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New Tournament Features

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Take a look at what's new with Tournaments!

Choose from the links below to learn about the tournament features added in a specific release.   Then to learn more about a feature, click the link below each description. 

You can also attend a Tournament webinar for a demo.  Click here for the schedule.

 

Tournament Features by Release Date
March 7, 2023
January 18, 2023
November 22, 2022
October 20, 2022
September 13, 2022
August 3, 2022
June 28, 2022
May 17, 2022
April 12, 2022
March 3rd, 2022
February 3rd, 2022
October 14th, 2021

 

Release on March 7, 2023

  • Public | Automatic Draw Updates- Players will now be able to view real time updates on the public draws pages. Player will be able to navigate to the public draws page and without the need for refreshing the page, updates will be made to the page if any of the following change:
    • Scores are Entered
    • Players are swapped
    • Match is completed and players progress to the next round
    • Schedule time

 

  • Tournament Desk - Emails - Tournament Directors will be able to send emails to parents / players in Tournament Desk from the Participants -> Players tab. The Tournament ID will be included in the subject of the email.

 

  • Tournament Desk - Draws and Potential Conflicts Feature Tournament Directors will be able to see all potential conflicts (matches) that players have on a day of the specific match. 

    Tournament Directors will be able to navigate to the draw and clicks on the match menu with a new for 'Potential Conflicts’ item which raises the ‘Potential Conflicts’ full screen modal. 

 

  • Tournament Desk -Emails sent when Confirmation Player Promoted to Main Draw in Tournament Desk. Players will receive email notification when they are promoted to the main draw.
    Tournament Directors will go to Players > Entries tab and move a player into the main draw from either:
    • Alternates
    • Qualifiers
    • Withdrawn

An email will be sent to the player / parent confirming that they have been accepted to the main draw.

 

  • Tournament Desk - Score Entry Enhancement - Quick options for Tournament Directors to enter score and schedule matches from the draw.  After making the draws, Tournament Directors will be able to navigate to the Events -> Draws page and see the following new options:
    On the ‘match up' component the ‘Match schedule’ date will be underlined and on click will raise the existing ‘Schedule time’ modal.
    If a match has not been scheduled then the text ‘Not scheduled’ will be clickable.
    The score will be clickable and will raise the existing ‘Score entry’ modal.
    If a match does not have a score the text ‘Enter score’ will be clickable.

  • Tournament Desk -  Save User Settings per Tournament. Ability to save the filters Tournaments Directors select in the following tabs:
    • Events-> Entries and Participant -> Players Matches
    • TD | Teams | Update Scorecard to Use Matchup Component

 

  • Tournament Desk - Teams - Update Scorecard to Use Matchup Component. Tournament Directors will see a new full screen modal to enter scores for Team events. The modal will open when a Tournament Director clicks on ‘Enter score’ or the dropdown menu on the draw. 

 

  • Tournament Desk -  Teams - Substitute player Tournament Directors will be able to substitute players on the scorecard. When they click on the players action menu the drop down will have a ‘Swap player’ option. 

 

  • Tournament Desk -  Team - JTT Score Formats added New Score formats were added to support JTT, TOC and WTT tournaments: 

    • Two tiebreak sets (5-5 all), with 10-point match tiebreak at one set all

    • One set to 6 with 9 point tiebreak (up to 5) at 5 games all

    • Best of 3 short sets with 7 point tiebreak at 3-3

       

       

  • Serve Tennis -  Payments - Multiple Payment Request to Player. Ability to send payment requests to multiple players registered in the tournament. 

 

  • Serve Tennis - ability to hold free tournaments  Tournament Directors will have the ability to flag the event as ‘Free’ eliminating the  need for the user to enter credit card info to register. Changes can be made only before the tournament has been approved.  
 


Release on January 18, 2023

  • Tournament Desk:  Draw Properties - Tournament Directors can now display entry status on public draws.  With a new checkbox under Adornments labeled ‘Show entry status’: Label: Entry status. There is a Dropdown multiselect box will include the following statuses that can be displayed on the draw: 
    • Alternate (ALT)
    • Lucky loser (LL)
    • Special exempt(SE)
    • Junior exempt (JE)
    • Qualifying (Q)
    • Wild Card (WC)

If a player is a seed, both seed and and status will be displayed, and the setting in Tournament Desk is applied to both Tournament Desk and Public View

 

 

 

  • Tournaments - Copy Past Tournaments - Tournament Directors are now able to copy a Tournament from a previous year. This will allow TDs to change the date of the Tournament and will be able to use the same configuration that was previously used.

