How to run a doubles box league or ladder

A league built for singles assumes one diary per entry. Doubles has four, and that is where most doubles competitions stall: not on the tennis, but on finding an evening all four players are free.

There are three ways to run doubles competition at a club. Each one solves a different problem, and the right one depends on whether your members come with a partner or turn up on their own.

Three ways to run doubles competition#

	Fixed pairs	Rotating partners	Individual ratings
The entry is	A pair	A player	A player
Partners	The same all round	A different one each set	Whoever you arrange to play with
Who it suits	Established partnerships	A club night crowd	Keen players who arrange their own games
Best shape	A box league or a pairs ladder	A box of four or five, on one evening	A ladder with a rating
When it goes wrong	One partner is away for a month	Numbers do not fit the rotation	A strong partner carries a weak one up

Fixed pairs: the pair is the entry#

Fixed pairs work exactly like singles. Each pair is one entry, a box holds four to six pairs, and every pair plays every other pair before the closing date. The top pair goes up, the bottom pair goes down, and the scoring is the same as your singles league.

Pairs in a box	Matches each pair	Matches in the box	A round of about
4	3	6	three or four weeks
5	4	10	four weeks
6	5	15	five weeks

Place pairs for the first round on the standard of both players, not the stronger one. A pair of one strong and one improving player usually plays nearer the improving player’s level than the average suggests, because opponents play to the weaker side.

Fixed pairs suit established partnerships, league team pairs who want match practice, and padel, where most players already have a regular partner. The weakness is availability. Two players have to be free at once, and so do their two opponents. Shorter rounds than singles, with fewer matches, keep it moving. Partners change only between rounds.

Rotating partners: a box of four on one evening#

The rotating box solves the four-diaries problem by putting all four players in one place at one time. A box of four meets once per round, for one evening. They play three short sets, and every player partners every other player once. In tennis and padel, make each set first to six games or play to a clock, so the evening fits the booking:

Set	Pairs
1	A and B against C and D
2	A and C against B and D
3	A and D against B and C

Each player scores the games their side won in each set. The player with the most games tops the box, the top player goes up and the bottom player goes down. Nobody needs a partner to enter, and a player’s place never depends on one partner having a bad night.

A box of five works too, with one player sitting out each set. Five sets cover every partnership exactly once, and every player plays four:

Set	Pairs	Sits out
1	A and B against C and D	E
2	A and C against B and E	D
3	A and E against B and D	C
4	A and D against C and E	B
5	B and C against D and E	A

Everyone in a box of five plays four sets, so total games ranks them fairly. Use average games per set only when somebody misses a set.

The rotating box suits a club night crowd and members who would never find a regular partner. It also suits any club where one court for an evening is easier to find than a gap in four diaries. The round robin generator deals the sets for any number, and tennis round robin formats works through bigger groups.

Individual ratings: partner anyone, keep your own place#

The third way drops the box altogether. Each player has their own place on a ladder, or their own rating, and plays doubles with whoever they arrange. After each match, both winners move up and both losers move down.

It is the most flexible format there is, and the closest to how keen players already arrange their games. Its weakness is the partner who carries. A strong player who always partners the same improving player will drag them up the ladder. Two rules help. Move a player by more when they win with a partner below them, and by less when they win with one above. And ask players to partner a range of people, rather than requiring it.

A rating does this weighting on its own. That is why it suits doubles better than a ladder of swapped places. Ladder or box league compares the two shapes, and the ladder rules for a tennis club work for doubles with one change: a challenge is made by a pair, or by a player and their chosen partner.

Running a doubles ladder#

A doubles ladder is either a ladder of pairs or a ladder of players, and the choice decides every rule after it.

	Pairs ladder	Players ladder
Each place holds	A pair	One player
A challenge	One pair challenges a pair above	A player and a partner of their choice challenge two players above
After a win	The pairs swap places	Both winners move up, both losers move down
Suits	Regular partnerships	Members without a fixed partner

Four rules make a pairs ladder work:

1. How far up. A pair may challenge up to three places above itself.
2. How long. The challenged pair replies within a week and plays within two. If they do neither, the challengers take their place.
3. When a pair splits. The place belongs to the pair, not to either player. A new pair joins at the bottom, or at the lower of the two places its players held before, if your club prefers.
4. Substitutes. A pair that plays a challenge with a substitute may defend its place but not gain one.

A players ladder needs one more rule: who a player may partner. Most clubs allow anyone, and count a result as a win for both winners whatever their places. Where one strong player keeps carrying the same partner up, a rating that weighs the partner’s standard does the job better than swapped places.

Which doubles format suits each sport#

Sport	What usually works
Padel	Fixed pairs for the league, because most players have a regular partner. A mexicano for the club night
Badminton	Rotating boxes of four, played to one game each, and fixed pairs for players in league teams
Pickleball	Rotating partners, in boxes or sessions, because players expect a new partner every game
Tennis	Rotating boxes for the club night crowd, fixed pairs for the keen and for team practice
Squash	Doubles is rare and played on a wider court. A fixed-pairs box league, if your club has the court

Most clubs end up running two: a fixed-pairs league for the established partnerships, and a rotating format for everyone who turns up on their own. For badminton clubs in particular, how to run a badminton club covers the whole club week around it.

Scoring a doubles league#

Use the same scoring scheme in every box, and pick one where a set or game can be finished in the booking.

Sport	A common league format
Padel	Two sets with a championship tiebreak in place of the third
Tennis	Two sets with a match tiebreak, or one set each in a rotating box
Badminton	Best of three games, or one game each in a rotating box
Pickleball	Games to 11, won by two

Fixed pairs are ranked like singles: points, then the result between the two pairs, then sets, then games. Rotating boxes are ranked on each player’s own games won. When two players are level, the games each won in the sets they played against each other decide it.

Substitutes, when one partner cannot play#

One partner will always be away for something. Decide the substitute rule before the first round, or you will make it up the first time somebody asks:

1. A substitute of the same standard or below. Never stronger, or a pair can bring in the club’s best player for the match that matters.
2. Results with a substitute can keep a pair in its box, but cannot promote it. If a pair would finish in a promotion place only because of matches played with a substitute, it stays where it is. It stops substitutes deciding promotion.
3. No more than half a pair’s matches with a substitute. After that, the remaining player takes a new partner at the start of the next round.
4. No substitute, no match. The match is a walkover to the other pair, under the same rules as singles.

A rotating box needs a simpler rule. A player who cannot come sends a reserve from the box below, whose games count for nobody, so the other three can still play. Walkovers and no-shows covers the rest of what happens when a match does not.

Mixed doubles and level doubles#

Mixed doubles and level doubles (men’s or women’s) are different games. Standards do not carry straight across, and the best mixed pairs are often not the two strongest players.

The simplest answer is separate events: a mixed league and a level doubles league, each with its own boxes. The alternative is to score every player individually across both, which suits a rotating format and a rating. A player’s mixed results and level results then count towards one place, and the club needs one table instead of three.

Whichever you run, decide in the rules who may enter which event, rather than leaving it to the draw.

Doubles league rules to copy#

Change the numbers in brackets, and delete the paragraph for the format you are not running:

When doubles outgrows the spreadsheet#

A singles box league fits on a spreadsheet. Doubles strains it. A rotating box needs a table of players and a table of sets. Fixed pairs need a pair as one row and two people as two contacts. Individual ratings need arithmetic after every match. Once substitutes and partner changes pile up, the spreadsheet becomes a job of its own, and that is usually the point to let players record their own scores and see their own place.