Answers that move your ladder forward.

The short answer

Six decisions, in this order. 1. Get ten names you can actually contact. Ten is the floor. Below that a ladder collapses into the same two players every…

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Less than an organizer expects, if the deadlines are automatic. Challenges are sent by players. Scores are entered by players and confirmed by players.

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Ten to open, twelve before it sustains itself. The number that matters is not the roster, it is how many people are willing to play a stranger on a…

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Yes, and most ladders in the world still are. It works until three things happen at once: somebody disputes a score, somebody goes on vacation, and…

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Cap it. Five rungs is the default here, and every published club ruleset we surveyed caps it somewhere. Uncapped ladders produce a 3.0 challenging a 4.5…

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Not on a well-run one. Upward only. Let challenges run downward and the strongest player in the band farms the bottom of the standings for safe wins…

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48 hours to respond, one to two weeks to play. That is where the surviving club rulesets landed independently, and the reason is practical: 24 hours…

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Nothing, if the ladder is built correctly. The clock expires and the challenger takes the result as a walkover, without an organizer adjudicating and…

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A rematch cooldown. Fourteen days by default. Without one, two friends at rungs 6 and 7 can play each other every three days, trade the same points back…

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Deuce uses points on every ladder, and that part is not configurable. A confirmed result writes dated Deuce Points entries, and the live total orders the…

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Both players. The winner enters, the loser confirms, and silence auto-confirms on a timer so a sulk cannot freeze somebody's ranking.

The short answer

Keep them separate, because they are different behaviors. - Walkover. The opponent never answered, or the deadline passed.

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Whatever the format allows, and nothing else. A best-of-three match cannot end 8-6. A pro set cannot end 6-4 6-2.

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Four numbers on four different scales, none of which converts cleanly into the others. NTRP is a banded self-rated and computer-rated US system.

The short answer

Look at the actual spread of your group, not at a rating scale. If your twenty players run from a recreational 3.0 to a strong 4.5, two bands is right.

The short answer

Seed them from the most conservative signal you have, then let the first match correct it. The fix matters more than the guess: a new player's first…

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Sandbagging is claiming a lower standard than you play at, to win a lower band. Signs: a placement well below the claimed external rating, a run of…

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The pair is the ranked entity, not the player. A pair holds one rung, challenges as a unit, and takes the result as a unit.

The short answer

Fixed pairs are simpler and fairer, and they are what Deuce ranks. A rung means something because the same two people earned it.

The short answer

Decide before the season, not during it. The workable rule is that the pair holds its rung for a fixed window while it finds a replacement, the…

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Accept that it is harder and give it more time. A doubles ladder needs a longer play window than a singles ladder because four calendars have to…

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Six to twelve weeks, and twelve is the ceiling. Shorter than six and half the field never gets three matches in.

The short answer

Carry them over. A cold start every spring throws away the one thing the ladder built, which is a roughly accurate ordering of the group, and it forces…

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Ladders need reviving far more often than they need founding. What works: 1. Find out why it stopped. It is almost always one of three things: the…

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Let them in and place them at the bottom of their band, or seed them where their rating suggests and say so publicly. Both are defensible.

The short answer

Publish the order in advance and apply it automatically, stopping at the first step that separates the players. The order used here: 1.

The short answer

Have one player dispute inside the confirmation window, then have the organizer decide from both submissions, then write the resolution to a log…

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It is optional and it is usually worth it. A playoff gives the season an ending, and gating entry on matches played rather than final position means the…

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That is a band problem, not a rules problem. One player two levels above the rest of the field will win everything, stop being challenged, and get bored.

The short answer

The two players agree, and they split the cost unless the ladder says otherwise. A platform that assigns courts is claiming to know things about your…

The short answer

A shorter format reduces the amount of tennis to play, but no point-based format guarantees a finish within an hour.

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The standing convention, which is worth stating in your rules rather than assuming: you call your own side, you call it immediately, and you give the…

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Publish the penalty before it happens and apply it the same way to everybody. It takes two people to file a fake score when both sign off, so a falsified…

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A standing ranking of players. Challenge somebody a few rungs above you, win, and you finish above them. Every match you play earns Deuce Points, and the…

The short answer

A league hands you a schedule. A ladder hands you a list of opponents and lets you pick. Side by side.

The short answer

No. You need to play a match and keep score. Ladders are split into level bands, so you are ranked among people of roughly your standard.

The short answer

Both, with one limit. A doubles ladder ranks fixed pairs, so you and your partner hold a rung together for the season and cannot swap in week five.

The short answer

Six, eight, ten or twelve weeks, with the dates published on every ladder page. Twelve weeks is the maximum. Seasons exist so the standings mean…

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For the playoff, yes: a minimum of played matches that each organizer sets, frozen once a season starts. Qualification is gated on matches played, not…

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The standings close, the playoff runs, and the standings carry into the next season. A ladder does not cold-start every spring and you keep the rung you…

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Yes, and plenty will. Each ladder tracks your rung on its own, so a result in one moves nothing in another. Your match record is yours and travels with…

The short answer

Enter your city and Deuce shows every ladder in it, with the level band, format, season dates and how many players played in the last 30 days.