 

  • Tournaments - Bulk Delete Events - Tournament Directors will now have the ability to delete events in bulk, only if there are no players who registered on the event.

Release on November 22, 2022

  • Tournament Desk: Entries, Set Player Status: A tournament director or referee will be able to select one or more players in the main draw and/or the qualifying draw and change their status from the following list:
    • Direct Acceptance (DA)
    • Alternate (ALT)
    • Lucky Loser (LL)
    • Special Exempt (SE)
    • Junior Exempt (JE)
    • Qualifying (Q)
    • Wild Card (WC)
      This feature is not applicable to the alternate and withdrawn lists
      After the status has been added it will appear on the event entries page in a sortable new ‘Status’ column
    • Learn more: Editing Player Status in Tournament Desk

 

 

  • Serve Tennis -Tournament Application - Individual events - Add 8 & Under checkbox to Age range: Tournament Directors will be able to create 8 and under Junior Circuit and Unsanctioned events.

 

  • Serve Tennis -Player Selection - Last Name, First Name -Serve Tennis player selection tab and the doubles pairing feature has been updated to display players [Last Name then, First Name] to be consistent with Tournament Desk.

     

  • Serve Tennis - Wheelchair & Unsanctioned- Team Events Team events will be enabled for wheelchair and unsanctioned level tournaments which will give tournament directors the ability to create wheelchair and unsanctioned team events.

Release on October 20, 2022

  • Tournament Desk:  Qualifying Draws: Tournament Directors and Referees will be able to create qualifying draws that feed into main draws within Serve Tennis. This option will need to be enabled by your section staff. 
  • Seeding: Ability to save group seeding on the manual seeding table - Using manual seeding a tournament director can enter seeds with the same value and manually entered values will propagate to generated draws, except for flighted events.
  • Round Robin Redesign -Round robin draws have been optimized both for mobile and desktop on the public website. The design has been switched from a grid view to a group listing view. Customers can choose to switch between a standings view and a round view. The Standings view will show:
  • Enable Draw Properties for round robin -Tournament directors and referees can now apply draw properties to round-robin draws. This gives them the ability to show: 
  • Level Configuration Syncing Improvements - USTA staff with Serve Control access will now be able to make changes in level configuration and the changes will be made to Tournament Desk as well. It will no longer matter if Tournament Desk is launched or not. 
  • WTN Play Events| Enforce play tracker ball color validation - Ability to enforce ball color based on division and applying age checks based on the band TD selected for the tournament.
  • Events | Change score format for multiple events -  In case of a need to change a score format in bulk (i.e rain delay) TD will be able to edit formats across multiple events and also across all stages on the draw, i.e. in compass draw, it can update, EAST , WEST, NORTH WEST etc. Please note, this feature is not yet available in team events. 
  •  New score formats added to level configuration 
    • Two out of three no advantage short sets to 6 with 7-point tiebreak at 5 games all - SET3-S:6/TB7@5
    • Best of 5 sets in the 5th set, 10 point match tiebreak at 6-6   -  SET5-S:6-F:6/TB10

    Renaming of the following format:

    • “Timed 20 minute match - game based” to “Timed match - game based”
  • Referee Invitations Enhancements - Many enhancements were made to the referee assignment process. Improvements include:
    • Referees will now be able to decline invitations directly from a new referee invitation management page. Previously they had to decline invitations by contacting the tournament director offline.
      This feature also includes the deployment of multiple notification emails:
      • TD Invited Referee Notification to Referee
      • Referee Acceptance Notification to TD
      • Referee Decline Notification to TD
      • TD removed Referee Notification to Referee

Once a Referee accepts the assignment their name and email address will be displayed on the tournament homepage. Referees will also be able to control which email address they want to show on the tournament homepages. This can be different from their USTA login email address.

