USAPA TOURNAMENT POINTS SYSTEM

Revised for the year 2010

Table of Contents

Start Date

The new Tournament Points System shall start January 1, 2010.

Qualified Period

The period for earning Tournament Points shall be 1 year and shall run from January 1st to December 31st.

Purpose of Tournament Points

  1. Tournament Points are awarded as recognition of achievement in Sanctioned Tournaments.
  2. Tournament Points may be used by Tournament Directors to determine seeding in tournament brackets.
  3. Tournament Points may be used by the Ratings Committee, as one of several criteria, to determine a player's rating at the end of each calendar year.
  4. Tournaments Points will be used to publish a list of the top point winners in each event at the end of each calendar year.

Age Determination

  1. There are three major age groupings, Juniors (18 and under), Adults (19 & over) and Seniors (50+).
  2. A Player's age for the entire Tournament Points year shall be determined by his/her age on December 31st of the Tournament Points year in question. An exception will be made if the National or State Senior Games organizations mandate a different date in their tournaments.

Awarding of Points

  1. Points will only be awarded to USAPA members.
  2. Points earned will only be counted towards Tournament Points in the events in which they were earned.
    Comment: If a player has won points during the year in Men's 50+ Singles, Men's Doubles, and Mixed Doubles, the points will not be combined, but rather applied towards point totals in each of the three divisions.
    Comment: When a query is made by player name, a total of all points is shown.
  3. Players may only receive Tournament Points from playing in approved events in USAPA Sanctioned Tournaments.
    Comment: See USAPA List of Tournament Points Events.
  4. When age divisions are combined, points will be awarded in the combined age division of the event.
  5. Doubles Points will be awarded to each individual.
  6. (Starting 2010) In all events, in order for Tournament Points to be awarded, there must have been at least one more competitor in the event than the number of awards given. 
    Comment     1: This means that if there are only 2 competitors, only first place points will be awarded; if there are 3 competitors, only first and second points will be awarded; and if there are 4 or more competitors, then first, second and third place will be awarded.
    Comment 2:     Senior Olympics or a Tournament Director may decide to award more medals, but that will have no influence on the way points are awarded.
  7. Senior Tournaments by Ratings will have points awarded in the Senior Rating Categories.
    Comment 1: Those are Senior 5.0, Senior 4.5, Senior 4.0, Senior 3.5, Senior 3.0, Senior 2.5, etc.
    Comment 2: If a Tournament Director decides to allow players younger than 50 to compete in a Senior Rated tournament, those players may not earn Tournament Points. Players who are 50+ will be given the points which correspond to their finish. That is, if the gold and silver go to players under 50 and the bronze to a player over 50, the only points awarded will be bronze points to the 50+ player.
  8. If a tournament director chooses to create a lower flight for an age event, there are two approved means of doing that. The first is to have a qualifying round that separates the flights based on the results of matches. The second is to place players into upper and lower flights based on ratings and/or seeding. However if done by ratings or seeding, any player (or team) that chooses to remain in the upper flight should be allowed to do so if that player (or team) registered before the announced maximum number of players was reached. An event that excludes an eligible player solely on the basis of ratings or seeding against the wishes of the player will not be approved for tournament points. Points will be awarded only in the top flight. The lower flight is not eligible for tournament points.
  9. A Player may play in any age group or rated event for which he/she is qualified. If any of these events are held simultaneously, the player runs the risk of having to forfeit a match if he/she is unable to play within 10 minutes of the time a match is announced. The tournament director may limit players to fewer events at his/her discretion depending on the size of the tournament and/or number of courts and days/time available for play.
  10. No points will be awarded for consolation bracket winners.
  11. It is the responsibility of the tournament director to be certain that the names reported are accurate, it is best to include the USAPA membership number in the event that the name is misspelled, nicknames are used, or if there is more than one USAPA member with that name.
  12. It is the responsibility of the tournament director to be certain that all events are on the list of USAPA approved events if players are told they will be receiving tournament points for those events.

Event Eligibility

  1. In the Junior Age Divisions, players may enter any event for which they are not too old and may enter a 19+ event.
    Comment: They may NOT enter any other older age division events.
  2. In the Adult and Senior Age Division, players may enter any event for which they are not too young.
  3. A RATED event is open to players of any age, including Juniors, Adults, and Seniors. A Senior Rated event is open only to players who are 50+.
    Comment: If a Tournament Director wants to allow players under 50 to play in a Senior Rated event, it then becomes simply a Rated event and must be open to players of all ages or see Comment 2 in item 7 above.
  4. An OPEN event is one that is open to any player with no restriction on age or rating. Points will be awarded as if it were a 5.0 rated event.
  5. In any USAPA Rated event, players are asked to rate themselves if they do not already have a USAPA rating. However, the Tournament Director has the final decision on where self-rated or unrated players are placed. Rated players may only be placed in a different division by the Tournament Director with the player's permission or if events have to be combined.
  6. In Rated events, a player may NOT play in an event rated lower but may play in one rated higher.

