Rules and regulations

The following rules and regulations ensure that our Encordats leagues remain enjoyable and sociable.

Players agree to the organisation's terms and conditions by engaging in any of our leagues. These rules and regulations are subject to modification or alterations, which the organisers may implement to guarantee the smooth running of our leagues.

General rules:

All matches are self-umpired and should be conducted in the spirit of fair play and sportsmanship.
Players compete at their own risk, and it is the player's responsibility to ensure any courts used are safe for play.
Players are solely responsible for court hire and equipment provision.
Players must register and play under their real name (not an alias, pseudonym or nickname) and provide accurate contact details.
We expect players to be sporting and courteous in dealings with opponents, tennis clubs, their officials and us as organisers, and we reserve the right to remove players who are not.

Objective

Our leagues are not a competition! The sole goal is connecting tennis enthusiasts with practice partners to organise matches and training sessions on your local tennis courts.

We organise tennis matches in a league fashion based on a pairing system determined by the individual playing skills and a ranking mechanism.

Our leagues are open to all members of a given club. Unless otherwise stated in the individual league rules, players can join the league during each round.

Classification

The classification of each league is an essential factor in determining the first matches of the season. By default, each player competes against four other players per round, two matches against players with a higher ranking and two matches against players with a lower ranking position (Top-3 players must compete in five matches per round). A round is usually being played over four weeks but may differ in some leagues.

At the start of each season, league rankings are created from scratch based on an array of different criteria to match players with approximately equal playing skills. To compute the initial ranking, the organisation will, among others, consider historical match results, tennis coaches' recommendations and self-assessment results. While we try very hard to position participants in an appropriate ranking to make the league enjoyable for everybody, players do not have the right to demand a specific ranking position.

After the first round, the classification is calculated based on the ranking points each player is rewarded with.

Unless otherwise stated in the individual league rules, rankings are updated a day after a given round finishes.

Setting up matches

All players must play at least four matches per round - two against higher-ranked players and two against lower-ranked players. Special rules apply for the top-3 and the last player of the ranking (top-3 players play five matches, and the last one plays three).

Players who do not play any matches during a round will be excluded from the ranking.

Unless otherwise stated in the individual league rules, matches will be drawn and published a day after a round finishes. As organisers, we reserve the right to alter or amend the published round dates.

Players are free to specify the date and time of the match. However, matches must be played within the round determined by the Encordats organisation.
It is up to the lower-ranked player (challenger) to communicate (challenge) with the better-ranked player (challenged) to specify the day and time of the match.
The challenger must contact the challenger before the 10th of each month. If the challenger fails to reach out to the opponent within the stated time frame, the opponent may score the match as won by a walkover.

To set up matches, we suggest the following:

Reach out to everyone as soon as possible, and suggest times you are available.
Save your opponent's contact details in case you are late to a match or have to reschedule at the last minute. You can download their vCard directly to your address book via the public profile page.
Use your profile's "salutation" template and the WhatsApp link to quickly send personalised messages to your opponent.
Once a date and time are agreed upon, you can save the event in your profile and download it to your calendar.

Keeping things friendly:

Try responding to match requests as soon as possible, even if you are unavailable.
If you need to reschedule a match, inform your opponent with at least 24 hours notice to avoid a walkover.

Match

All matches are played in one set consisting of seven games and are won by the player who reaches seven games first with at least a two-point lead.

In a 6-game tie (6:6), players must play a 7-point tie-break game to decide who wins the set. In a tie-break game, a player must reach 7 points with a two-point advantage to win. For the serving format of a tie-break game, player 1 serves for the first point; player 2 serves for the following two points; player 1 serves for the following two points after that, etc.

Balls and courts

Balls must be of good quality, and both parties should agree on what balls to play with. In case of a disagreement, you can rent balls from the club.
Please share the cost of the courts, and allow for at least one hour of play. Matches can be played on any court that suits both players.

What happens if it rains?

If it rains before the match starts, it should be rescheduled. Don't make assumptions about the weather; contact your opponent to discuss the situation and reschedule.

Immediately before the match (or after one game has been played ), if one player feels the court conditions are too slippery or unsafe, they have the right to ask for a postponement. The scoreboard should be cleared, and the match should restart.

If it rains during the match or court conditions, deteriorate, either player may decide to call a halt, and play can continue on another day.

Injury

If a player retires injured or unwell, they lose the match; it cannot be replayed. The player who could have continued (the winner) should score the match as won by a walkover.

If both players agree to retirement for any other reason, the result should not be submitted, and the opponents may decide to reschedule the match.

Rescheduling and walkovers

If a player does not turn up at the agreed time or is more than 15 minutes late, the other player can claim a walkover or reschedule the match.

If you are cancelling a scheduled match, ensure you get your opponent's acknowledgement. The match may be deemed a walkover if the message does not get through.

If a player wants to reschedule a match, they must give their opponent a minimum of 24 hours notice. If a court cost is incurred, the player who postponed the match is solely responsible for the cost of the unused court.

If less than 24 hours' notice is given, the match may be recorded as a walkover in favour of the opponent, although it is still preferable to play the match if possible.

Result and score

It's the winner's responsibility to submit the match result using the Encordats application. We recommend uploading the score directly after the match so that you don't forget about it later. Scores which have been submitted after a round has ended will be ignored.

Match results must be submitted according to the following rules:

Upload the exact match result
A match win of 7:0 must be denoted as 7:1
A match won in a tie-break must be marked as 7:6
A walkover must be denoted as 7:0

Each player, regardless of the outcome of the match, will receive 25 ranking points. A win over a higher-ranked player will be rewarded with 325 points, and a win over a lower-ranked player will result in 275 points. The loser will receive two additional points for each game won. For example, a 7:6 result would yield 37 ranking points for the loser (25 + 6x2).

The scoring for top-3 players works slightly differently:

Win over a higher-ranked player yields 300 points
Win over a lower-ranked player yields 200 points

The last person in the ranking will be rewarded with 400 ranking points for each win.

Resolving conflicts

If a conflict arises between two players, we ask that you do your best to resolve it between yourselves by referring to our rules and regulations advice. Although the ranking has a competitive element, remember that its sole purpose is to match you with other players based on their playing skills. Encordats is not a competition.

Please keep things friendly and respect the non-competitive nature of our league.

If the issue cannot be resolved amongst yourselves, you can email us with information about the conflict. We will refer you to the rules and regulations if it is clearly noted there. Otherwise, we will contact both players to help you find a solution.

Please note; we were not present at your match, so we cannot advise outside of the information we receive from both players, so we require players to be truthful.

Contact: [email protected]

Last update: 21st April 2023