Singles 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. It is open to ALL players of ALL levels. 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 Tennis Asylum (the ladder’s website), triggering an automated email to everyone in the ladder announcing the result.
When the 3-month ladder season concludes, a tournament begins. All players who played a minimum of 6 unique opponents get to participate in the tournament. Prize money is awarded to multiple players, and the prize money is funded exclusively from players’ registration fees ($15 of every $16 registration fee goes to prizes). Since 2020, Washoe Tennis Ladder has awarded over $9,000 in prize money to winners in all of the following categories:
- Tournament champion
- Tournament 2nd place
- Both tournament semifinalists
- Top 4.0 ladder position prize
- Top 3.0/3.5 ladder position prize
Each season has two tournaments: 4.0+ players have their own tournament, and 3.5 and below players have theirs. The semifinal losers play an additional match to determine 3rd and 4th place, and 3rd place wins a larger prize than 4th.
You couldn’t ask for a more fun way to get in good shape, and it is never too late to join – players may join even if there is only a few days left in the session (players have done so in the past). The seasons are as follows:
| Spring Ladder Regular Season | March 1 through May 31 |
| Spring Ladder Tournament | begins June 1 |
| Summer Ladder Regular Season | July 1 through September 30 |
| Summer Ladder Tournament | begins October 1 |
| Winter Ladder Regular Season | November 1 through January 31 |
| Winter Ladder Tournament | begins February 1 |
Tournament Results
See Tournament Rules
Past prize totals: $9,080
- 2020: $710
- 2021: $590
- 2022 Spring: $270
- 2022 Summer: $290
- 2022 Winter: $240
- 2023 Spring: $280
- 2023 Winter: $360
- 2024 Spring: $570
- 2024 Summer: $1,055
- 2024 Winter: $705
- 2025 Spring: $890
- 2025 Summer: $825
- 2025 Winter: $660
- 2026 Spring: $750
- 2026 Summer: $885
Joining the ladder
- Winter and spring seasons: players must be Washoe Tennis Club members. The summer season is an Open event: no Washoe Tennis Club membership is required. 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.
- Registration fee is $16 per player, and $15 of it goes to end-of-season prizes for players. You pay by card when you register on Tennis Asylum.
- Register for the ladder on Tennis Asylum (if you don’t have an NTRP rating, you can estimate your rating here):
Tennis Asylum verifies your Washoe Tennis Club membership, collects the registration fee, and puts you in the ladder. From then on everything happens there: scheduling matches, reporting results, standings, and the tournament draw.
Rules of the ladder
- To qualify for the tournament, players must play against 6 unique opponents.
- The tournament’s 1st and 2nd place players will receive prizes. The top 4.0 and top 3.5/3.0 ladder-ranked players who aren’t finalists or semifinalists 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 six prizes total: four for the top 4 tournament players, and two for ladder ranking.
- 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.
- 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. PLEASE avoid bringing regular Penn balls (many of those cans have one bad ball in them), non-pressurized balls such as Wilson Triniti, high altitude balls (unless the temperature outside is reasonably warm), or balls designed for play on clay courts (often produces a RED logo on the ball itself to signal red clay, or on the can, indicated by phrases like “regular duty” or “soft court”). Extra Duty (XD or Hard Court) balls are ideal since all ladder matches are played on outdoor hard courts.
- 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.)
- Just as with USTA league play, a third set tiebreaker will be the default expectation for a third set, unless both players explicitly agree to play a full third set. If a third set tiebreaker is played, it should be a 10-point super tiebreaker.
- 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.
- The winner is responsible for recording the outcome of the match on Tennis Asylum within 24 hours (immediate reporting is encouraged). Enter a third set tiebreaker as the score that was played (for example, 6-4, 4-6, 10-8); Tennis Asylum recognizes it as a 10-point tiebreaker.
- 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.
- 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!
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- Matches played in other events (such as the Incline Tournament) may also be counted as a ladder match for the current ladder season, as long as the match was actually played during the current season.
- Know any other players who would enjoy this ladder? Pass this information on to them!
Good luck and HAVE FUN!