  • Order of Play Enhancements- The order of play component has been enhanced to allow tournament directors and referees to share a link to any tab on public site order of play including matches in progress, completed matches and not started matches. This is a great feature to share results with media. Regardless if a TD publishes the order of play component the completed matches tab with results will be displayed on the tournament homepage.
  • Tech improvements :

    The following improvements were fixed:

    • Scorecards PDF
    • Tech | Move PDF import generation to backend service
    • iOS | Public Tournament Search| Date period provided while searching tournament get decremented by 1 day after clicking the ‘search’ button in tournament search page
    • iOS | Doubles Partner selection is distorted on player’s my Game page when player set with looking partner and also has invited request
    • Match Times on the list view not showing up correctly - they now are. 
    • Split draws - auto seed is now working as it should within the split draws

Release on September 13, 2022

  • Enhancements for Player movement between Main Draw, Alternates and withdrawals in Tournament Desk. 
    Tournament Directors and referees will be able to move multiple players between the different panels. TD can navigate to the Event -> Entries tab and will have the following options available in both the multi select and single action menus:
    Available Players
      • Move to alternate players
      • Withdraw

          Alternate Players

      • Move to available players
      • Withdraw

          Withdrawn Players

  • Junior Circuit: Viewing PlayTracker Points
    Tournament Directors and referees can now view PlayTracker points to help them decide who should be seeded.
  • Team Events Display

    The display of team results has been improved to show the specific matchups on the public website instead of listing generic singles and doubles matches. Players will now see the match lineups with the position of play.

  • Manage Draws-  ability to delete playoff structures. 

    Tournament directors and referees will now be able to delete play-off draws if needed.

  • Schedules: Add split draw flight names to the matches report, the schedule tab, and the matches tab
    Tournament directors and referees will now be able to view and filter by split draw flights in the schedule and matches tab.  Match reports will also now have the split draw flight names. The short version will be used for saving space. For example: (Boys 14 & under singles - Flight A → B14U S - Flight A) 
  • Addition of a WTN Timestamp
    Showing when WTN was last updated has been added to both the player entries and player selection pages.

  • Players can access Customer Care Chat widget from Tournament Registration Pages
    Players can now take advantage of the USTA customer care chat feature which now resides on the bottom left corner of tournament registration checkout pages.

  • Fixed:  iOS |iPhone 13| Double Partner selection section was distorted on Player’s My Game when the player is looking for a partner and invite request

 

Release on August 3, 2022

  • Restrict the Movement of Players in Consolation Draws in Sanctioned Events
    • Consolation movement or players will now be limited to establish alignment with the Junior & Adult Tournament Regulations and Friend at Court for sanctioned events in Tournament Desk.
    • Learn More: Swapping Players in Consolation Draw

  • Tournament Desk Enhancements
    • Clock Scheduling Tool - Tournament Directors will have the ability to type in match time directly or use the clock feature to schedule matches manually on the draw.
    • Order of Play for Players View - Tournament Directors now have the ability to publish the order of play on the public website from Tournament Desk. 
    • Changes made to Schedule Tab in Tournament Desk to default to the current date. Tournament Desk will now default the schedule tab to the current date and selected facility. It will work as described below: 
      • Default is the first day of the tournament if the current date is before the first date of the tournament
      • Default is the current date if the tournament is in progress
      • The last date of the tournament if the tournament is completed

      If the Tournament Director changes the date of the tournament and navigates to a different page when they return the date should not be reset to default.

    • Enhancement to Player Profiles within Tournament Desk - Design and interaction updates to the player's profile, which will now enable Tournament Director to be able to email or phone (depending if how you are viewing the tournament and have call enabled) from Tournament Desk. 
    • Public Draw Setting - Show Preview - Public draw display settings will show a preview of how chosen draw settings would display.
  • WTN PLAY and WTN Seeding/Selection
    • WTN Play | Enforce Registration restriction website note. A message has been added under the enforce registration restriction toggle to explain to tournament directors that anyone can register for the tournament if the toggle has been turned off regardless of the WTN range or age bands. They are also encouraged to add a note on the tournament website to clarify even if the tournament has a restricted age and WTN range.
    • WTN showing on public draws. From this release the Tournament Director will be able to show the WTN of players on the public draws.
  • Team Events Enhancements
    • Team Events, Team Player Selection - Ability to add a capacity to All Team Events.  In Serve Tennis, the ability to select which players enter the main draw or alternate players list in the Team Tournament.
    • WTN Team Events - Tournament Directors can view the strength of a team using a team average WTN total.  The decision to use average instead of cumulative was decided because of the use case of teams having unequal number of players.
    • Team Dual Match Winner Criteria - Tournament directors have the ability to choose different options to calculate collection value (i.e. match won, game, set or allocate one point for more than one match won). 
    • Team Event - Ability to add tie-breaker match in the event of a tie-break for teams.  This tie-breaker match would not be counted towards rankings or ratings.

