How to organise a tennis tournament at your club

The hardest thing about a tennis tournament is not the draw — it is the clock. A best-of-three match can run past two hours, and two hours multiplied by a full bracket is how club tournaments end up finishing in the dark.

Choose a scoring format first, not last

Before anything else, decide how matches are scored. This single choice controls the length of your event more than the number of players does.

Size the draw to the courts you have

A 16-player knockout needs 15 matches. On four courts with one-hour matches that is a comfortable afternoon. On two courts it is a full day. Work it out before you open entries — the arithmetic is in how many players, courts and hours you need.

If your field is not a power of two, do not squeeze it. Give the top seeds byes in the first round. A 12-player draw with four byes runs perfectly and nobody feels cheated.

Seed honestly, then get out of the way

• Seed the top four at minimum, so the best players cannot meet in round one.
• Use club rankings or last year's results — anything consistent and public.
• Publish the seeding with the draw. Secret seeding is where arguments start.
• For doubles, seed by pair, not by the stronger player.

Guarantee more than one match

Straight knockout means half your entrants play once. For a club event that is a bad deal — people took a Saturday off. Two fixes work well: a group stage before the bracket, or a consolation draw for first-round losers.

Groups of four give everyone three matches and still produce a clean knockout. It is the format most club tournaments should use and most do not.

On the day

1. Post the order of play with real start times, and stick to them.
2. Give every court a ball can and a scorecard, even if scoring is digital.
3. Name one person who is not playing as referee for line disputes.
4. Enter results as matches finish, not in a batch at the end.
5. Announce the final at least an hour ahead so people can watch it.