British Tour

The tournaments are open age group category with a mixture of adults and juniors competing. The tournaments are grade 1 (Premier & Tier 1) & grade 2 (Tier 2) and therefore primarily aimed at players with a rating of 4.2 or better, although any rating may enter.

Both men’s and women’s singles events are run at each tournament. Most tournaments start on a Monday. Qualifying draws feed through to the main draw which usually commence on the Wednesday with the Finals normally scheduled on the Saturday. Matches are scheduled during the daytime.

In 2019 there will be some 3 day LTA British Tour events with a Thursday-Saturday, or Friday-Sunday format. These will have one men’s and one women’s draw (no qualifying event), each with a typical draw size of 28, playing a match tie-break as the final set. Match schedule – day 1 1^st round; day 2 last 16 & quarter-final; day 3 semi-final & final. Refer to tournament information specific for that event.

There will also be a 4 day event at Woking, which will operate a one day qualifying on the Wednesday, with main draw Thursday-Saturday.

 For any LTA British Tour event, please check the Tournament Schedule, or with the event referee for exact days and dates, as these may vary.

Some of the tournaments are solely an LTA British Tour competition with Men’s and Women’s Singles. However, some of the tournaments in the summer (e.g. Ilkley, Newcastle, & Sutton) are part of a larger tournament, which also offer other events (this will be viewable when entering the competition online).

Order of acceptances is based on ATP/WTA singles ranking, then ITF World Tennis singles ranking of 1500 or better*, followed by LTA rating at the entry deadline. (Open ranking will be used to determine the order of players with the same rating).

A player may request to use a protected ATP/WTA ranking for acceptance only. This request must be made ahead of the entry deadline. 

* ITF World Tennis singles ranking applies for events with an entry deadline from 1 January 2019 onwards.

Seeding in all draws is based on ATP/WTA singles ranking, then ITF World Tennis singles ranking of 1500 or better*, followed by LTA rating (and then Open ranking) at the time of making the qualifying draw (7 day rank). Once qualifying draws have been published, only in exceptional circumstances, will any players be moved from a qualifying draw to a main draw.

*ITF World Tennis singles ranking for seeding applies for draws made from 1 January 2019 onwards.

All draw sizes will vary according to the number of entries, and number of courts available at each venue.

Results from all British Tour events count towards LTA rating, LTA ranking, and Universal Tennis Rankings (UTR)

1-4 wild cards per main draw may be awarded at the discretion of the Tournament Director providing the wild card applicant is within the main draw acceptance cut-off for that tournament. In certain circumstances and if there are spaces in the main draw, this number may be increased at the discretion of the LTA British Tour Tournament Director.

A wild card may be awarded to a player who has not entered the tournament. A wild card may also be awarded into the relevant Qualifying draw, to a non-entered player of the relevant rating (open ranking), in a situation where all the originally entered players have moved into the event. In both the above instances a Wild Card may be seeded.

For wild card requests please contact the LTA British Tour Tournament Director, by Friday (midday) before the event for Main Draw, and by the withdrawal deadline for Qualifying.

Wild cards will normally be allocated in order of ATP/WTA singles ranking, then ITF World Tennis singles ranking of 1500 or better*, followed by LTA rating (LTA Open ranking will be used to determine the order of players with the same LTA rating).

*For events where the draw is made from 1 January 2019 onwards.

A separate process exists for the Tier 3 LTA British Tour FAST4 events.

The following rules apply when there is a LTA GB Pro-Series, ITF World Tennis Tour, ATP/WTA Tour and a LTA British Tour in the same week:

• If a player is in the main draw of a LTA GB Pro-Series/ITF World Tennis Tour/ATP/WTA singles or doubles they cannot compete in a LTA British Tour event in the same week.
• If a player is in the qualifying of a LTA GB Pro-Series/ITF World Tennis Tour/ATP/WTA they may also compete in a LTA British Tour event in the same week – if a player qualifies for the main draw of that event then they must withdraw (free from penalty) from the LTA British Tour. At ATP / WTA events a player losing in Qualifying still needs to be ‘released’ by the ATP / WTA Supervisor.
• A player must have lost in the qualifying of the ITF/ATP/WTA event, before playing their first match in the LTA British Tour.

