Tournaments

Tournaments are often organised by gender and number of players. Common tournament configurations include:

• men's singles
• women's singles
• doubles (where two players of the same sex play on each side)
• mixed doubles (with a member of each sex per side).

Tournaments may be arranged for for specific age groups, with upper age limits for youth and lower age limits for senior players. There are also tournaments for handicapped players.

In the four grand slams (UK, US, France and Australia), the draw (the maximum number of players allowed in a particular category of the tournament) is 128 people.

Players may also be matched by their skill level. According to how well a person does in sanctioned play, they are given a rating which is adjusted periodically to maintain competitive matches. For example, in the U.S. system called the National Tennis Rating Program (NTRP), you may be given a rating of 2.5, 3.0, 3.5, 4.0, 4.5 and so on.