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A tennis ladder is the easiest competition to start and the easiest to let die. The first fortnight is busy. Then a few challenges go unanswered, the top of the ladder stops playing, and the list freezes. Nearly every ladder that stalls had rules that left those cases open.
Choose the kind of ladder
There are two, and the rules differ slightly between them.
- A place-swapping ladder. You challenge somebody above you. If you win, you take their place and everybody between moves down one. It is simple to explain and easy to see.
- A rating ladder. Every result moves both players’ ratings, and the order follows the ratings. A win over a stronger player moves you further than a win over a weaker one, so there is less arguing about who should be where.
Movement is places over 30 days · form is the last five · the trend line is their rating over time · purple is a score waiting on the other player, and it counts already.
How far up a player may challenge
Three or four places is usual. Allow more and the top of the ladder spends every week answering challenges from the bottom. Allow fewer and players near the bottom can take months to climb.
Let anybody challenge downwards too, if they want a game. It costs the lower player nothing and keeps people playing.
How long players have to reply and to play
Two time limits keep a ladder moving:
- A week to reply. A challenged player offers dates within seven days.
- A fortnight to play. The match is played within fourteen days of the challenge.
A challenge refused, or not replied to within the week, is a walkover to the challenger. So is a match the challenged player keeps putting off. Without that rule, the top of a ladder can simply stop answering.
To stop two players swapping places every week, a player may not challenge the same opponent again until both have played somebody else.
The match format
Two sets with a championship tiebreak in place of the third suits most clubs: a weekday evening match finishes inside an hour and a half. A busy ladder may prefer a single set with a tiebreak at six all.
The challenger books the court and brings new balls. Write that down too: it is the question asked most often.
A ladder with complicated rules is a ladder nobody plays.
Players who stop playing
A ladder only means something if the people at the top still play. A player who has not played a match for four weeks drops a few places, or gives up the place to the next active player below.
Allow a pause for injury and holidays: a player can mark themselves as resting, and the drop does not apply while they are.
New players and the starting order
For the first ladder, seed it from last year’s championship results or the committee’s judgement. It does not need to be right: two or three weeks of challenges will sort it out.
After that, new players join at the bottom, or at a place the organiser chooses from their standard. A newcomer who can challenge six places up for their first month climbs quickly to where they belong.
Reporting results and settling disputes
The winner reports the result the same day. Disputes go to one named person, whose decision is final. Most disputes are about a walkover, and most of those are settled by the reply and play time limits above.
Tennis ladder rules to copy
Change the numbers in brackets to suit your club:
- You may challenge any player up to [four] places above you, and anybody below you.
- A challenged player offers dates within [seven] days. A match is played within [fourteen] days of the challenge.
- A challenge refused, unanswered or not played in time is a walkover to the challenger.
- Matches are [two sets with a championship tiebreak in place of the third].
- The challenger books the court and brings new balls.
- You may not challenge the same player again until you have both played somebody else.
- A player who has not played for [four] weeks drops [three] places, unless they have marked themselves as resting.
- New players join at the bottom of the ladder.
- The winner reports the result the same day. Disputes go to [the ladder organiser], whose decision is final.
If you are still deciding between a ladder and a box league, or thinking of running both, ladder or box league: which suits your club compares the two.
Filed under Competitions · Tennis