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How to run a small tennis or pickleball tournament

Tennis & pickleball · 7 min read · Updated August 2026

A club tournament falls over for one of three reasons: the wrong format for the number of entries, not enough court time, or a tie nobody agreed how to break. All three are decided before the first ball.

Round robin or knockout

This is the only structural decision, and entry numbers make it for you.

• Up to about 8 players, use a round robin. Everyone plays everyone, nobody drives across town for one match, and the table settles it.
• Above that, a round robin explodes. Eight players is 28 matches; twelve is 66. Use a knockout.
• A knockout with a consolation draw is the best of both for a social event. Everyone knocked out in the first round gets a second draw, so nobody has one match and goes home.

Work out the court time before you take entries

A round robin of n players is n times n minus one, divided by two, matches. A knockout of n players is n minus one matches, always.

Multiply by your match length, divide by courts, and add turnaround time. If the answer is longer than the day you have, change the format or the match length rather than hoping.

Shorter formats exist for exactly this: short sets to 4, a 10-point match tiebreak in place of a deciding set, or games to 11 rather than 15 in pickleball.

Seeding and byes

• A knockout draw is padded to the next power of two: 11 entries becomes a draw of 16.
• The gap is filled with byes, and byes go to the top seeds in order. With 11 players there are 5 byes, and seeds 1 to 5 get them.
• Seeds go in standard positions so the best players cannot meet early: 1 at the top, 2 at the bottom, 3 and 4 at the quarter lines.
• Below the seeded places, draw the rest at random. A fully deterministic draw is not a draw, it is a decision.

Agree the tiebreakers before anyone plays

Round robins produce ties constantly, and this is where events turn sour. Write the order down and publish it with the entry form.

• Tennis normally goes: head to head, then percentage of sets won, then percentage of games won.
• Pickleball normally goes: head to head, then point differential, then fewest points conceded.
• Head to head only works for a tie between exactly two players. For three or more, use the ratios first, over the matches among the tied players only.
• Decide in advance what happens if someone withdraws mid-pool: results stand, or results are voided. Both are defensible, but not after the fact.

Running one here

You can create a tournament on this site, set a deadline for entries, and invite players. When the deadline passes the draw is made from whoever registered, and everyone can see who they play and when.

It picks a round robin for small fields and a knockout with a consolation draw for larger ones, seeds from results recorded here, and gives byes to the top seeds. You can set a court and time on any match, or award a walkover if somebody cannot make it. Doubles entrants can name a partner, and anyone still on their own when entries close is paired automatically.

Common questions

How many matches is a round robin of 8?

Twenty-eight. That is 7 rounds of 4 matches, and on two courts with 45 minute matches it is most of a day.

Is it fair to give byes to the seeds?

Yes, and it is the standard. Seeding exists to stop the strongest players meeting in round one, and byes are part of the same arrangement.

What is a consolation draw?

A second knockout for the players beaten in the first round, so a long trip is never one match.

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