How to run a summer tennis tournament.
From format choice to finals day and how Grex Social handles the fiddly bits.
Try Grex Social freeThe playbook
Five moving parts.
Running a good club tournament isn't complicated, but it does have moving parts. Get the format right, keep signups simple, draw a fair bracket, keep score reliably, and leave a ranking behind that people care about after finals day.
- Pick a format — singles or doubles; elimination or round-robin group stages.
- Set the field — entry cap, seedings, handicaps, deadlines, entry fee (if any), and a partner-matching path for doubles.
- Draw the bracket — seed players, add byes for awkward numbers, assign courts and rounds.
- Score & confirm — record results as matches finish, resolve disputes, share the live standings.
- Crown the winner — feed the results into your club's ranking so the tournament keeps paying off after finals day.
A step-by-step walkthrough.
01 — Pick the format
singles or doubles, elimination or round-robin group stages.
Pick your format, a knockout for drama, round-robin, or groups + knockout for the best of both.
- Choose singles or doubles
- Set entry cap, seedings, and deadlines
- Round-robin groups advance into knockouts
02 — Open registration
signups + payments in one place.
Publish a signup form, take entry fees, and let solo entrants find a doubles partner without a WhatsApp scramble.
- Free or paid entry — funds go to your club's own bank
- 'Need a partner' flow pairs solo doubles players
- Registration cap + closing date enforced automatically
03 — Draw, score, share
live bracket, live standings.
Everything required for organisers to run automated competitions, including automatic seeding, scheduling and byes. User-led scoring automatically ensures swift competition progress and per-round deadlines keep slipped matches from stalling the whole draw.
- Auto-generated brackets with correct byes
- Score entry with opponent confirmation + walkover handling
- Per-round deadlines that don't stall the draw
04 — Beyond finals day
results captured in a ladder.
Results feed the group ladder with round-stage multipliers, with group admins weighting matches and how a ladder is calculated.
- Ladder auto-updates from tournament results
- Round-stage multipliers so finals actually matter
- Championship mode stacks tournaments into a season leaderboard
Under the hood
What Grex Social gives you.
- Every format built in — elimination and round-robin, plus round-robin groups feeding a knockout phase.
- Auto-generated brackets with correct byes for non-power-of-2 draws — no bracket generator, no spreadsheet.
- Seedings and handicaps per participant so the draw reflects real ability, not registration order.
- Round-robin tiebreakers — head-to-head or games-won, admin's choice — and the top N per group advance automatically.
- Per-round deadlines so slipped matches don't stall the draw; walkover status handles no-shows cleanly.
- Score entry with opponent confirmation — disputes surface before results are locked in.
- Paid entry via Stripe Connect — funds land directly in your club's own bank account; refunds handled in-app.
- Capacity holds during checkout so a payment race can't oversell your draw.
- 'Need a partner' flow pairs solo doubles entrants without a WhatsApp scramble.
- Auto-broadcast emails fire on every new signup so late entrants and reserves get the same context as day-one registrants.
- Results feed the group ladder automatically with round-stage multipliers (QF 1.15×, SF 1.3×, Final 1.5×) so finals actually matter, and a rolling time window means summer form still shows through autumn.
- Championship mode stacks a summer series of tournaments into a single season leaderboard.
FAQ
Common questions.
How many players should a summer tennis tournament have?
Aim for a field that fills your available courts with two to three rounds per day. Sixteen singles players is comfortable on two courts across a weekend; 32 wants three courts. Doubles double the field but halve the courts you'll need per round, so a 32-pair doubles draw usually needs the same court time as a 32-player singles draw.
Elimination or round-robin — which format is best?
Elimination is fastest and gives a clear winner in the fewest matches. Round-robin group stages guarantee everyone plays multiple games and are ideal for social tournaments where match count matters more than a knockout narrative. Grex Social supports both and lets you feed a round-robin group stage into a knockout phase. If you're also choosing between tools, compare tennis tournament software for internal club events.
Should I charge an entry fee?
Charging a small fee (typically £5–£15 for singles, £10–£20 per pair for doubles) covers balls, prizes, and court hire, and reliably reduces last-minute drop-outs. Grex Social handles entry payments through Stripe Connect so the money lands directly in your club's account — you don't need a separate payment tool.
How do I handle players who need a doubles partner?
Grex Social has a built-in 'need a partner' flow — solo entrants register their interest and an organiser pairs them once the field is confirmed. It saves a lot of WhatsApp shuffling in the days before the event.
What if the weather rains off a match?
Push affected matches to a make-up slot and leave the bracket untouched — Grex Social's per-round deadlines are configurable, so you can extend the round rather than restart the draw. If a match can't be rescheduled, mark it as a walkover in the app; the bracket auto-advances the awarded player.
Do tournament results feed a wider ranking?
Yes. In Grex Social, tournament results feed the group's ladder automatically, using a rolling time window and weighted scoring. Round-stage multipliers (QF 1.15×, SF 1.3×, Final 1.5×) mean finals count for more than early rounds — so a July winner still shows on the ladder through autumn without extra work.
Can I stack multiple tournaments into a summer series?
Yes — Grex Social has a championship mode for exactly this. Set up a season container, add each tournament (or a mix of tournaments, box leagues, and leagues) inside it, and a season-long leaderboard aggregates results across all events. Ideal if you want the summer to feel like more than a single weekend.
Ready to run your summer tournament?
Free to try and every group gets a 30-day free trial of Club.