Washoe Tennis Ladder

The Washoe Tennis Ladder is a great way to play as many singles matches as you want with a superb variety of players in the community. Players in the ladder play who they want, when they want, where they want. Both players show up with a new can of balls, and the winner goes home with the unopened can. The winner also gets the glory of reporting the match results on the ladder website, triggering an automated email to everyone in the ladder announcing the result.

When the ladder season concludes, a tournament begins. All players who played a minimum number of unique opponents get to participate in the tournament. Prize money is awarded to multiple players, and the prize money is funded exclusively from players’ $15 registration fees. You couldn’t ask for a more fun way to get in good shape! The seasons are as follows:

Spring Ladder Regular SeasonMarch through May
Spring Ladder Tournamentbegins June 1
Summer Ladder Regular SeasonJuly through September
Summer Ladder Tournamentbegins October 1
Winter Ladder Regular SeasonNovember through January
Winter Ladder Tournamentbegins February 1

Tournament Results

See Tournament Rules

20242024 Spring2024 Summer
20232023 Spring2023 Summer2023 Winter
20222022 Spring2022 Summer2022 Winter
20212021
20202020

Joining the ladder

  1. All players must be Washoe Tennis Club members. Although matches can be played anywhere, 80%+ of all ladder matches are played at the Washoe courts. This was true even before the ladder was affiliated with Washoe. The WTC membership year runs March 1 through February 28/29 of the next year.

  2. Registration fee is $15. 100% of all registration money goes to end-of-year prizes for players. Send the registration fee and donation either via Zelle or personal check to Chad Twedt. Please do this before filling out the form below. If you pay using Zelle, use chad@twedt.com or 412-315-1208 (Zelle is strongly preferred). If you pay with personal check, send it to Chad Twedt, 513 Pinot Grigio Ct., Reno, NV 89509 and please send an email to chad@twedt.com to indicate that a check is on the way. Sorry, no Paypal or Venmo. Zelle is available directly through any bank’s mobile banking website or app, such as Wells Fargo or Bank of America.

  3. Register for the ladder (if you don’t have a NTRP rating, you can estimate your rating here):

Once you are verified as a WTC member, you pay the $15 registration fee, and you register with the above form, the events coordinator will add you to the ladder (look for an email from laddero.com shortly before the ladder begins). When you receive this email, please log into your ladder account and update the NTRP rating in your profile. The ladder admin has no ability to do this for you when adding you to the ladder. Players must have their NTRP rating listed in their ladder profile if they want to be eligible for inclusion in the tournament.

Rules of the ladder

  1. To qualify for the tournament, players must play against 6 unique opponents.

  2. The tournament’s 1st and 2nd place players will receive prizes. The top 4.0 and top 3.5 ladder-ranked men / top 4.5 and top 4.0 ladder-ranked women who don’t take 1st or 2nd place in the tournament will also receive prizes. 4.5 men and 5.0 women are not eligible for the “top ladder position” prizes since they have an advantage getting tournament prizes. To clarify, there are only four prizes total: two for the tournament winners and two for ladder ranking.

  3. The ladder is open to 3.0 men and below / 3.5 women and below as well, but those players won’t be eligible for for any ladder position prizes. For these players, the ladder serves as an opportunity for fun and improvement playing against tougher players.

  4. All matches are to be played at a mutually agreeable time and location. Those living outside of Reno, or in its outskirts, should expect to drive to Washoe, Plumas or Caughlin for the vast majority of matches since WTL players are generally not looking for matches in Spanish Springs, Zephyr Cove, Fallon, Truckee, or Carson City.

  5. Both players bring a new can of balls. The winner brings home the unopened can, and the loser brings home the used can. When the first two sets are split, only if both players agree, the second can of balls may be opened for the third set, in which case the winner decides which used can to take home.

  6. Each match will be best 2 of 3 sets with regular scoring. At 6-6 in any set, a traditional 7-point tiebreaker is played. (This is also known as a 12-point tiebreaker since a score of 7-5 adds to a total of 12.)

  7. If both players agree to play a third set tiebreaker due to time restrictions, it should be a 10-point super tiebreaker.

  8. All tiebreakers should be Coman tiebreakers: players switch sides after the first point, and then every 4 points thereafter (so after 1 point, after 5 points, after 9 points, etc.). This is advocated by the USTA in league play and is the fairest possible way to play a tiebreaker in both singles and doubles. Click here for more information on the Coman tie breaker.

  9. The winner is responsible for recording the outcome of the match on laddero.com within 24 hours (immediate reporting is encouraged). Record a third set tiebreaker as 1-0. For example, if you win a match 6-4, 4-6, 10-8, it will be recorded as 6-4, 4-6, 1-0.

  10. A “1/3 difference” leapfrog scoring system is used for the ladder. If the winner initially had less points than the loser, the winner is awarded (a) one-third of the difference between the winner’s and loser’s points, plus (b) 20 points for winning. The loser is simply awarded the number of games they won in the match. For example, if you have 70 points and you beat a player with 370 points, you are awarded 120 points (one-third of 300, plus 20), bringing your total points to 190.

  11. In traditional leapfrog ladders, players get 100% of the points of the defeated higher-ranked player. That means a brand new player could jump to the top of the ladder after just one match, which isn’t good. Fortunately, we do not use this traditional system. Under our system, a new player will need to win a few matches against top-ranked players to overtake the #1 spot. This means you are free to challenge any player on the ladder without feeling any guilt if you win. Even if you have 0 points and they have 60 jillion points, you will only have 20 jillion points (plus 20) after winning – you’ll still have a lot of work to do to get to the top!

  12. If a player is more than 15 minutes late to a scheduled match, the opponent may opt to record a 6-0, 6-0 win by default.

  13. A match may be suspended and continued at a later date due to darkness only if BOTH players agree the conditions are no longer reasonably playable.

  14. A match may be suspended and continued at a later date due to moisture on the court if EITHER player wishes to suspend to avoid injury due to slipping.

  15. If it is nearly impossible to serve without looking into the sun, if both players mutually agree, you may opt to switch sides after every game (and in a tiebreaker, after every two points) so that the server is always serving on the “good side.” This isn’t about babying our tennis games, although this certainly does produce higher-quality tennis. This is about protecting our vision so we don’t get macular degeneration when we’re 80. It doesn’t make much sense that we are told to avoid looking at eclipses even with sunglasses on, and yet nobody “blinks an eye” about the cumulative 30 or 60 seconds we spend looking at or near the sun during a mid-day match. That said, this is not conventional, which is why this is not a requirement, just an option, and why both players must agree.

  16. When a player contacts you to schedule a match, make it a high priority to respond, and try to make it as easy as possible to schedule matches with you. Remember that it takes more time and effort for someone to contact you than it takes for you to respond.

  17. Good sportsmanship and reliability are a must at all times! Players who accumulate multiple complaints from other players with regard to flakiness and/or sportsmanship may be dropped from the ladder.

  18. Players are welcome to play matches where they want, but please note that ladder matches played at the Washoe courts are subject to the same 1-hour limit that everyone else follows.

  19. Know any other players who would enjoy this ladder? Pass this information on to them!

Good luck and HAVE FUN!