Levels of Play & Formats – USTA Colorado

Tournament Formats

NTRP events
Senior events
Sanctioned tournaments
Designated events
Single-elimination events
Consolation events
Compass draw events
Round-robin events

NTRP events:
Designed to pit players ages 19 & older* and of compatible skill against one another. NTRP levels range from 2.5 to 5.0 (Note: players rated above 5.0 are required to play in the Open division; junior players who will not reach their 19th birthday by December 31 MUST play in the Open division).
You may play at or above your specific NTRP level, but not below your rating. If you don’t have a current rating, you may self-rate and play in that division.

*Players turning 19 by December 31 are eligible to compete in NTRP events. TennisLink does not allow on-line registration for these players. Please contact the tournament’s director and s/he will manually add you to the tournament.

Senior events:
Also called Age Division Tournaments, these events offer players the opportunity to compete against similarly aged competitors. But be aware: there are no skill parameters in Senior Events. A player in the draw may be an expert, a novice, or anywhere in between.
Players must be of division age by December 31 of the current year and may not play in an older division.

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Sanctioned tournaments:
USTA Colorado endorses events that meet certain USTA criteria for quality and consistency. Only sanctioned event results count toward state rankings and NTRP ratings. Non-sanctioned tournament results do not factor toward a state ranking, nor do their results factor into a player’s rating. All Adult, Senior and Wheelchair Sanctioned Tournaments require a current USTA membership, as do Junior Championship and Satellite events. Junior Novice and non-Sanctioned events do not require a USTA membership.

Designated events:
Selected tournaments have been Designated so as to guarantee quality ranking information by forcing more head-to-head competition among Colorado’s top players in a particular division. View Colorado ranking requirements.

Single-elimination events:
The most common kind of tournament draw, and the one you’re probably familiar with when watching the pro tours. If you lose, you’re out. If you win, you go on.

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Consolation events:
These player-friendly formats guarantee competitors at least two matches. There are several types of consolation formats:

FMLC:	First Match Losers Consolation – A consolation draw in which the losers in the first round and those second round losers who advanced to that round by virtue of a bye or default are entered into the consolation draw.
FRLC:	First Round Losers Consolation – A consolation draw in which only the losers in the first round are entered into the consolation draw.
MFIC:	Modified Feed-in Consolation – A consolation draw in which the losers from the main draw are fed back into another draw against players who lost in earlier rounds of the tournament.

Compass draw events:
Player-friendly formats guaranteeing players multiple matches, even if they lose every match. A non-elimination format that is so named because players advance in four to eight different directions depending upon when they lose their first match and when they lose their subsequent matches.

Round-robin events:
Another player-friendly format, these draws guarantee competitors multiple matches as they play against every other players in their draw or flight. Flights typically consist of three to four players/teams.

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