 

Release on June 28, 2022

  • WTN Play  

    •  A new flexible tournament format called WTN Play has been added for tournament directors nationwide. WTN Play gives Tournament Directors the utmost flexibility in running creative level-based play events where they can create customizable divisions where they will have control of the age range and WTN rating range for their divisions and can also control if registration validation rules will be enforced. This format gives tournament directors the tools to create draws with evenly-matched opponents to ensure the best possible experience on court for all players. If you would like to use WTN Play and you don't see the option, please reach out to your section or district to access this new format. 

  • WTN enhancements in Serve Tennis and Tournament Desk
    • Tournament Directors will now be able to pull the latest WTN values for seeding and grouping in the tournament desk in the events tab. They will be able to click on an “Apply update” button and if it's a singles event it will display singles WTN and if it's a doubles event it will display the doubles WTN. Both data points can be hidden or unhidden in the column selector.

  • Learn more: Manual and Automatic Seeding

    • Tournament Directors will have the ability to select, seed and group players based on their ITF World Tennis Number (WTN) and confidence level.
      If the TD uses WTN for seeding, selection or grouping then the players will be sorted into the following bands:
      First all players who have a confidence level >=70% THEN
      Players with a confidence level between 40% and 60% THEN
      Players with a confidence level between <= 30%
      Please note that within the bands the players will be sorted on the back end using the WTN 2 decimal point value.

    • ITF World Tennis Number (WTN) of players will be complemented with a confidence level color coded check mark in Serve Tennis and their player profile. 

    • Tournament directors will have the ability to control showing the ITF World Tennis Number (WTN) values on public draws and will be able to view WTNs on the admin draws in the tournament desk. Public draw settings and admin draw settings will have unique logic of what is displayed.

    • Add WTN to Player Selection Criteria Options
  • Voluntary Consolation draw format for Sanctioned Tournaments Draws -The voluntary consolation draws have been updated to be in compliance with FAC regulations* to ensure that only players who have lost in the 1st round, advanced to the second round via a bye or advanced to the third round via double-bye can be added to a voluntary consolation draw.

    When a VC draw is enabled by your section/district staff in level configuration in Serve Control, there will be a Voluntary consolation option in the draw type. This will need to be enabled prior to player selection is completed.

    Learn more: Voluntary Consolation Draw

  • Tournament Search Improvements 
    • The tournament search was improved so that if users add a space characters in the keyword search section
    • In order to distinguish between WTN Play events and other tournaments. Customers will be able to filter for WTN Play events in the level filter on the tournament search. They will also be able to see the WTN logo on the search results and tournaments details page for WTN Play Events.

  • Team Event Enhancements
    • The team format Brewer Cup has been removed from the options.
    • When using the WTN for Team Events - the WTN rating associated with the team will be the average WTN for all players in that team. 

Release on May 17, 2022

  • Team Event Enhancements
    • Ability to edit a match collection's score format and collection name in the scorecard template.  Saved changes apply only to matches in the draw that do not have any scores entered.
    • Addition of the “Reset Scores“ button on the scorecard to be able to delete all scores entered and leave the player's names populated.
    • The scorecard of the default Team events templates is updated to use ‘Male’ and ‘Female’ instead of ‘Boys’ ‘Girls’ or ‘Men’ ‘Women’ . (i. e. Female Doubles, Male Singles, Female Singles)
    • Ability to view the Team name each player has been selected for on the public website.
    • Ability to view the selection status of teams in Dominant Duo events on the public website.
    • Ability to set entry limits for Dominant Duo team events
    • Ability to complete the selection of dominant duo teams for the main draw or alternate list for Dominant Duo Team Tournaments in the tournament admin area/Serve Tennis. Currently all teams are pushed to the tournament desk then promoted to the main draw. This enhancement will give tournament directors the ability to complete the selection of dominant duo teams for the main draw or alternate list for Dominant Duo Team Tournaments in the tournament admin area/Serve Tennis.
  • Score Entry Option Change
    • To be in compliance with FAC regulations, a new score entry category was added called “Withdrawal” for players who withdraw after the draw has been made and before play begins.
  • Doubles Registration- Looking for Partner Enhancements
    • Enhancements in My Tournaments include setting player status as "looking for a partner" removing yourself from the available players list, selecting an available partner and the ability to email players and tournament directors. 
    • Add Partner to Download Report in Serve Tennis, if a player has been paired, his/her/their partner name will appear in the 'Doubles partner' column, the same way as it appears in a doubles event. 

