Rules of Soft Tennis

Rules for Operations of Competitions

Allocation By Block of the Seeded

Chapter 1 General Rules

(Purpose)
1
1. This Rules shall be intended to provide the matters required for operations of soft tennis competitions ( hereinafter "Competitions").
2. A managing organization which is entrusted with operations of the Competitions by a host federation and a managing federation
(hereinafter called the "host/managing organizations) shall conduct the operations based on this Rules in principle.

(Guide to Competitions)
2 The host/managing organizations shall prepare a guide to competitions and inform them to all the particitants in advance.
The contents of the guide to competitions shall be as follows in principle.
(1) Name of Competition
(2) Name of Host Organization
(3) Name of Managing Organization
(4) Name of Cooperative/Supporting Organizations
(5) Period of Competitions
(6) Venue
(7) Place of Competition
(8) Items of Event
(9) Schedule of Competitions
(10) Qualification of Participants
(11) Method of Entry (including Changes of Players after Entry)
(12) Rules for Competitions & Supplementary Regulations
(13) Method of Competitions and Determination of Ranking
(14) Preparation of Draw
(15) Conditions for Participation
(16) Balls and Other Equipment/Facilities
(17) Doping
(18) Medical Care
(19) Security
(20) Commendations
(21) Expenses for Participants
(22) Managers' Meeting

Chapter 2 Competiton Facilites

(Competition Facilities)
3 The competition facilities shall be as follows in principle.
(1) The competition facilites shall include soft tennis courts and othe facilities (net, net posts and umpire's chair) and equipment (fences,
benches, score boards, seats for spectaors, lavatories, players' waiting rooms, changing roos, seats for competition officials, distinguished
guests, reporters and medical care, court brushes, line brushes, flag poles, showers and drinking water tanks, etc.)
(2) One court of the courts shall be designatd as the main court. The main court shall preferably be independent from the othe courts and have
spectators' seats
(3) The surface of court and out-court shall be clay, sanded artificial turf (grass) or all-weather chemical for outdoor courts, and wooden board,
hard rubber or chemical for indoor courts. It shall be so written in the Guide to the Competitions.
(4) The courts shall be suffucient in number to complete all competitions depending on the scale of competitions or expected schedule.
(5) The place of benches in the courts shall be set in the outcourts to the extent that no hindrance to the play shall be caused.

Chapter 3 Competitons

(Items of Event)
4 The events of the competitions shall be decided by the host/managing organizations among from the events provided below and shall be written clearly
in the guide to the competitions.
(1) Individual doubles for men and women
(2) Indicidual singles for men and women
(3) Individual mixed doubles
(4) Team competitions for men and women

(Schedule of Competitions)
5 The schedule of the competitions shall be decided by the host/managing organizations and shall be written clearly in the guide to the competitions.

(Qualifications for Participation)
6 The qualifications for participation shall be decided by the host/managing organizations and shall be written clearly in the guidlines to the competitions.

(Entry)
7
1. The method of entry shall be decided by the host/managing organizations and shall be written clearly in the guide to the competitions.
2. Change of player(s) after entry shall not be allowed in principle except for the case where its approval is given by the host/managing organizations.
In this case, the host/managing organizations shall clarify this in the guide to the competitions.

(Special Cases Applicable to the Rules for Competitions)
8 The competitions shall be operated by the Rules for Competitions of Soft Tennis (hereinafter called the "Rules for Competitions") and the Rules for Umpiring of Soft Tennis (hereinafter called the "Rules for Umpiring") in principle, but the host/managing organizations may set up spacial cases as provided below. In this case, however,
the host/managing organizations shall write so clearly in the Guideto the competitions.
(1) Concerning the Rules for Competitions and the Rules for Umpiring, in the case where the domestic rules (so called "local rules") stipulated by the national association are available, such domestic rules may be applicable to the national competitions, etc.
(2) In the team competitions, one manager or coach shall be included in a team. In this case, the manager or the coach shall be regarded as one of the players of the team.
(3) In the team competitions, members of the team may enter into the permitted place in the court and may give advices or certain treatments for the phisical accident under the conditions provided in the Rules for Competitions.

