USAPA Ranking System

Table of Contents



Introduction

The areas of this document that have already been approved by the USAPA board are indicated in dark blue print. The approval date of the board is included in green print. Comments are written in gray print and are intended to clarify rules. The latest revisions are in red print.

This document is intended to include the details of the New USAPA Ranking System which will begin on January 1st, 2007. Any qualifying tournaments having their first day of play after January 1st, 2007 will have points awarded based on this new system. This system will not attempt to track important wins and losses at present, but that will certainly change at some time in the future as our sport grows.

All tournaments will not qualify for their participants to earn ranking points. If you are planning a tournament and you want your participants to be able to earn ranking points, there a few simple things that you might be able to do. They can be found under the section in this document entitled Tournament Requirements for Ranking Points.

The Tiered Ranking Points Table is designed with the idea of it being a very flexible point system designed to give more credit to larger and more important tournaments. It is also designed with the idea of providing an incentive for the best players to appear in the most important tournaments. It also provides points, although greatly reduced for 1st and 2nd place finishers in consolation events. Each year this table will be reviewed, and any changes or additions that seem prudent for the next ranking year will be made.

There are many reasons for developing a Pickleball Ranking System. The most obvious reason is to provide recognition for Pickleball's best players in all the different age and ability group. Some day these rankings may help our younger players obtain scholarships to colleges. A less obvious but more useful reason, is that it can provide valuable seeding information to tournament directors. While seeding will never be perfect, good information usually makes it better. It also provides a means of capturing the publics attention. Everybody is more interested in going to watch a tournament if they know that the sports top ranked players will be there.



Start Date

  (Approved Oct 1, 2006)
  1. The new Ranking System shall start January 1st 2007.


Ranking Period

   (Approved Oct 1, 2006)
  1. The Ranking Period for earning points shall be 1 year and shall run from January 1st to December 31st.


Age Determination

   (Approved Nov. 12, 2006)
  1. A Player's age for the entire ranking year shall be determined by their age on December 31st of the ranking year in question.
    Comment: This will be true for all age groups. The possibility of different rules for juniors could be studied in the future.


Awarding of Points


  1. Points earned will only be counted towards rankings in the events in which they were earned.(Approved Oct 1, 2006)
    Comment: If a player has won points during the season in Men's 50+ Singles, Men's Open Doubles, and Mixed Doubles, his points will not be combined, but rather applied towards point totals in each of the three divisions.

  2. Players may only receive ranking points from playing in approved events in USAPA Sanctioned Tournaments.
    Comment: See USAPA List of Ranked Events.

  3. When age divisions are combined points will be awarded in the combined legal age division of the event. (Approved Nov. 12, 2006)

  4. Doubles Points will be awarded to each individual rather than to the team. (Approved Nov. 12, 2006)
    Comment: The End of Year rankings in doubles will be by player rather than by team.

  5. Players will not be awarded points unless they have won at least one match in the event. (Approved Nov. 12, 2006)This does not apply in round robin events in which the winner is determined by the number of points won rather than the number of matches won.
    Comment: In an event with two players, only the winning player will receive USAPA ranking points.
    Comment: In a round robin event, the 3rd place winner will receive ranking points only if they have won at least 1 match.

  6. Senior Tournaments by Ratings will have points awarded in the Senior Rating Categories.(Approved Jan 21,2007)
    Comment: Those are Senior 4.5, Senior 4.0, Senior 3.5, Senior 3.0, Senior 2.5, etc.

  7. Senior Tournaments by Age that have additional flights in some divisions of play will have points awarded only in the top flight of play. Additional flights should receive awards, but will not receive USAPA Ranking Points. (Approved Jan 21,2007)
    Comment: If for example, Senior Men's Doubles 60-64 has a 2nd flight called Senior Men's Doubles 60-64 Flight "B", it will receive normal awards, but it will receive no points from the USAPA point system.

  8. Consolation winners will have points awarded in the event they entered if it is an approved event. (Approved Jan 21,2007)


Event Eligibility


  1. In the Junior Age Divisions, players may enter any event for which they are not too old, including older age divisions. (Approved Nov. 12, 2006)

  2. In the Senior Age Division, players may enter any event for which they are not too young, including younger age divisions.
    Comment: This is a Change and becomes effective January 1st, 2008.

  3. In any USAPA Rated events for the year 2007, players are asked to self rate themselves if they are not already on the USAPA Tentative Rating List. Their final placement however, will be up to the tournament director. (Approved Jan. 21, 2007)
    Comment: A list is under development and will be posted on the USAPA web site when ready. This list is not intended to be binding, but it may be used by tournament directors if they so desire.


USAPA Ranked Events

(Approved Jan. 21, 2007)
  1. A USAPA ranked event is an event that appears on the USAPA's List Of Ranked Events. A ranked event is simply an event that the USAPA will produce rankings for at the end of the ranking year. Events which are not on this list or are not added to this list by the end of the ranking year by the USAPA board, will not produce rankings.

  2. Events may be added to the List of Ranked Events at any time by a vote of the USAPA board. Events which took place prior to approval will only be eligible for ranking points if: (1)they were played within the previous 45 days, (2)approval took place before the end of the current ranking period, and (3)the tournament was otherwise eligible for points.
    Comment 1: This vote may occur before, during, or after the event is played.
    Comment 2: Events should only be added to the list if it is expected that there will be many more such events during the remaining ranking year and in the years to come.

  3. If events are combined in a tournament because of lack of participants, the combined event must be an event for which all participants would be eligible for play in order to qualify for ranking points.
    Comment 1: If for example, Men's Doubles 50&Over, 55&Over, and 60&Over, were to be combined, the resulting event would have to be Men's Doubles 50&Over.
    Comment 2: If for example, Boys Singles 12&Under and 14&Under are combined, the resulting event would have to be Boys 14&Under


Tiered Ranking Point Tables


  (Tiered Concept approved Oct. 1, 2006)

List of USAPA Approved Events




Tournament Requirements for Sanctioning (Revised 07/26/2007)




USAPA Tournament Management Software



Other Considerations