We are looking to establish an annual TennisStLouis Tournament!
Contact Admin

Purpose of the Tournament:

To give players an opportunity to enjoy meeting community players, meet players from the TennisStLouis Tennis League and players from other participating cities. We'll also get potential new players to TennisStLouis Tennis League and have a fun weekend playing competitive singles matches.

We need YOU to be lead organizer:

• Getting commitment from a Tennis Facility where we can get 6 to 10 courts fully reserved from Saturday 8AM to 7 PM, Sunday 8AM to 3PM and potentially Friday noon to 7PM for the longer weekend format. The location of the venue matters as if it’s too far out in the suburbs we might not get the commitment from the local community.
• Negotiate a rate that makes it feasible to run the tournament. The sweet spot is a rate of $5-$12 an hour per court. The higher the per court cost the higher the tournament entry fee cost will need to be.
• Optimal weekends to pick are 3 day holiday weekends.
• Later in the season is the optimal date, but not adverse to running it earlier in the year.
• Find a Saturday evening restaurant that can handle a large crowd. This activity will NOT be tournament sponsored.

Tennis League Network staff will support the event by:

• This will be a singles tournament and we won’t get bogged down with trying to run doubles.
• We’ll have play-in matches on Saturday and Friday if applicable so if someone comes in from another city they know they will get multiple matches and not a 1 and done tournament.
• We want to keep the matches to under 90 minutes so 3 set fast tennis will be the preferred format.
• Sunday will be championship Sunday where we should aim for 8 person draws so we have Quarters, Semis and Finals to be played on the day.

Let’s use the KISS (Keep it simple silly) tournament format method here:

• Marketing the Tournament
• Managing Enrollment for the Tournament
• Providing Draws and match-ups
• Providing the Real-time software for the Tournament
• Shipping in Tennis Balls for the event
• Getting Dry-fit shirts made for the Tournament
• Acquiring and shipping in the rewards for the eventual champions
• Providing training to the local players who will be running the event. (TLN director doesn’t plan on being local at most Tournaments)

The Tournament will have multiple levels run based upon enrollment. Players will be placed in the level based upon their current TLN Rating. New players will most likely need to play at a higher level than they sign up under. (We might keep this unwritten)

• Men's Elite Level - 4.25+, Advanced Level - 4.0, Advanced2 Level - 3.75, Competitive Level - 3.5, Competitive2 Level - 3.25**, Skilled Level - 3.0
• Women’s Advanced & Competitive Level - 3.5+, Women’s Skilled Level - 3.0-

Formats for the Tournament:

If we have Friday matches,

• The tournament will be 1 or 2 Friday play-in matches, 1 Saturday morning play-in match. Saturday afternoon will have the Round of 16 and Quarterfinals matches. Sunday will have the Semi-Finals and Finals matches.

If we only have Saturday and Sunday matches.

• Format A: 2 play-in matches on Saturday. 3 round singles elimination Championship Sunday draw.
• Format B: Single Elimination draw with a consolation round for all the players who lose a match up until the Semi-finals. So two winners: Main Draw winner and Consolation Draw winner.

Financials of the Tournament:

• The Tournament will be required to be run at a profit. So the entry fee will need to cover all the costs plus a profit component.
• TLN will split (50-50%) the profit of the Tournament with the players who helped to set up and run the tournament. Please keep realistic expectations on the kickback as the costs do add up quickly. Most players who are looking to take on this role are more interested in having a successful community event wrapped around tennis.

Do you want to be part of establishing a TennisStLouis yearly tournament, then reach out to us today. Contact Admin