  • Application for Doubles teams
    • As requested by Tournament Directors, a new enhancement has been made in the tournament application for a doubles event, you will now enter the maximum number of doubles teams to be selected in the draws. i.e if you want a draw of 32 teams, you would enter 32 in the Number of doubles teams selected in the draw section of the application. Previously it would have been 64 players.
  •    SafePlay Compliance with Player Communication
      The Center for SafeSport requires notification of our Safe Play Policy to all tournament participants for our tournaments. To be in compliance with the center for safesport, we updated player selection emails.

Release on April 12, 2022

  • Filter Players by Entry Status in Tournament Desk
    • In the participants tab in Tournament Desk - Tournament directors can now filter players by their entry status ( Selected, Alternate, Unpaired & Withdrawn). This is useful for communication, i.e. if you want to send a text message to only the selected players and not alternates or withdrawn players.
    • Learn more: Sending an SMS in Tournament Desk

  • Move players within Split/ Flighted draws
    • You can now remove players and add a player to a flighted draw after the draw has been made.
    • Learn more: Split Draws

  • Team Tournaments
    • Whether you are running an exciting dominant duo, college themed dual matches or you want to create a custom team event the new team tournament functionality in Serve Tennis will help you run and manage your team tournament. We have 7 new articles on Team Tournaments below.
    • Learn more: Team Tournaments


Release on March 3rd, 2022

  • Public Draw Settings
    • You can now set what is seen in the public draws, you can choose if you want additional player information to show below each player name on public draws, i.e. City/State, Team or  Country.
    • Learn more: Create & Publish A Draw

  • Publish Public Seeds
    • When player selections are completed, you can now publish the seeds on the public view. To do this head to the Entries tab on Tournament Desk and when you have completed your seeding, you can choose to publish seeds.
    • Learn more: Manual and Automatic Seeding

 

Release on February 3rd, 2022

  • Player Selection
    • Tournament Directors will now have the ability to have a manual option from the event creation. This will reflect in the player selection screen in Serve Tennis where it will default to Top-Ranking.
    • Learn more: Player Selection

  • Tournament Desk/ Draw redesign
    • The newly designed draws have been implemented in both the public area and admin areas of tournament desk. We have updated the articles to show the design differences and user experience. However, the previous functionality remains the same. We have added a new article for you to share with players if they are struggling to read the draws.
    • Learn more: Viewing Tournaments and Draws

  • Score Entry/Match Status
  • Payout Reports (soft launch)
    • Tournament Directors can now see and download payout reports as well as the tournament transaction reports. To access the payout reports you will need to change the payout schedule to an automatic payout, so it would be paid out weekly. If you are interested in changing your payout schedule, please reach out to customer care and we will be able to do this for you until this functionality is provided. 
    • In addition, the following defects were fixed in this release: 
      • Move Times/rain delay feature when the SMS showing old schedule time is now showing the correct times in SMS
      • Fixed the defect of event playoffs generating different views
      • Fixed the defect that erased players who advanced from a double walkover after refreshing page
      • Ensure match reports and matches tab show matches in the same order.
    • Learn more: Transaction Report for Payments-Tournaments 

 

Release on October 14th, 2021

  • Doubles Registration
    • Players will now enter the USTA number of their doubles partner after registering for the tournament. Their partner will have to confirm the pairing by entering the USTA number of the partner. This can be managed through the player’s schedule on USTA.com as well.
    • Learn more: Inviting a Doubles Partner/Accepting a Doubles Partner

 

Release on September 17th, 2021

  • Accessing Player Profile Information
    • Anywhere in Tournament Desk that you see a player’s name, you will now be able to open the player’s profile to view their contact information. Previously this was only available in the player’s tab. 
  • Print All Draws
    • From the events tab in Tournament Desk, you can select any or all of the events in your tournament to print on a single pdf. You may also save this PDF to your computer through the print draw feature.
    • Learn more: Print Tournament Draws

  • Move Match Times
    • Also known as the Rain Delay feature. Within the Tournament Desk schedule tab, you can select any or all of the upcoming matches and click on Move times to move all upcoming matches by a set amount of time.
    • Learn more: Moving Match Times

  • Change Stripe Account
    • If the Stripe account that you selected for your tournament is no longer the one you wish to receive money in, you can change which Stripe account your tournament is connected to in the Settings tab of the tournament module on Serve Tennis.
    • Learn more: Changing the Tournament Settings

 

Release on August 25th, 2021

  • Doubles Teams on Player Lists
  • Picking a Doubles Partner
  • Mixed Event Selection & Seeding

 

Release on July 22nd, 2021

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