Adult Mixed
Doubles Rules
STATE COORDINATOR:
Freddie Bailey; (225) 925-3358,
LOCAL COORDINATOR:
Vicki Vigé,
VERIFICATION APPEALS (NTRP) & PROCEDURES
COMMITTEE:
Local Coordinator, Head Verifier, Level Coordinators
GRIEVANCES
Any grievances should be forwarded in writing (emails are
acceptable) to the Local League
Coordinator. All grievances will be forwarded to the Grievance
Committee Chairman who will
appoint a committee of three individuals on a per case basis.
GRIEVANCE APPEALS
Any decisions of the above grievance committee will contain
specific guidelines and instructions
referencing the rights to appeal and the procedures that must be
followed.
League Rules
1.
All players will abide by the USTA Rules of Tennis, "The Code" and
League
Tennis Regulations, January 2008.
2.
There is no limit to the number of teams at each level. A minimum of 2 teams is
required
in order for that level to qualify one team for the state tournament.
3.
Registration fees for the season will be $21. The fee is distributed as
follows:
$3 to the USTA national, $10 to the LTA Baton Rouge, $4 to the local
league
coordinator, $3 to offset costs of teams participating at state, and $1 to the
Acadiana
Community Tennis Association.
4.
The deadline for team entries is
rosters
must contain a minimum number of players required to field 3 courts or
they
may be excluded from the schedule. The deadline for roster additions is
in
order to be eligible. Tennis Link will date and time stamp (EST) all player
entries.
The date and time of the entry must be prior to the date and time of the
scheduled match in order for a player to be eligible. The only exception will be
when a
rainout is rescheduled, a player may register prior to the makeup and be
eligible.
5. Play will begin in early June. The actual start dates will
depend upon the number of teams at each level. As always, the league will make
every attempt to schedule as many matches as possible within the time allotted.
The 6.0 and 8.0 levels will play on Tuesdays and the 7.0 level will play on
Thursdays. This is subject to change based on the number of teams at each
level, however every attempt will be made to maintain this schedule.
6. All information is submitted via the Tennis Link system. The
address is
http://national.usta.com. All participants must register for
play through this
system. Captains must include an email
address when registering their teams.
All league correspondence and announcements will be via email.
All teams
must designate a co-captain with an email address if the captain
does not have
email. Please inform the league coordinator who the captain of
record for email
is. When registering your team and choosing a name, feel free to
choose any
name but we do ask that you include your last name. (Example,
“The Lobsters –
Smith”)
** Each team member must be a current USTA member, with
membership paid
through the summer season (Labor Day). Each player must have a
valid NTRP
rating. If not, players must declare a self-rating upon
registration. Tennis
Link will verify all eligibility requirements during the
registration process.
7. A player must have reached the age of 19 prior to or during
the calendar year in
which he plays his first match in order to be eligible.
8. The USTA has instituted the elite player guidelines to assist
in self-rating upper
level players. National Rule 3.01(D)2 states, “Individuals who
have had a
national or section ranking; played college tennis; have taught
tennis; or played
professional tennis must also complete a player history form and
submit to the
section and receive approval from the section to participate at
their self-rated
level before participating in a match. Failure to
do so or omission of
information regarding a player’s tennis history will subject the
player, the
captain and/or others who condoned inaccurate self-rating to
sanctions and
disqualification.”
9. The home team is required to furnish NEW
balls
for each match. Approved
balls are Penn, Wilson or Dunlop.
10. Each player whether a member of the home
team or guest must pay his own
court fees. For 2008, court fees will be $4 per player. Members
of private clubs
who are playing at their club, whether the home team or the
visitor, will not be
required to pay the court fees. When a non-Red’s team is playing
at Red
Lerille’s, it is the responsibility of that captain to obtain
the envelope when
checking in and collect and remit the fees for all non-Red’s
members
participating in that match.
11. TEAM MATCHES
MUST BE PLAYED ON SCHEDULED COURTS AT
SCHEDULED TIME UNLESS RAINED OUT.
CAPTAINS MAY NOT
UNDER ANY OTHER CIRCUMSTANCE,
RESCHEDULE A MATCH
WITHOUT PRIOR APPROVAL FROM THE
LEAGUE
COORDINATOR. It is the
responsibility of the clubs to assign courts for
play. Matches must be played on the
assigned courts. Captains may not
call the club in order to move
courts or switch surfaces. If multiple surfaces
have been assigned, the home team
captain may choose which matches will
be played on which surfaces. Prior
to line up card exchange, the home team
captain will inform the visiting
captain which matches will be played on
which courts. (For example,
“singles will be played on hard courts and
doubles will be played on soft”)
12. RAINOUTS must be
rescheduled and completed within one week of the original match date. Team
captains will contact each no later than the following day after the rain out
and agree on when to play and make arrangements for courts wherever available.
Any rainouts that cannot be rescheduled within that one week period after the
rainout must be referred to the Local League Coordinator. The coordinator will
then schedule a match time, date and location. It
will be to the advantage of both captains if they can
mutually agree on a day and time
without involving the coordinator. When
captains agree on a match time,
date and location, the league coordinator
must be notified via email for the
match to be considered official. It is up to
the individual clubs, at their discretion, to determine whether
conditions are
unplayable. No captain(s) shall have the authority to make this
decision. If the
club has deemed the conditions as playable, the match is on and
forfeit rules will
apply. If a match has begun and then rain begins, the match must
be completed
as it stands with all points played to that point counting. If
the first ball has not
been put in play, different players may be used if necessary.
However, captains
may not shift players already on the scorecard.
