From August 2023, you will now be able to create a Pickleball Tournament in the system. The Pickleball Tournament is an unsanctioned tournament, it will not be counted for rankings or ratings. It will not appear in the search with other tournaments. To create and run a Pickleball Tournament in Serve Tennis, please see the guide below.
Creating a Pickleball Tournament
In Serve Tennis, head to the tournaments module and select + Add Tournament. Select the category: Pickleball
You will then enter the Tournament Name : Note that publicly it will be prefixed with Pickleball Unsanctioned- so what you enter in here will show as below:
Enter the location, if you have multiple locations, you can add additional facilities.
The Start time and End time of the event. There are no limitations on this.
Do not enable test tournament unless you do no want this tournament to show to the public.
Registration Time and Date - this is the window of time people can sign up before player selections. Please note, you can not complete player selections until AFTER registration close date.
Add Staff - as with all USTA tournaments - the tournament director will need to be safe play approved and invited to be a tournament director by the section/district staff. You will need to reach out
Payments- Select either a free tournament (note- if you select free tournament, you can not change this to a paid tournament at a later date) or attach the stripe account to collect the payments. For more information on Stripe see here: Tournaments Payments Overview (Stripe Express)
Click Submit - you can now enter the Events by clicking on +Add events.
Note in the Pickleball - it is for junior and adults. You select Male, Female or Co-ed events - singles and doubles. You can also create events specific for age groups as shown below.
Next you select the dates - if these are the same as you had set before there is no need to edit. You can select the type of surface, indoor/outdoor.
Price - this is the price per person. Note there is a transaction fee that will be taken at source. We have a calculator you can use to help work this out to ensure you are collecting the amount you wish. See What Are the Costs of Serve Tennis?
Click Continue
3. Default Draws
Here is where you select the default draws. It is what is advertised in the information section of the events. However, if you have more or less participants once you are creating the draws you can change this at a later date. The draw types are the same as the tennis draw types.
If you have singles and doubles you need to select both.
The score formats are Pickleball score formats. You can choose from:
- 1 game to 11 win by 1
- 1 game to 11 win by 2
- 1 game to 15 win by 1
- 1 game to 15 win by 2
- Best of 3 games to 11 win by 1
- Best of 3 games to 11 win by 1, last game to 7 win by 1
- Best of 3 games to 11 win by 2
- Best of 3 games to 11 win by 2, last game to 7 win by 2
As with the draw formats, you can change these in tournament desk if needed, i.e you need to make the matches longer or shorter for any reason.
Player selection - you can limit capacity - this will not prevent more people from registering but at player selection this will limit the number of players and you can take alternates.
Then select Manual or First Come first served (ie. by registration date) for how you will select.
Click Save
Checklist - more information on the checklist is here: Tournament Application Checklist
You need to complete the following before the option to submit the tournament will appear.
Web Info - You will need to add information into the Web Info - here is where you add logo's, description of the event, rules and regulations. The more information the better. See Overview of the Tournament Information Web Page Details
Rules and Pricing - This is important to get correct, as you can not change any discounts after you submit the tournament. See How to Set the Rules & Pricing Details for a Tournament
Settings- This is where you can change the public information of where the public can contact the TD, it auto-populates the TD details but you can change it here.
You can create a question to ask your players to answer at the point of registration, i.e. Tshirt size or food requirements. See Tournament Settings
Once completed you can Submit for Approval - this is sent to the Section or District your Organization is linked with and they will be alerted to approve the tournament. Once approved it will be published, ready for players to register or for you to manually add the players.
Player Selections
For details on how to complete player selections and charging the players please see here: Tournament Director Player Selection Instructions
Tournament Desk for Pickleball Tournament
Once your players are selected they will appear in Tournament Desk. It is at this point you can create the draws for your event. This will work the same way as tournaments. The only difference is the score formats available for you. Please see the help guide: Create, Publish, Delete Draws
If you need any assistance, please do reach out to customer support, you can do so by clicking on the HELP button found on the bottom left of the screen.
Serve Tennis Pickleball Tournaments FAQs
How can players sign up for my Pickleball Tournament?
The pickleball tournaments will appear in the Tournaments Search but we won't have a category to choose from in the search. We would recommend that you share the link for the players to sign up.
What are the costs of running a Pickleball Tournament?
If you collect online registration fees these will be subject to the USTA/Stripe transaction fees, these are outlined in this guide: What Are the Costs of Serve Tennis? As with tennis tournaments the USTA section and districts are able to charge a sanction fee and also head tax for tournaments and you would need to reach out directly to your section or district regarding the costs for this.
If you select Free Event- then there are no costs for the USTA/Stripe transaction fee.
Do I have to set up Stripe to run a Pickleball Tournament?
Yes, as part of the tournament module in Serve Tennis, you will need to create a Stripe account to access the module. There is no way around this.
Do adults or juniors need a USTA membership to sign up to the tournament?
No, as this is an unsanctioned event, only a USTA account is required.