A Voluntary Consolation (VC) draw, also known as Voluntary sign-up consolation, is a draw in which the losers from the main draw are fed back into another draw against players who lost in earlier rounds of the single elimination tournament. The option to choose the voluntary consolation draw format will be enabled by your USTA section or district staff.
As per Friend at Court: A voluntary Sign-Up Consolation draw comprises of all first match losers who choose to play in the draw. Only players who intend to complete the consolation should enter and will be manually added by the tournament director.
See below chart for points won in the Voluntary consolation by Tournament Level
Click here to see more on 2022 USTA Junior Tournaments Ranking System
This guide will cover:
- To Create a Voluntary Consolation draw format in Serve Tennis when sanctioning your tournament.
- How to Create a Voluntary Consolation Draw Format in Tournament Desk
- How to add participants
- How to delete Separate Structures
To Create a Voluntary Consolation draw format in Serve Tennis
When you create a tournament in Serve Tennis and add events, you will have to set the Default draws - settings for any events that you create. If you do not have the option of creating a Voluntary Consolation draw format, please reach out to your section/district staff. Each Section/District have the choice to include this option in the draw formats.
Please see this guide on how to create a Tournament Application for more detail.
Note: It is mandatory that you have Voluntary Consolation draw type selected prior to player selections, once tournament desk is launched, we are unable to change the draw type for you. You will need to use the format you originally selected.
How to Create a Voluntary Consolation Draw Format in Tournament Desk
Once you have completed player selections , charge the players and launch Tournament Desk. Select the event and complete avoidances and seeding as required in the Events -> Entries tab.
- Select the Draw Tab and Make Draw.
- Enter Draw Name: You can enter a draw name, this will only show on the Tournament Desk Admin Pages (not the public page).
- Choose Draw Type: Choose Voluntary Consolation
Note: if the option is not there, this is because this is not an approved draw format or you did not originally select this as the format. You need to discuss with your USTA section staff
- Draw Size: This will be greyed out as the software will select the most appropriate draw size for the number of players, i.e. 8, 16, 32, 64 etc.
- No of Seeds are auto-populated based on your seeding.
- Score Format: Select the score format you wish to use for the main draw, you can edit this later.
- Draw Creation: Choose between automated or manual.
- Select Make Draw.
- Choose Consolation from the drop-down to see the consolation draw.
How to add participants to the Voluntary Consolation Draw
If this is an unsanctioned tournament or WTN Play you will be able to add all participants in the Voluntary Consolation at this stage. If this is a sanctioned tournament the voluntary consolation draws are 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.
*Please note: Players who have advanced to the second round of the main draw via walkover/withdrawal/default/retirement and lose in the second round of the main draw will NOT appear in the add participants modal for voluntary consolation.
Depending on the level, as per above, once you have all the first round matches played you can add the participants to the back draw.
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Select the consolation draw by selecting consolation dropdown, click Add participants.
- Select the players that wish to play in the consolation draw by placing a check next to their name. You can select ALL by selecting the box next to 'Name' circled in red below.
- Click Add participants. The number of players selected to compete on the Consolation draw page will be displayed, see below:
- Add participants by repeating the above step.
- Remove players by clicking on the
arrow to the right of the Participants label, which will open a page with a list of the players selected; click remove for any player to be taken out of the draw.
NOTE: If you remove the participants from the Participants list, you can not add them in later.
- Once you have all the players you wish to include in the voluntary consolation, click Make Draw. It will only give the option of a single elimination. You can choose which score format you want to use.
- To publish the draw to the website, click Draw Options - Publish draw
In the draw, you can
- Move the players around in the back-draw by selecting the player and choosing the option to swap player / team (only for voluntary consolation draws)
- Remove the player from the draw and replace with a BYE.
Remember, if you remove a player from the draw, you can add them back in by clicking assign draw position. -
Schedule the consolation draw by clicking on the three dots, either by round or match.
How to Delete Separate Structures
Tournament Directors have the ability to delete draw structures separately (e.g., Voluntary draw, Main draw) Applies to tournaments with Qualifying Draws and Voluntary Consolation Draws.
- To delete one of the structures, Click the Draw Options drop-down on the right.
- Click Reset Voluntary Draw or Reset Main Draw. This will only delete one structure.