(Method of Competitions)
9
1. The competitions shall be performed by one of the methods provided below, and it shall be decided by the host/managing organizations and be written
clearly in the Guide to the competitions.
(1) Tournament System (The final winner in the knockout system shall be the first place winner and the subsequent winners
shall be determined in the same method.)
(2) Round Robin System (All players or pairs shall compete each other and the ranking shall be decided by the method stipulated separately.)
(3) Conbination of both systems of the tournament and the round robin (Combination of the two systems of (1) and (2) above, depending on the scale of participantion)
2. The method of team competitions shall be as provided below:
(1) In either of tournament or round robin systems, the matches in the odd number shall be played in the order submitted in advance and the team which has won more wins has won more than the opponent shall be the winner of the tie
In this case, a tie shall consist of matches of singles or doubles or the combibnation of these two, and all the matches of the tie shall be played in principle. However, by the decision of the host/managing organizations, there may be the case where the team which has won more than one half of the matches in the tie shall be determined as the winner and the remaining match(es) shall not be played.
(2) In case of causing shortage of team members in a team, if the team can play more than one half matches of the tie, the team can take part in the competition with approval by the referee and the responsible competition official. In this case, however, the matches shall be played starting with first match in accordance with the order submitted in advance, and the match(es) which can not played because of the player shortage shall be dealt with as default.
3. The number of games in a match shall be decided by the host/managing organizations and it shall be informed clearly to the participants in the guide to the competitions, etc.

(Ranking in Round Robin Competitions )
10 The decision of ranking in the round robin shall be made by the methods as follows:
(1) Where two teams have the same win ratio, the winner of the competition between the two shall be ranked higher..
(2) Where three or more teams have the same win ratio, their rankings shall be determined by a comparison of the win ratios in the competitions between the three or more teams, and the team which has gained a higher win ratio shall be ranked higher.
(3) Where the method in (2) above cannot be implemented, rankings shall be determined by a comparison within the competitions between the teams with the same win ratio, firstly of the number of games won minus the number of games lost, secondly of the number of points won minus the number of points lost and a player or a pair who has gained a larger positive differential shall be ranked higher. In the tem competition, rankings shall be determined by a comparison, firstly of the number of matches won minus the number of matches lost, and secondly of the total number of games won minus the total number of games lost, and thirdly of the total number of points won minus the total number of points lost, and the team which has gained a larger positive differential shall be ranked higher.
In the case where such results of two teams are the same, Item 10(1) above sahll be applied.
(4) Where the method (3) above is not applicable, the host/managing organizations shall be allowed to determine the rankings by draw or other appropriate method.

(How to Deal With Default in Round Robin Competition)
11 In the case where player(s) or pair(s) has(have) retired before the completion of the round robin in a team compeetition, the treatment shall be as undermentioned. In the case, undermentioned. In the case, however, where some other method decided by the host/managing organizations in advance is in place, the decision by this shall be applied firstly.
(1) In the case where more than one half of the players in a team have retired, the team shall not be able to to continue the competition. In this case, all the results of the preceding matches shall be disregarded, resulting in the team's loss of the tie by a zero score retroactive to the first match of the tie. In the case, however, the retirement has been detemined under Articles 39 of the Rules for Competitions and 18 of the Rules of Umpiring, the results so far made in the tie shall be kept effective.
(2) In the case where less than one half of the players in a team have retired in a tie, the team shall be allowed to continue the competition with an approval of the referee and the responsible competiton official. In this case, the match(s) not played because of the retirement shall be regarded as lost by by a zero score.
(3) In the case where a player or a pair is not able to continue the match for some reason before the completion of all matches in the round robin in the individual competition,
the result of all the preceding matches shall be regarded as lost by a zero score. Iin the case, however, where the retirement has been determined under Articles 39 of the Rules for Competitions and 18 of the Rules for Umpiring, the results so far made before the retirement shall be kept effective.
(4) In the case of coming back to the competition again after the retirement in the individual competition, the player or pair shall be allowed to continue the competition with an approval and directions of the referee and the responsible competition official. In this case, the result of match(es) not played shall be regarded as lost by a zero score.

(Retirement)
12 In the case applicable to Articles 39 of the Rules for Competitions and 18 of the Rules of Umpiring, the opponent shall be regarded as won the match. In this case the points and In this case, points and games so far won by the loser shall be kept effective.

(Disqualification)
13
1. In the case applicable to Articles 42 of the Rules for Competitions and 21 of the Rules of Umpiring, the disqualification shall be applied retroactively to the first match of the competitions. The ranking gained by such a disqualified player shall be kept vacant.
2. A team whichccomes under the preceding article in a team competition shall be disqualified.
3. In a tournament system, a player, pair or team defeated by the disqualified player, pair or team shall not be able to come back .