13. Team captains
are to record and verify all scorecards into the Tennis Link
system within 24 hours of the
completion of the match. The first captain to
go to the website will record the
score and the second captain will confirm
or dispute the score. If a score is
entered and there is no confirmation,
Tennis Link will automatically
confirm after 48 hours. (No score disputes
will be recognized after that
time).
14. Warm up time is ten (10) minutes,
INCULDING SERVES. Captains, please
help us get the word out that ALL practice, including serves,
must take place
prior to the first ball being put into play. “The Code” book
states, “Warm-up
serves. Take all
your warm-up serves before the first serve of the match.”
15. The fifteen (15) minute default rule shall
be strictly enforced.
16. Matches played at
whether there are matches scheduled for
determine if other courts are available to begin play or wait
until the completion
of the early match. Do not bump players off the court during
league play. If
playing at Red’s at
reserve the right to offer those courts to any members and if
so, you may be
asked to find another court to complete your match.
17. In the event of illness, injury,
disqualification, or no-show of a player prior to the
start of an individual match (once the lineup has been
exchanged), a team may
substitute a player in the affected position within the
15-minute default time,
using a player not already listed on the lineup. If no such
substitution can be
made, the affected position only will be forfeited in local
leagues. (Southern
Regulation 3.01H(4)a)
18. No changes may be made after a line up has
been presented, except as described
in Paragraph 17. A substitution is allowed but players assigned
to courts may
not be moved. (The lineup can be changed if the match is
postponed due to
inclement weather, for any matches not yet begun).
19. The scoring for all matches is deuce-ad,
two out of three sets, with the third set played as a ten point tie-breaker.
Once play begins, a rest period at odd game
changeovers is not permitted until the end of the 3rd
game,
and at all changeovers
thereafter in each set. There is a rest period at the end of
each set, no matter if
the set ends on an even or odd game.
20. Mixed doubles matches will consist of 3
courts of mixed doubles play. The
team winning the majority of those 3 matches shall be considered
the winner of
that team match.
21. The
combined ratings of the two mixed doubles partner must not exceed the league level of
play. (I.e. a 3.0 + 3.0 mixed
pair may play 6.0 as may a 2.5 + 3.0 pair).
In no event may the individual player ratings differ by more than one
point. (i.e. a 2.5 + 3.5 pair may play 6.0 but a 2.5 + 4.5 pair may not play 7.0)
22. Round robin competition shall be used at
all levels. Levels with only two (2) or
three (3) teams must play a double round robin. Depending upon
the number of
teams entered, the league coordinator reserves the right to
split leagues into
divisions. As always, the ability to schedule as many matches as
possible within
the allotted time frame will take precedent.
23. At the conclusion of the season, the team
at each level with the most team points
shall be deemed the champion at that level. All tiebreak
provisions have been
built into the TennisLink system. (a) Winner of the most
individual matches. (b)
The team that loses the fewest number of sets. (c) Loser of the
fewest number of
games. Should a tie remain at this point, the coordinator will
review for (d) Head
up followed by a (e) Coin toss. For the purpose of this
provision, the following
rules shall apply: in case of a default, the non-defaulting
party shall be credited
with such number of additional games as would have been won if
the match was
completed and the non-defaulting party won every subsequent
game. In case of
a forfeit, the non-forfeiting party shall be credited with a
6-0, 6-0 win. For level
championship tiebreakers, any common opponent of the teams that
are tied, who
have forfeited one or more entire team matches during the
season, shall have
their matches considered null and void so as not to be used in
tiebreak
procedures.
24. The champion at each level will represent
Championships. If more than one team is invited at any level,
invitations will be
awarded in the remaining order of finish.
25. In any level that has been divided into 2
divisions, a playoff will take place at the
end of the season. The winner of each division will playoff for
1st and 2nd place.
If a 3rd team invitation has been given, the 2
second place teams will playoff for
3rd place. When creating divisions, the league
coordinator will assemble a
committee to seed the top 4 teams and place them in opposite
divisions. All
remaining teams will be assigned randomly to the 2 divisions.
26. The Grievance Committee shall be
responsible for ruling on all grievances other
than NTRP complaints. All grievances must be submitted in
writing to the Local
League Coordinator within twenty four (24) hours of said
incident.
27.
Any
team that forfeits 2 team matches may be dropped from further league play.
A team
forfeit is defined as showing up for a league match with less than a
needed
number of players to have a chance to win the match by winning two
(2)
courts. Any team that forfeits 2 or more entire matches in a season may be
subject to
further sanctions.
Team Captain Responsibilities
A. Attend
all local captains' meetings.
B. Be
responsible for supplying balls for all home matches.
C. Enter
and confirm scorecards in the Tennis Link system within 24 hours of the
completion
of the match. Remember, when entering scorecards; always write
the score
from the winners’ perspective. If you are the home team, and the score
was 6-4,
6-4, no matter who the winner is, the score should be entered that way
and the
box of the winner checked off. Please be aware of the drop down box
that
defaults to “completed”. Note that the other options are default, double
default,
retired, etc. It is critical that if a match is not completed or not played at
all that
the correct selection is made, otherwise, erroneous ratings results will
occur.
D. Read
and familiarize themselves with all league and tennis regulations and share
this
information with their team members.
E. To
uphold the rules of any facility, public or private, used for league play and
to
collect
and pay court fees for his team.
F.
Every captain is responsible for providing an email address. If you don't have
one,
designate someone on your team as a contact and supply his address. In an
attempt
to cut down on postage and paper expenses, all correspondence will be
via
email or web site announcement. The web site address is
http://www.acadianacta.com.