FRIEND AT COURT 2010 - USTA.com

II. DRAW REGULATIONS
A. Seeding
While there is no requirement that every tournament have seedings, most
tournaments of the elimination and compass draw types, as distinguished from
round robins, use seedings to ensure that players of recognized outstanding
ability do not confront each other in the early rounds.
1. Responsibility for seeding. The Tournament Committee shall determine
the seedings, except that pursuant to USTA Regulation IX.A.4. the
Director of USTA Junior Competition or the Director’s designee shall seed
the USTA National Championships, USTA National Opens, USTA Boys’
and Girls’ 18 Interscholastic Championships (East/West), and USTA
Regional Tournaments after consulting with the Tournament Committee.
2. Number of seeds. The number of players seeded shall equal a power of two
(for example, 2, 4, 8, 16, or 32). The maximum ratio of players seeded shall
be one in three, except that any draw may have two seeds.
FAC Comment II.A-1: The decision on whether to round up or down to a power
of two depends in large part on the availability of adequate seeding information.
The Tournament Committee should round up to the next power of two when
adequate information is available. Examples: A draw of 24 could have either four
or eight seeds depending on the information available, but a draw of 23 could
have no more than four seeds. Similarly, a draw of 96 could have either 16 or
32 seeds, but a draw of 95 could have no more than 16 seeds. A draw of 3 or 4
could have two seeds.
FAC Comment II.A-2: ITF tournament regulations permit no more than 16 seeds
in tournaments that are part of an ITF circuit. Category I USTA Adult, Senior, and
Family National Championships in the Men’s 35-85 and Women’s 35-80 Divisions
follow the ITF tournament regulations.
3. Listing seeds. The Referee shall list the seeded players in the draw in
numerical order to the extent that the Referee has information available
to do so, and then the Referee shall list all other seeded players in groups.
For example, if the first 5 seeds are numerically seeded, seeds 6 through
8 could be grouped.
4. Seeding methods
a. All Factors Method. The All Factors Method of seeding is based on
the players’ chances of winning the tournament as determined by
the Tournament Committee. The Tournament Committee shall
consider all reasonably available information, including ranking lists,
standing lists, recent records, types of surface, and particularly
head-to-head encounters.
FAC Comment II.A-3: When using the All Factors Method of seeding, it is common
to start with a recent ranking or standing list and use other information to enhance
the accuracy of the list. The Tournament Committee shall not rely on just the
current rankings or standings. The Tournament Committee shall consider all
reasonably available information including results from unsanctioned matches. It
should take care to assure itself that all results are correct. The task of seeding
USTA REGULATIONS II.A. (Seeding) 71