Marlborough Tennis

The Fine and Country 2025 Marlborough Tennis Club championships are now open for entry. Fair Play guidance, based on Wiltshire Tennis, is here and the entry document is here.

Entry Procedures, categories and payment:

• Singles: Men's and Ladies' singles are available.
• Doubles: Entries can be made individually or with a partner for Men's, Ladies', and Mixed Doubles. We will work to find pairs where needed to encourage participation.
• Roll-Up Doubles: Players can sign up to be paired with others.  All entries will be put in a hat and names drawn to form pairs (which may be any combination of men/women, although we will try to keep it as mixed as possible). This is a more light-hearted, fun event and will run in parallel with the Club Championships – but entries will not be on the LTA system.
• Advance payment is needed and will be £10 for multiple entries and £5 for a single entry. Email your entry to compete@marlboroughtennis.co.uk by the closing date please. The payment link for the Main Champs is here. Players pay a multiple of £5 and email Compete to say which entries the payment covers.
• Improvers Doubles and singles: Subject to the number of entries, both categories will be run. Please see the website for entry requirements, league standard players are not eligible to enter. Entry will be managed by Sean Moir. For Improvers Champs use this link
• Juniors Club Championships. Two rounds will be held with the first round on 19 July and then the finals day. There is no entry fee required, and details will be on the coaching website and run by Neil Watts, Head Coach.
• Formats. For the main championships the format is the best of three sets. The third set will be a championship tie break to 10.  Juniors and Improvers championships will follow other formats as published on the website.

Club rules

• Ineligible Players: Non-members, or members who have not paid their entry fee
• Late entries for new joiners: The club will include new members where possible subject to the progress of the competition to encourage play and participation.
• Minimum entry. Four entries for event to happen (i.e. at least semi-finals and finals). Must be 13 years or older on 1st September 2025.
• Timings. Entries are open now and close on Thursday 19th June at 5 pm. Seedings will then be completed and the draw posted by Sunday 22nd June (if possible) We are aiming to have deadlines for rounds, please try keep to these. The earlier rounds may depend on number of entries and will be tweaked, if necessary, but roughly as follows:
• 1st round by 13th July / 2nd round by 27th July / 3rd round by 17th August /Quarter finals by 31sth August/ Semi-finals by 7th September
• The earlier rounds are to be arranged at mutually convenient times by the players concerned. Depending on entries it may be necessary to set deadlines for completing earlier rounds to make sure all matches can be completed ahead of Finals Day. We will advise on deadlines once final entries are known.
• Finals Day. Entrants must be available to play on the finals day. Everyone is encouraged to attend the finals on Saturday 13th September. Players should be available from 10am.
• Injury. Any player who becomes injured must notify the opposing pair immediately and organisers. An injured player should withdraw from the competition if they are unable to play for a period of ten days as a courtesy to others. This is to help maintain momentum and complete the competition ready for the final’s day.
• Tennis Balls and organising matches. Good used or new balls should be provided by the players themselves for the earlier round matches. New balls will be provided for each finals match. Players should organise their own matches via WhatsApp.

• Swapping a doubles partner. A replacement will only be allowed where the first match has not been played in the main competition, for example where a player has had to withdraw for injury. The organisers may use discretion for the plate, but not after more than one round has been played.

• Seedings. A seedings committee of at least three will sit and use relevant information about player standings including league ability, ladders, Head Coach input and the World Tennis Number (WTN) to inform seedings. Where WTN is used to inform a final decision, the WTN may have a ‘reasonable’ adjustment (i.e. matched to nearest closest player within the ‘game zone’ as defined by the ITF).  For example, this may be where the number is clearly inaccurate (for example an ‘A’ team league player has a WTN rating of 40) Note most members have the baseline number of 40.99. Seeding decisions are final.