Events which qualify for Tournament Points

  1. A USAPA Tournament Points event is an event that appears on the USAPA's List Of Tournament Points Events. A Tournament Points event is simply an event that the USAPA will produce Tournament Points for at the end of the Tournament Points year. Events which are not on this list or are not added to this list by the end of the Tournament Points year by the USAPA board will not by eligible for Tournament Points.
  2. Events may be added to the List of Tournament Points Events at any time by a vote of the USAPA board. Events which took place prior to approval will only be eligible for Tournament Points points if:
    • They were played within the previous 45 days.
    • Approval took place before the end of the current Tournament Points period.
    • The tournament was otherwise eligible for points.
    Comment 1: This vote may occur before, during, or after the event is played.
    Comment 2: Events should only be added to the list if it is expected that there will be many more such events during the remaining Tournament Points year and in the years to come.
  3. If events are combined in a tournament because of lack of participants, the combined event must be an event for which all participants would be eligible for play in order for all players to qualify for Tournament Points.
    Comment 1: If for example, Men's Doubles 50 & Over, 55 & Over, and 60 & Over were to be combined, the resulting event would have to be Men's Doubles 50&Over.
    Comment 2: If for example, Boys Singles 12 & Under and 14 & Under are combined, the resulting event would have to be Boys 14 & Under.
    Comment 3: There is no 40-49 or 40+ category. If one person under 50 is combined with a 50+ group, the event becomes 35+ and must have been advertised as open to any player over 35 or see Comment 2 in item 7 above.

Tiered Tournament Points Tables

Designating the most important tournaments for a state before the season begins will encourage participation in those tournaments by the best players because of the greater number of points! For that reason, the number of tournaments in each of the top two categories should be extremely limited.

Tier 1 -- National Tournaments

Tier 2  -- Most Important State/Regional Tournaments

Tier 3  -- The Average Tournament

Tier 4  -- Very Small or New Tournaments

List of USAPA Approved Events

The USAPA will award Tournament Points for the following events in USAPA Sanctioned Tournaments.

Junior Events

Adult Events

Senior Events

Comment: 55+, for example, means that anyone over 55 could enter that division of play in singles, doubles, or mixed doubles. "Masters" and "Legends" have been removed from the list of events. A tournament director can still achieve the same thing by designating events as 50+ and 65+ as well as designating other age divisions, for example in 10-year increments.

USAPA Rated Tournament Events

        Changes for 2010: 4.5+ was deleted. 4.5 and 5.0 were added.

Tournament Requirements for Sanctioning

See Requirements For USAPA Sanctioned Tournaments  to determine requirements for having a tournament sanctioned by the USAPA. If your tournament does not say sanctioned by the USAPA, it will not be eligible for player Tournament Points. When designing tournament entry blanks, be sure and include spaces for player information that is listed as required in the Sanctioning Document.

It is strongly suggested, that a Tournament Director's job will be a lot easier if he or she uses the USAPA tournament software for entering entries and posting results.

We cannot give any Tournament Points for club tournaments, housing area tournaments, or other such tournaments that are open only to a relatively small group of people.

USAPA Tournament Management Software

The USAPA provides tournament management software and web site space for local clubs and communities that would like to conduct local tournaments. This is a free service for USAPA members and USAPA member organizations. You can find more information on the software and some tournament results at http://usapa.org/tourney/.

This software is very flexible in assigning names to your events and it is highly encouraged that you use this software in setting up and publishing your tournament results. You can use this software even if your tournament won't be eligible for points. This software will allow online entry of participants, although at this time, money still has to be sent in to the tournament director. It will also make the draws and post the draw sheets to the USAPA web site for all to see. Results and scores can be entered into the draw sheets at the conclusion of the tournament and draw sheets can be printed as often as needed. It will also cutoff entries by participants after the deadline for entries has passed while allowing the tournament director to add any necessary entries.

Other Considerations

What if a woman plays in a man's event, or a man plays in a woman's event, or women and men have to be combined in ways other than the traditional mixed doubles format.

Tournaments are encouraged to do whatever is necessary to have an event and provide a fun experience for its players, but USAPA Tournament Points will not be awarded to any winners in events in which this happens.