(Draw)
14 The draw shall be decided fairly by the host/managing organizations in accordance with the following criteria in principle.
(1) Tournament System
a. In the case where the number of participants is the n'th power of 2 like 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 128, 256, 512 , the draw and the seeds shall be determined as shown below.
determined as follows:

b. In the case where the number of participants is not the number of n'th power of 2 (base number), the base number which is the nearest larger number to the number of participantrs minus the number of participants shall be the number of byes, and the number of participants minus the numbers of byes shall be the number of the first round players.
In a draw chart, the number of participants shall be divided into two, four or eight, and in the case of the odd number of participants, the odd number of participants shall be allocated to the block for .
to a block with a higher seed. In the case where one block consists of three participants, a player seeded higher in the block shall be allocated a bye.

(2) Round Robin System
a. Participants shall be divided into two or more blocks depending on the number of participants, if appropriate.
b. The seeding of all participants and a draw shall be decided in the same manner as in the tournament system and the applicable number of participants for each block shall be decided according to the draw.
In the case where 16 participants, for example, are devided into four blocks, the seeding shall be arranged as follows:

c. Order of Matches in Round Robin System

* 3 Participants per Block 1-2, 2-3, 1-3
* 4 Participants per Block 1-2, 3-4, 1-3, 2-4, 2-3, 1-4
* 5 Participants per Block 1-2, 3-4, 2-5, 1-3, 4-5, 2-3, 1-4, 3-5, 2-4, 1-5
* 6 Participants per Block 1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 1-3, 2-5, 4-6, 3-5, 2-6, 1-4, 3-6, 2-4, 1-5, 2-3, 4-5, 1-6

The order of matches as above shall be finalized by the host organization of competitions.
(Note) In the case where the participants belonging to the same federation are allocated to the same block, a match between them shall be proceeded over the other matches regardless of the order of matches as above.

(Recording of Match Results in the Program, etc.)
15 The host/managing organizations shall describe the record of matche scores in the program in a manner as follows:
a. Game scores shall be described for individual competitions.
b. Match scores shall be described for team competitions.
c. Regarding retirement, an initial 'R' shall be noted on each comlumn of the retired in the program, etc. together with their effective scores.
d. Regarding disqualification, an initial 'D' shall be noted in the programs, etc. on the apllicable round column in
the tournament and on all the applicable match columns in the round robin.
e. In the case where any player, pair or team has changed since the completion of the program, the correction shall be made accordingly.

(Conditions for Participation)
16 All of the participants shall observe the conditions for participation decide by the host/managing organizations and specified in the guide to competitions.

(Balls for Competitions)
17 The host/managing organizations shall inform the kind of balls to be used in the competitions in the guide to competitions.

(Doping Test)
18 Implementation of the doping test at competitions, as applicable, shall be notified to the participants in the guide to competitions and the participants
shall take the doping test in accordance with the provisions specified in the guide to competitions.

(Medical Care)
19 The host/managing organizations shall take into consideration to the extent possible a medical care for players and other people concerned, and shall prepare for providing the first aid treatment in case of emergency.

(Commendation)
20 The host/managing organizations shall inform the contents of commendation in the guide to competitions.

(Expenses for Partitcipation)
21 In the case where the expenses for participation are to be charged to the participants, the detailed information on it shall be notified in the guide to to competitions.

(Repesentatives' Meeting)
22 In the case where the reperesentatives' meeting is to be held before the competitios in order to realize a smooth operation of the competitions,
the host.managing organizations shall inform the time and date, purposes and required attendants etc. of the meeting in the guide to competitions.

(Competition Officials)
23 Competition officials shall be organized by the host/managing organizations in order to realize a smooth operation of competions , by referreing to the 'Mannual for Organing Officials for Competion' which is provided separately.

(Jury)
24
1.The Jury consists of referee(s) and umpires and shall be organized by the host/managing organizations.
2. The referee(s) shall direct the umpires in conducting their fair judgment, and make an appropriate interpretation and application of the Rules for Competitons and the Rules for Umpiring.
3. In the case where there are more than one referees, one of them shall be appointed as the chief referee.
4. Umpires shall consist of one chair umpire and one vice umpire in principle and shall be organized with not less than 4 umpires in total for one court to be used for competitions in principle. The total number of umpires may be reduced, as appropriate, in the case where the host/managing organizations have decided not to place a vice umpire or to have participating players function for umpiring.
5. Court supervisors shall be allowed to be placed, as required.

Chapter 3 Other Miscellaneoius Matters

(Security)
25 The host/managing organizations shall try to keep smooth operations of and security in the competitions by issuing ID-cards to players, officials and other people concerned in principle.

(Admission Fee)
26 The host/managing organizations shall be allowed to collect the admission fee for competitions.

(Sponsors)
27 The host/managing organizations shall be allowed to have sponsors. In this case, all the matters concerning sponsors shall be decided by the host/ managing organizations.