Introduction to Leagues

To organise the most appropriate format, it is key to understand whether you wish to create a league, a tournament or an interclub competition via a tennis association.

Tennis leagues can be social or competitive, run day or night and can last from a few weeks to an entire season.

They are intraclub competitions best organised for those seeking social play and building a tennis community, where members play each other at a regular time.

There are three types of tennis leagues:

1. Social leagues are flexible; a player can opt-in each week.
2. Fixtured leagues have a fixture where individuals or teams register to play every week.
3. Challenge ladder where people register to play every week. They are ranked by UTR with players challenging others above them in ranking.

Most state Member Associations (MAs) will also run interclub leagues where teams of club players from across the state compete against each other in singles and doubles, catering for a wide variety of playing standards.

Tournaments differ from tennis leagues in that they are shorter in duration – they run from a day to a week.

They can be organised according to age groups, gender or formats (i.e. singles, doubles or mixed doubles) and are a great way for players to test themselves in matches against others. Junior Tour or Open events often award points and sometimes prize money (for Open events), whereas Community-level events are generally more social in nature, which include mass participation tournaments such as our Easter tournaments across the country.

Tournaments require a Competitive Player Profile to register.

Tennis associations facilitate interclub competitions across a region. Clubs field a team of players. Those teams play every week for a season or term rotating between.