The FIR World Tour Committee (WTC) organises the FIR World Tour each year, consisting of a large number of tournaments divided into the categories below (in order of prestige, tournament quality, World Ranking points, and cost).
– World Championships (singles, doubles, national teams)
– Super World Tour (SWT) “Grand-Slam” events
– International World Tour (IWT) events
– Challenger (CHA) events
– Satellite (SAT) events (new)
The FIR Race tracks which players have been the most successful on the FIR World Tour in the open, juniors and seniors singles categories. This is measured by virtue of the total number of World Ranking points won for each tournament (WC/SWT/IWT/CHA/SAT) played during the current calendar year. In order to strike a balance between player ability and any prolific level of tournament participation, a yearly cap of 8 tournaments, of which a maximum of 2 may be SAT tournaments, is set to determine the total number of FIR Race points awarded. Player standings in the FIR Race will be calculated monthly and published alongside the FIR World Rankings.
The FIR World Tour Finals is the culmination of the FIR Race, when FIR invites the top 8 Elite men and women to compete against each other in a 2-day showcase event at the end of the calendar year, after the FIR Race has been completed. The FIR World Tour Finals is considered the second most important tournament on the FIR calendar after the World Championships, and so demands a top-quality venue and organisation. Winners of the that year’s elite World Championships singles titles (men and women) automatically qualify for that year’s World Tour Finals as #1 seeds. The remaining 7 spots are selected based on the players’ final standing on the FIR Race, with the Winner of the FIR Race taking #2 seed.
The World Tour Finals will be split into two sessions, with FIR and the Tournament Director working together to ensure a well-paced playing schedule. The first, Friday Session consists of two 4-player groups for each of the men and women events. To ensure the players can complete their 3 matches in a timely fashion, yet without undue exhaustion, the new Racketlon Sprint format, with all matches stopping when one of the two players reaches 11 points, will be used.
In contrast to a standard tournament, each group will be forced to be as well-balanced as possible, by randomly splitting not only positions 1 & 2, but also 3 & 4, 5 & 6 and 7 & 8. To handle the situation where three players tie with an equal number of victories, the
Tennis will be played to completion, instead of stopping once a result has been reached, to enable a straightforward points countback to decide the final positions, should a group have 3 players with the same number of victories, rather than needing a Gummiarm Playoff.
The group stage will be played on top-quality centre court conditions, with full live-streaming/live-scoring, referees and line-judges photographer etc, and coinciding with the venue’s “Friday Racket Night” to ensure plenty of spectators.
The Saturday Session will then see the top 2 of each group going forwards to a monrad playoff stage, using traditional Racketlon scoring (21-up). The remaining players will go forward to a similar playoff for positions 5-8. The playoff stage will be carefully scheduled to ensure players have sufficient rest between games to be able to deliver their very best
performance.
The playoffs will coincide with the Swiss National Racketlon Championships, thereby ensuring an electric atmosphere and lots of applause, both during the matches and at the prize-giving ceremony. No World Ranking points are offered for the World Tour Finals, but instead a prize money pool of minimum EUR 5’000 will be split equally between men and women and divided
amongst the top-4 players. Players competing for positions 5-8 will receive consolation prizes.
What happens in the case of last-minute injuries or withdrawals? The WTC will maintain a reserve-list of the 4 next-best, available international players, and 4 national players, should any of the players need to withdraw prior to the event, to ensure the groups are full at the outset. Any injuries during the event itself will result in that player forfeiting all of their
matches, both completed and outstanding.
All information can be found here
Any questions or points to raise? Please contact us on wtc@racketlon.net. We will be delighted to hear from you.
