Junior Tennis Group Tournament
Sixteen juniors, four groups, short sets and a champion before the hall closes
A one-day junior tennis tournament for 16 players works in four groups of four, and the top two of each group go on to an eight-player knockout. That makes 24 group matches and 8 knockout matches. Two short sets to four games with a 10-point match tie-break instead of a third set keep the day near six hours on four courts. JudgeMate sets that format once for the whole draw, scores each match from a QR code on court and updates the group tables as soon as a result is confirmed.
Saturday on four indoor courts, 16 players
08:30 Sign-in closes. The groups are already on the public page, with two seeded players in each.
09:00 First wave. A group of four plays three rounds of two matches, so all four groups together need eight matches per round. Four courts take that in two waves.
13:00 Six waves of 40 minutes later the last group result comes in. Lunch, while the organizer closes the group stage and the winners and runners-up drop into the draw.
13:30 Quarter-finals: A1 against B2, C1 against D2, B1 against A2, D1 against C2. Nobody meets a player from their own group in the first knockout match.
14:10 Semi-finals on two courts. The other two courts are free for consolation matches or for warm-up.
14:50 Final and third-place match side by side.
15:30 Medals and photos.
The 40 minutes is a planning figure for two short sets, a possible match tie-break and the five-minute warm-up the ITF Rules of Tennis allow. Measure it on your own courts with your own age group. With six courts the group stage needs four waves instead of six and is over by 11:40.
Group sizes and a match format that fits one day
Sixteen players in four groups of four is the cleanest shape. Each group plays six matches, every child gets three, and two from each group make a bracket of eight. Twelve players fit four groups of three with the same eight-player bracket, at two group matches each.
The full junior format is too long for that. For J30 and J60 group stages, the ITF World Tennis Tour Juniors Regulations 2026 (Reg. 35) set two tie-break sets with a 10-point match tie-break in place of a third set. Plan 75 minutes for that and the group stage alone takes 7.5 hours on four courts.
Appendix VI of the ITF Rules of Tennis 2026 lists the shorter options:
- Short sets. First to four games with a two-game margin, a tie-break at 4-4.
- Match tie-break (10 points). Played at one set all instead of the deciding set, won by two clear points.
- No-Ad scoring. At deuce one deciding point wins the game.
In JudgeMate the format belongs to the draw: games per set (4, 6 or 9), sets to win (1, 2 or 3), tie-break to 5 or 7 points, golden point on or off, super tie-break in the deciding set on or off. With four games per set the tie-break starts at 4-4. The settings of a single match cover only golden point and the super tie-break. To play the final with six-game sets, change games per set on the final's scoreboard, in the operator panel, before the first ball.
Players aged 10 and under have their own courts, balls and formats in Appendix VIII of the ITF rules. Give them a separate category instead of squeezing them into a U12 group.
Who wins a group with three players on two wins
ITF. Reg. 57 of the ITF Juniors Regulations 2026 ranks a round-robin group by wins. Two players level on wins are separated by their head-to-head match. Three or more go to the percentage of sets won, then the percentage of games won. A match tie-break counts as one set and one game. If a percentage separates only one player, the two still level go back to their head-to-head.
JudgeMate. You pick the standings rules when you set up the draw. A new tennis draw starts on ITF Reg. 57: 1 point for a win, 0 for a loss and the tie-break order above. The other options are the Polish federation rules (PZT, IV.7.4) and custom points. A super tie-break is stored as one game, as Reg. 57 counts it. The PZT option counts it the same way, although the PZT leaves it out of the games.
On the default ITF rules the table follows Reg. 57 step by step. Only custom points work differently: ties go first to the matches among the tied players, then to set ratio and game ratio across the group.
An example group, played with six-game sets: A beat B 6-4 6-3, C beat A 7-5 6-4, A beat D 6-1 6-0, B beat C 6-2 6-4, B beat D 6-0 6-1, C beat D 6-3 6-4. A, B and C each have two wins and four sets to two. Games decide it: B 31-19, A 33-21, C 31-28. Both the ITF and JudgeMate rank B, A, C, D, and A goes through as runner-up.
Games reach the table only when every group match was scored on the live scoreboard. A single result typed in by hand without games switches that criterion off for the whole group. A tie that still crosses the qualifying line stops the group stage from closing until you set the order yourself. The ITF would use ranking, then WTN, then a draw of lots.
Write your tie-break order into the tournament rules, because parents will do the arithmetic on their phones.
On court: one QR code per match, one page for every parent
Junior days at club level rarely have a chair umpire on every court. Someone still has to keep the score: a coach, a parent from the other club, or the next player waiting for the court.
When you start the scoreboard for a match going on court, its referee QR code appears. Scanning it opens the live scoreboard for that match. The scorer taps the point winner, and games, sets and the tie-break follow from the format you set. In a tie-break the service changes after the first point and then every two points. If a child serves out of turn, the scorer corrects the server by hand.
When the match ends and the result is confirmed, the group table and the bracket update on the public results page. It opens in any browser without an account. JudgeMate sends no email or push messages, so put the link or a QR code to it on the club noticeboard and the entrance to the hall.
In a hall with a TV over the courts, open the display view. It shows the group tables, and the podium once the final is over. The knockout bracket is on the public results page. Who is on each court now and who plays next is on the event's separate court screen.
Setting the tournament up in JudgeMate
Open tennis in the create menu. The event arrives with its first tennis category in singles. Rename it U12, and copy it as U14 if both age groups play the same day. Courts belong to the event, so both categories share them.
Add the players. Children can enter themselves through the public event page, or you add each one by name, without an account. Give the seeded players start numbers 1 to 8. The groups fill in a snake: seeds 1 to 4 head groups A to D, seeds 5 to 8 run back from D to A, so every group holds two seeds.
Choose Groups + knockout, four groups, two advancing, and switch on the third-place match. In the match format for the draw set 4 games per set, 2 sets to win, super tie-break in the deciding set on, and golden point if your rules play No-Ad.
Add the courts as resources with a 09:00 start and a 40-minute slot, and generate the order of play before the first ball. The scheduler only places matches that have not started, so do it before the first result. Print the match slips. The referee QR code is created when you start a match's scoreboard.
On the day, close the group stage after the last confirmed result. The eight-player draw fills itself from the cross table. For background on the formats, see tennis tournament formats explained; for a single match without a draw there is the tennis live scoreboard.
What JudgeMate does not do for a junior tennis tournament
- No tie-break at 3-3 in short sets. Appendix VI allows it; in JudgeMate the tie-break always starts when both players reach the set length, 4-4 with four-game sets.
- No five-point tie-break with a deciding point at 4-4. A tie-break to 5 is available, but it needs a two-point lead like any other.
- Match tie-break to 10 only. The seven-point match tie-break from Appendix VI cannot be selected.
- No ranking lookup or draw of lots. Where the rules call for the ITF ranking, WTN or lots, the table only flags the tie and the organizer sets the order.
- PZT games are counted differently from IV.7.4. JudgeMate counts a match tie-break as one game, while the PZT leaves it out of the games. A walkover adds no games, while the PZT scores it 0-6 0-6. When games decide a tie, check the order by hand.
- No federation ranking. JudgeMate does not report results to a national association or rating system and does not calculate ranking points.
- No notifications and no payments. Parents follow the public page; entry fees are recorded as paid or waived, and the money is collected the way the club already does it.
Set up your event
Free for organizers. No athlete cap. No commission on registrations. See tennis features · Organizer guide