UTR Sports Junior Team Tennis - Rules and Regulations

I. Mission

UTR Sports Junior Team Tennis enables a fun, level-based, competitive environment for Junior tennis players to experience the enjoyment of a team sport and improve their game. All UTR Junior Team Tennis scheduled matches count towards players’ Verified UTR.

II. League Sessions Format

*Local league divisions and formats may vary depending on location. Ensure you check the session page for specific details on your area.

• 4 singles lines, 2 doubles lines
• Minimum 4 players per team match. Recommend 6-8 players per team. Max players up to team captain.
• Two Fast 4 Sets, w/ 7 pt tiebreaker in lieu of 3rd set, 7 point tiebreaker at 3-3, NO AD. Some sessions could include a timed match format
• Divisions: Color Ball, Coed UTR 1-2.99, 3-4.99, 5-6.99
• No max/min on gender
• Auto-scheduler generates team matchups

III: 2024 Season Dates

*Season dates may vary based on league location. Make sure to check utrsports.net for upcoming seasons.

• Spring Season: March 2 - April 21
• Summer Season: July 13 - August 18
• Fall Season: Oct 4 - November 10

IV. Registration

1. Timing: Registration must be completed on the UT website before a player’s first match is played. Coaches are responsible for ensuring their players are registered on time. Any player who plays a match before registering will put their own score and team score at risk of not counting.
2. New to UTR? If you do not have a UTR profile, you will create one at universaltennis.com/join. After that, you can register for a league session. Each player profile must use a unique email address. Parents can always add a “parent/guardian” email to their child’s account if they want to receive UTR JTT communication to an additional email address.
3. Registering more than one child: If you are a parent registering two children, each child must have their own UTR profile with a unique email address. You will log into the first child’s profile and register them for their team. Then, log out, and log into the second child’s profile to register that child to their team.

V. Rules and Regulations

1.  Age/UTR division requirements
   • Players must be under the age of 18 for full duration of the league season.
   • Divisions are based on UTR level, not age or gender.
   • If a player has a projected rating or not 100% reliable rating, it is up to their captain to decide which UTR division they belong in.
   • Within 1 match a player gets a 2 decimal rating, within 5 the rating becomes reliable.
2. Lineup - Captains Must Maintain Honest Practice
   • Captains must arrange players by UTR, high to low in order of lineup. Singles hights UTR plays line 1 etc. Doubles combined rating of line 2 must not exceed the combined rating of line 3.
     • Some discretion may be used here as ratings may be projected or not fully reliable yet.
       • Repeated lineup abuse may result in penalties for the team.
   • Locking your lineup: Captains must lock their lineup in the UTR Sports team match 48 hours before the scheduled match day. Captains may not adjust their lineup upon seeing the other team's lineup.
     • The lineup may only be adjusted after locking if a scheduled player becomes injured or sick or the difference in UTR ratings of a line is greater than 1.5-2.0 and therefore needs to be adjusted to create more level-based play.
3. Captains
   • Pre-Match and Match Day Procedures
     • Home Team Captains
       • Must verify matches with home court facility.
       • Must provide balls.
       • Must communicate with opposing team captain 5 days in advance if rescheduling is necessary.
       • Must report scores from the team match.
     • Away Team Captains
       • Must have 1 captain onsite at an away match.
       • Captains must communicate ahead of time if they will not have enough players for every line to be played in the team match.
       • Captains and players must arrive at least 10 minutes before the scheduled match time to ensure play begins on time.
4. Match Rescheduling/Rain
   • Match cancellations are highly discouraged. If a match cannot be played at its originally scheduled time, captains should work together to reschedule the match at a different date that is still within the session dates.
     • The rescheduling captain must provide at least 2 different dates/times for the opposing captain to choose from.
     • The new match date must be confirmed 48 hours before the originally scheduled team match.
     • A new match date cannot conflict with another future scheduled team match for one/both of the teams involved.
   • Rain: If there is a rain delay - please communicate with the away team captain. If play seems unlikely for the day, please communicate with the away team captain at least 4 hours in advance of the scheduled match time.
5. Coaching
   • Coaching can only come from assigned team captains to their own team players.
   • Coaching is allowed on the court between points and games but must not disrupt the natural flow of the match (25 seconds between points, 90 seconds on changeovers, 120 seconds between set breaks).
   • Coaching must not distract or interfere with the opponent.
6. Standings
   • Team Match Winner Criteria:
     • First by number of lines won.
     • If tied, the team winner is the % of games won
     • If still tied, the team winner is determined as the team who won the #1 doubles line.
   • Team Standings Criteria:
     • First by match wins
     • Ties are broken by
       • H2H record
       • Then % game won
       • Then the team that won the last H2H  
7. Parents
   • Parents are not allowed to coach players during a team match. If a parent is the team captain, they must be a listed captain on the Team Page on the UTR Sports website. If a parent is a captain, they are allowed to coach.
   • Do not talk to players while they are on the court.
8. Players
   • JTT players must understand the general flow and scoring of a tennis match.
   • Players must be of eligible age and UTR range to compete in a given session.
   • Players must adhere to good sportsmanship and behavior on the court.
   • Players are subject to the UTR Player Guidelines here.
9. Conflicts
   • Conflicts between captains must be resolved and handled with each other. Should the issue continue, please reach out to the league coordinator promptly.
   • Captains should allow players to try to resolve on-court conflicts first. If the issue is not being resolved, captains may intervene.
   • Captains should not interact with other teams’ players unless the opposing team captain has given permission.
   • Captains are responsible for the actions of their players and parents.
   • Issues with an opposing team player/parent should be brought to the attention of that team’s captain. The opposing team captain should address the issue their player/parent is causing directly with them.
   • Any parent or spectator who is not compliant or acting inappropriately may be asked to leave a match and/or banned from attending future matches.
10. Additional fees
    • Team captains may charge their team fee outside the UTR Sports session fee. Captains determine this at their discretion and it is facilitated outside of UTR Sports. All players must pay the UTR Sports session fee upon registering online.
    • UTR Sports does not cover court fees. The participating captains must convey appropriate court fees.
    • Any other additional costs teams may have outside of the UTR Sports session and league fee are not under the responsibility of UTR Sports.
11. Scoring
    • All divisions are playing 8 game pro sets in the given time based period, NO AD.
      • 5 min warm up, 30 min doubles, 5 min break. Followed by 35 min singles (lines 2 & 4) and another round of 35 minutes of singles (lines 1 & 3)

      • If players complete the 8 game pro set before time is called, the score should be entered accordingly. If the match goes to 7-7, then it will be win by two (final score 9-7). If it gets to 8-8, then a tiebreaker to 7 (win by two) is played.

      • If the set score is tied in games at when "time" is called (ie: it is 5-5 40-15 and time is called), players should finish the game to determine the set winner, so that one person leads in games (6-5).

      • If it is 5-5 and no points have been played in the game - captains can either agree to play out the next game to determine the winner or flip a coin if court time is limited.

    • Pro-Tip: Make sure to review our How To Record A Tiebreak guide to ensure the tiebreaks for your teams are input appropriately.

Captains, players, parents, and/or teams may be removed from the league at the discretion of the league coordinator. Examples of when this may occur are: failure to respect the rules and regulations above or three or more complaints against a team/player/parent/captain. Other situations may arise that can result in disqualification from the league.