The committee meeting went well. "Let's host a tournament!" everyone agreed. Then silence. Who organizes it? How do you seed 24 players? What format works for a Saturday afternoon? How do you make sure the finals aren't at 10pm?
Tournaments are the best thing a club can do for energy and engagement. They are also the easiest thing to run badly. Here is how to get it right the first time.
Choosing the Right Format
The format decision depends almost entirely on how many players you have and how much time you've got.
8 players or fewer: round-robin. Everyone plays everyone. It's fair, it's simple, and every player gets maximum games. With 8 players, that's 28 matches. At 10-12 minutes per match including changeover, you're looking at roughly 5-6 hours if you run two tables or courts simultaneously. For a full Saturday, this is perfect.
12 to 24 players: group stage into knockout. Split players into groups of 3-4, play round-robin within each group, then take the top 1-2 from each group into a single-elimination bracket. This keeps the round-robin intimacy in the early rounds while building toward a dramatic knockout finish. A 16-player event with groups of 4 and a quarterfinal bracket needs about 40 matches, manageable in 5-6 hours on 3-4 courts.
Exactly 16 players: full-placement format. If you can hit exactly 16, a format like the Super 16 structure gives every player a final ranking from 1st to 16th. Nobody is eliminated early. Everyone plays the same number of matches. It's the gold standard for club tournaments because it respects everyone's time.
More than 24 players? You probably need a full day or two sessions. Split into morning and afternoon flights, or run qualifying rounds during the week before the main event on Saturday.
The wrong format for your numbers is worse than no tournament at all. Eight players in a knockout bracket means half of them play one match and go home. That's not a tournament. That's a waste of a Saturday.
Seeding Fairly
Seeding determines who plays whom in the early rounds, and bad seeding ruins tournaments.
If your club tracks ratings, use them. Sort players by current rating and distribute them across groups or bracket positions so that the strongest players are spread evenly. The top two seeds should be in opposite halves of the bracket (or separate groups). The third and fourth seeds fill the remaining top positions.
If you don't have formal ratings, use recent session results as a proxy. Who's been winning the most? Who's new? A rough tiering of "strong, mid, developing" is enough to avoid the worst mismatches.
Avoid putting club mates or regular practice partners in the same group. They play each other every week. A tournament should offer fresh matchups. If you can't avoid it entirely, at least make sure it doesn't happen in the first round.
Publish the seedings and draw before the day. Let players see who's in their group. It builds anticipation and gives people a chance to raise concerns if something looks obviously wrong.
Scheduling to Finish on Time
This is where most first-time organizers get caught. They underestimate how long matches take, don't account for delays, and end up running two hours over.
Here's the formula:
- Count total matches. For groups of 4 with knockout, that's 6 group matches per group plus the knockout rounds.
- Estimate time per match. Best-of-3 sets in most racquet sports takes 12-18 minutes. Best-of-5 for knockout rounds takes 20-30 minutes. Use the upper estimate.
- Add 15% buffer. Late starts, extended rallies, injury timeouts, and the general chaos of changeovers.
- Divide by simultaneous courts. If you have 4 courts and 40 matches at 15 minutes each, that's 150 minutes of playing time, roughly 2.5 hours. Add the buffer and you get just under 3 hours.
- Work backwards from your venue deadline. If the hall closes at 9pm, your last match needs to start by 8:30 at the latest. Count backwards to determine your start time.
Build the schedule in advance. Print it. Post it on the wall. List every match with a time slot and court assignment. Players should never have to ask "when do I play next?"
Day-of Logistics
The day of the tournament is all about flow. If players know where to be and when, everything runs smoothly. If they don't, chaos.
Printed schedules at every table or court. Not just one master schedule on the wall. Each playing area should have its own sheet showing the matches assigned to it, in order.
A results desk. One person, ideally two, whose only job is to collect scorecards, enter results, and update the bracket or standings. This person does not play in the tournament. They are the engine that keeps the event moving. If results aren't processed quickly, the next round can't be drawn, and delays cascade.
Real-time standings visibility. A whiteboard, a projector, a TV screen, anything that lets players see the current state of play. Who's through to the knockout? What does Group C look like? People want to know, and telling them prevents 50 individual questions to the organizer. Platforms like ServeLeague display live results and standings as scores are entered, which keeps everyone informed without extra effort.
Call players 10 minutes before their match. Don't assume everyone is watching the schedule. A simple announcement, "Court 2, next match: Sarah vs. Tom, please warm up," prevents delays from players who wandered off to get food.
Prizes and Recognition
You don't need expensive prizes. In fact, expensive prizes can create the wrong atmosphere, turning a fun club event into something that feels too serious.
A trophy or medal for the winner works. A small trophy that lives at the club and gets engraved each year is even better. It creates tradition. "The 2025 Club Champion" means something, especially when the trophy has ten years of names on it.
Recognize more than just the winner. Best upset of the day. Most improved player. Best sportsmanship. Group stage standout. These awards give more people a moment, and they reinforce the values you want your club to embody.
Post the results everywhere. Email them to all members, not just participants. Share photos on social media. Write up the highlights. A tournament that's well-documented becomes a recruiting tool: "Look what we do at our club."
The Post-Tournament Effect
Here's the part most organizers don't expect: attendance at regular sessions spikes for weeks after a tournament.
Players who lost in the first round want revenge. Players who surprised themselves want to prove it wasn't a fluke. People who watched from the sidelines want to enter next time. The tournament creates storylines that carry forward into weekly play.
This is why running even one tournament per season is worth the effort. It's not just a standalone event. It's a catalyst that energizes everything around it.
Plan your next one before the buzz fades. Announce the date at the prize ceremony. Give people something to train for. A club with a tournament on the calendar is a club with a purpose.