The short answer

Open the standings, pick a name inside your challenge range, send it. The default range is five rungs above you, because uncapped ladders produce…

The short answer

No. Upward only, on every ladder. Let challenges run downward and a strong player farms the bottom of the standings for safe wins.

The short answer

Two by default, counting sent and received, so nobody keeps four opponents waiting while they work out their week.

The short answer

They have 120 hours. If the clock runs out you get the result automatically, as a walkover. No organizer adjudicates and nobody emails an administrator…

The short answer

No. A walkover is what you get when the other player never answered or the deadline passed. A forfeit is giving up after accepting.

The short answer

Thirty days from acceptance, with one extension. Both players are equally responsible. If neither could get a court and neither stalled, the match is…

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Wherever you two agree. Deuce owns no courts and assigns none. Nearby courts are listed on your city page to make that conversation shorter.

The short answer

You split it, unless your ladder says otherwise. Deuce is not in that transaction.

The short answer

Duration depends on the format and the points played. Deuce defaults to best of three tiebreak sets. Each ladder chooses which formats it accepts; agree…

The short answer

Winner enters, loser confirms. Silence auto-confirms on a timer, so it cannot stall your ranking. Only valid scorelines are enterable. Scoring in detail.

The short answer

Either player disputes inside the confirmation window. The organizer sees both submissions and decides, and the resolution goes to a public activity log…

The short answer

It takes two people to file a fake one, since both sign off and only valid scorelines are enterable. The penalty is published in the rules rather than…

The short answer

Declare an absence: up to 21 days at a time, 42 across a season. You keep your rung and cannot be challenged. Without a valve like that, what players…

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Yes, deliberately. After 21 days with no played match your rung slides one place a week until you play. Passive and automatic: nobody reports you, and it…

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Yes, from your settings. Your played matches stay in the record, your rung is released, and the players below move up. You can rejoin next season.

The short answer

Not straight away. The rematch cooldown is 14 days by default, because without it two friends can trade wins and climb past everybody else.

The short answer

Ten questions about the group, the levels and the season you want, about five minutes. We review it, and the ladder opens for players once it is approved.

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Ten you can name. Below that we say so rather than launch something that dies in week three. Twelve is where a ladder stops being the same two people…

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With the people you already have: a club list, your park regulars, the group chat that already plays. A ladder needs local density, not a national user…

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Not set yet. When it is, it goes on the pricing page in numbers, for everybody, with no quote-gated plan for clubs. Organizers are the ones who pay.

The short answer

There is no import. Once your ladder is approved, invite your players from its members page. Each one starts at the bottom of their level band, and the…

The short answer

The dials, yes: challenge range, deadlines, level bands, cooldown, decay rate, absence limits, season dates, playoff size, match format, and every reward…

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The parts that make a result trustworthy. Challenges go upward only, the range is capped, both players confirm scores, absence and decay both exist, and…

The short answer

Yes, and several under one club split by band or format is the normal setup. One dashboard, and each gets its own public standings page. For clubs.

The short answer

No, but most do. Playing organizers are subject to every rule they set, decay included, and every adjustment they make is written to the public activity…

The short answer

Write to us. The ladder keeps running either way, because deadlines, walkovers and decay are handled by software.

The short answer

Software handles them, not you. A missed deadline produces an automatic walkover, inactivity decays a rung, repeated walkovers flag a player inactive.

The short answer

From what you tell us. Bring an NTRP, UTR, WTN, LTA rating, ITN, federation ranking or club level and we seed you from it, reading the conservative end…

The short answer

We accept all of them at signup as your declared level, and publish an approximate conversion table between them.

The short answer

Placement reads the conservative end of what you claim, a new player's first challenge reaches their whole band so a wrong claim is corrected in one…

The short answer

Your rung is your position in one ladder under its rules. A rating (NTRP, UTR, WTN) is an outside system's estimate of your standard, read once at signup…

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Your name, rung, played results and ladder membership are public on the standings page, because that is what a standings page is.

The short answer

No. Standings, ladder pages and city pages are public and always will be, a commitment on the about page, not a launch promo.

The short answer

No native app yet. The site works on a phone and does everything you need. Native apps are roadmap, and the store links go here when they exist.

The short answer

It will say so. Ladders only work at local density, so they start one group at a time. Leave an email and hear from us once, when a ladder exists near…

The short answer

Every city page and the directory show live counts, including zero. An active ladder means one with a played match in the last 30 days, and Deuce is…

The short answer

Yes. A ladder can be created anywhere in the world, and no country is off the list. Deuce fills city by city rather than country by country…

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No. Some ladders are club-only and say so on the ladder page. Plenty are open to anyone in a city and play on public courts.

The short answer

Yes, permanently. Browsing ladders, reading standings and looking up courts need no account and no payment. Playing sits behind whatever the organizer's…

The short answer

Only in a ladder whose organizer turned it on, and the ladder page says so before you join. There are extra rules about who sees a junior's details and…

The short answer

Email a person: hello@deuceladder. com, with response times published on the contact page. No phone queue and no chatbot.

The short answer

The glossary has all three alphabetically, with everything else the ruleset uses. Longer explanations live in the topic groups at the top of this page.