Post season series

Preliminary rounds & final (2018)

  1. The same "rules of competition" followed during the regular season apply throughout.
  2. The teams are ranked according to the results attained during the regular season. An even number of teams play in the 2018 post season series. EX: in a level having 19 teams, only the first 18 teams play for the gold medal. LOOK up "How positions are decided in the standings".
  3. The team with the highest standing is always the receiving team. If its club cannot receive due to court availability, then the opposing team receives.

Series' format

In 2017-18 a new format took place instead of the playoffs: a post season series. The 2019 series are similar with some amendements.

The peculiarities are:

  1. An even number of teams per level will participate to have an equal number of matchs for each team. There will be no bye.
    • In 2019 levels 2, 3 & 4 will have 18 teams participating in the series. In level 1, 10 teams will compete.
  2. At least three rounds of matches for each participating team in levels 2, 3 and 4. At least 4 rounds of matchs for participating teams in level 1.
  3. At the end of these 3 or 4 matchs, the teams are ranked according to a predetermined sorting.

To qualify for the series

All players registered in the league must have played for her team a minimum number of matches during the regular season to qualify for the post season series. The byes don't count. A player has to play :

  • 6 times if a team has 20 scheduled matches
  • 7 times if a team has more than 20 scheduled matches
  • The "5.5" player must have played a minimum of 3 matches to be eligible.

Note: A match lost by retiring because of an injury does not count in the number of times played for both partners. See Rule 2.1 retired.

Finals

The finals will be played on the same day, at the same club, for all levels. The Administrative Committee of TFIM will choose this club.

The host club for the finals must allow the finalists one round of practice of two hours during the week preceding the finals. The host club sets the practice time.

During the finals, TFIM will employ professional referees for each court. In case of need, a player whose team is not competing in the finals can be a referee.

Finish or concede a match

During the series leading to the finals, the administrative committee of TFIM request that all matches be finished in the same manner as the regular season. All matches count towards the ranking.

However, the committee recognizes that it is ultimately up to the players involved to decide if they want to continue or not. To maintain our transparency and how the CRA is calculated in Tenniscores, it is absolutely necessary to have actual scores and to identify the winning team on three courts.

The following guidelines are suggested to determine the winners of a match being conceded or unfinished:

It must be decided: Which team concedes the match?
The team that concedes loses the game; the victory is awarded to the opponents.
If both teams cannot agree on who concedes the match, the game must continue to determine the winners in the same way as during the regular season.

NOTE: follow the rule of the day at the finals.

In Tenniscores:

For each finished match: The score is entered normally and the winning team is selected from the drop down menu.

For a conceded match: "not finished conceded" is entered in the COMMENTS box. The team declared the winner is selected from the drop down menu. The score for a set must be greater in number for the winners of the set. If the team who concedes was losing when stopping the score is entered as such. If the team who concedes led when stopping, they concede the number of games necessary for their opponents to have a majority of games for each set. EX: the score when stopping was 6-4, 4-2 becomes 6-4, 4-5 and 0-1.

FAQ - post season

Which team receives during the post season series?

The team that has the highest ranking at the end of the regular season will always host. The number in front of each team name signifies it's ranking at the end of the regular season.

Ball distribution

How are the balls distributed for the post season tournament?

The team that had the highest ranking, during the regular season, receives. At the captains' meeting these teams are given the balls for the whole tournament.

What is the consequence if an unqualified player is in line-up?

Rule 2.7.4 stipulates that only qualified players can play in the playoffs. You must declare a default as during the regular season if you do not have enough qualified players. Any enfringement to any TFIM rules may lead to loosing that playoff round.

How positions are decided in the standings

The standings are sorted in the following order:

1. the team that won the most matches prevails,

2. the team that has the most set points

If there is still a tie, head to head matchup between these teams and:

3. the team that has the most matches prevails,

4. the team that has the most set points.