meets all criteria, satisfies a  regional need, and the site and tournament director have a history of running exceptional tournaments.

Sanction Notification

Upon review of the Sanction Application by the USTA / Virginia Tennis Schedules & Sanctions Committee, the Tournament Director will be notified of the applications denial.  If the application is denied, a reason for the denial will be stated and how the application can be altered to receive approval.

If you are in need of guidance in sanctioning a tournament event, please contact the USTA/Virginia Tournament Administrator or the USTA/Virginia Tennis Office:

Robert Issem, Tournament Administrator, CLOAKING , 800.229.3166

Janine Underwood, Executive Director, CLOAKING , 800.229.3166

Reference Materials

Free Adobe Acrobat Reader Download (used to view and print the files below)

Rules, The Code and Regulations

2011 Friend at Court Online

MAS ADULT Code of Conduct

MAS Junior Code of Conduct

Tournament Director Forms

Player Fee Invoice

Withdrawal / Code of Conduct Form

Sportmanship Nomination

USTA CERTIFICATE OF INSURANCE REQUEST

Standard Tournament Entry Form

Tournament Tennis Link Instructional Manuals

How to use the Online Sanction Application

How to use Online Batch Entries

How a Player Registers Online for a Tournament

How to Publish Online Reports

TDM Manual

For more information on USTA/VA Sanctioned Tournaments, contact Rob Issem at CLOAKING .