The knockout tournament, explained

Single elimination is the most widely recognised tournament format in racquet sports. Players or teams are placed in a bracket and compete head-to-head; the loser of each match is immediately eliminated and the winner advances to the next round. The tournament continues until one player remains unbeaten. This is the format used at Grand Slams, ATP/WTA Tour events, and the vast majority of competitive club championships.

Its appeal is simplicity: everyone understands it, it produces a clear winner efficiently, and it creates genuine high-stakes tension. The downside is that weaker players may be eliminated after a single match, which can feel unsatisfying at club level where the goal is often to maximise playing time.

• Players are placed into a draw of 4, 8, 16, 32, or 64 (the next power of 2 above your entry count). If the number of entries doesn't perfectly fit, byes are awarded to top-seeded players so they skip the first round.
• Seeding is used to separate the strongest players so they meet in the later rounds rather than the early ones. The top seed is placed at the top of the draw, the second seed at the bottom, and so on.
• Each round halves the field. A 16-player draw requires 4 rounds (Round of 16, Quarter-finals, Semi-finals, Final).
• The winner of the final is the tournament champion.

1. Set your entry deadline and confirm the number of players. Decide the draw size (round up to the nearest power of 2).
2. Seed the draw. Use club ratings, WTN, or recent results to rank your top players. Seed at least the top 25% of the draw.
3. Place byes. If you have 12 entries in a 16-player draw, the top 4 seeds receive first-round byes.
4. Publish the draw and notify all players of their first-round opponents, match deadlines, and any scheduling rules.
5. Set match format. Best of 3 sets is standard for a club championship. For time-limited events, consider a pro-set (first to 8 games) or Fast4 format.
6. Manage results. After each round, update the bracket and notify next-round opponents. Set clear deadlines for each round.
7. Schedule the final at a time when spectators can attend - this is the showpiece of your event.
8. Award prizes for the winner and runner-up. Consider a plate prize for the best-performing unseeded player.

The bracket, not the entry list, fixes how long the event runs. A bracket of 8 plays three rounds, 16 plays four, 32 plays five, 64 plays six and 128 plays seven: each doubling of the field adds exactly one round, so twice as many members costs one more week, not twice the season.

The match count is simpler still. Every match removes one player, so a knockout plays one match fewer than it has entries, whatever the byes. Twelve entries is eleven matches; forty is thirty-nine.

For most clubs the sweet spot is 16 to 32. A 16-draw is four rounds, which fits a six to eight week season on deadlines alone and needs no fixed dates beyond finals day; 32 covers an open event or a larger club, and 8 suits a one-day event or a small members' knockout. Brackets of 64 and 128 want several courts at once and a committee to timetable them, which is county and open territory rather than a members' championship.

The number of byes is the bracket size minus the number of entries, and nothing else. Twelve players in a 16-draw leaves four byes; twenty players in a 32-draw leaves twelve.

Byes go to the top seeds in seeding order, so seed 1 has one whenever any exist. It is a convention, not a reward: a player with a bye is not a match ahead of the field, they skip a round that only existed because the entry list did not fill the bracket, and they still have to win the same rounds as everyone else.

First-round matches follow from the same subtraction: entries minus byes, halved. If your list overshoots a bracket by one or two, chase a few late entries and fill the bigger draw rather than bolting on a preliminary round that only part of the field plays.

Seed 1 goes on the top line of the draw and seed 2 on the bottom line. That one decision is what keeps them apart until the final: they sit in opposite halves, and there is no route by which they can meet before it.

Seeds 3 and 4 take the two remaining quarters, one in each half, drawn by lot between those positions rather than assigned to them, and seeds 5 to 8 fill the remaining eighths the same way. The rule of thumb is one seed for every four lines of the draw: four in a 16-draw, eight in a 32-draw. Everybody else goes in by lot.

ClubChamps places seeds in exactly these tiers when it generates a draw, and lets the organiser drag a name before publishing, so a lot the club would rather avoid is a ten-second fix instead of a redraw.

A plate is a second knockout for the first-round losers, and the cheapest answer to the format's one real complaint: half the field goes home after a single match. In ClubChamps it is a toggle on the draw - first-round losers are offered a place, and the plate is then arranged, published and exported exactly like the main draw.

Run one and every entrant is guaranteed two matches. It also gives finals day a second trophy and an afternoon that matters to more than four people.

Feed-in consolation, where second-round losers enter the plate at a later stage, keeps more players in for longer, but it needs a bigger field to justify the bookkeeping: worth it at 32 entries and above, and below that a straight plate is plenty.

Most club knockouts are not timetabled at all. Each round carries a play-by date, the two players arrange the match between themselves before it, and the organiser books courts only for finals day. It is what lets a championship run for two months alongside a full club calendar.

Two weeks a round is the usual rhythm. One week is enough for a round with byes, where half the field is sitting out anyway.

Publish the deadline rule with the draw, before anyone is on the wrong end of it. The standard is a walkover to the player who offered dates, and both players scratched if neither did. ClubChamps stores a deadline for each round, reminds both players before it arrives, and records a walkover in one step when it passes.

Twelve entries round up to a 16-draw, which leaves four byes, and those go to seeds 1 to 4. Round one is four matches among the eight unseeded players, and the quarter finals are the four seeds against the four winners. Eleven matches in all, one fewer than the entry count, across four rounds.

The seeds sit at line 1 and line 16, with seeds 3 and 4 on lines 8 and 9, so each quarter of the draw holds exactly one of them and no two seeds meet before the semi finals.

On a two-week rhythm, round one finishes at the end of week 2, the quarter finals in week 4, the semi finals in week 6, and the final is played on finals day in week 8. Add a plate and the four first-round losers give you two matches and a plate final, small enough to finish the same afternoon.

Club championships, competitive events, larger fields where time is limited.

• Half your players are eliminated after one match. Pair with a consolation draw if you want to guarantee more playing time.
• Upsets in early rounds can mean the best players don't meet in the final. Good seeding mitigates this.
• Bracket sizes of 8 or 16 work best at club level. Anything larger than 32 is hard to schedule without fixed dates.