It is the player’s responsibility to contact the relevant LTA British Tour event.

All singles matches are the best of 3 tie break sets (unless otherwise stated), with the exception of the 3 day events. The 3 day events will play a match tie-break to 10 at one set all. A small number of finals will be appointed a chair umpire to officiate the match. A referee will be on-site for the duration of all tournaments.

With the exception of a player who withdraws because they are competing in the main draw of a LTA GB Pro-Series/ITF World Tennis Tour/ATP/WTA event, all other players withdrawing after the withdraw deadline will receive late withdrawal points.

A leaderboard will operate for LTA British Tour tournaments. The points allocated to each tournament follow the LTA British Tennis rankings point’s distribution for grade 1, 2, & 3 tournaments, with enhanced leader board points for a player reaching the last four of a Premier Tier. Only main draw points count towards the leader board (see below). Points gained from ALL LTA British Tour events played count towards the Leader Board. This breakdown is as follows:

Points allocated for leader board positions will fall in line with the LTA ranking’s points for grade 1, 2, & 3 events. Player’s reaching the last 4 of a Premier Tier event, receive 1.5 the number of points of a grade 1 event.

Points are assigned to the losers of the round indicated above. A player needs to have played and won a match to receive points allocated for losers of last 16, and beyond.

See LTA British Tour Masters information, for how players qualify for the year end Masters.

Equal prize money is available in men’s and women’s main draws.

By entering a LTA British Tour event, a player is expected to be available to compete in each part of the event which they progress to. If a player is unable to start a match or withdraws from a match (including due to a prior commitment), the LTA British Tour Tournament Director may decide to withhold all or part of any prize (including any prize money) won by the player. Where the LTA British Tour Tournament Director decides to withhold any prize pursuant to this paragraph, they will notify the player as soon as practicable. The player may appeal against the Tournament Director’s decision by providing written notice of the appeal, with details of the evidence that will be provided in support of the appeal, to the LTA Disciplinary Officer (at ltadiscipline@lta.org.uk) within 72 hours of receipt of the notification of the decision to withhold all or part of the prize.

In addition, where a club has increased the prize money, the club and tournament may withhold all or part of this additional sum.

The Prize money break down for 2019 is as follows:

*Prize money for Premier Tier events has been increased for 2019.

There are some events which have increased the prize money stated above e.g Penarth in May, Newcastle & Sutton in August.

Wild cards to the main draw of LTA GB Pro-Series tournaments will be available to British players through winning one of the following Premier Tier events, with the runner up receiving a wild card into qualifying.

The wild card is specifically linked to the swing of GB Pro Series event’s outlined below:

• British Tour Loughborough (January) to GB Pro Series $25k events in February (weeks 7&8)
• British Tour Bolton (March) to GB Pro Series Sunderland $25k 8-14 April (week15)
• British Tour Nottingham (July) to GB Pro Series $25k events (weeks 31 & 32 - 29 July & 5 August) 
• British Tour Paddington (September) to GB Pro Series $25k event (week 39 - 23 September)

Players need to make a timely request, to the appropriate person in the LTA Men’s / Women’s Performance Team. Which event the wild card is awarded, is at the discretion of the LTA Men’s / Women’s Performance Team.

Two wild card slots in the men’s and two in the women’s event will be allocated to the top two players on the LTA British Tour leader board on Friday 7 June 2019. If not required by the player in 1^st or 2^nd position on the leader board this will be offered to the 3^rd placed player only. If the wild card is then not taken up it will be released. Players still need to sign in.

In 2019, the male and female players who finish top of the Leader board, after the LTA British Tour tournaments staged during 2019 (excluding the Masters), will receive a Bonus Pool payment of £500.00.  Where there are two or more players at the top of the Leader board on the same number of points, the £500.00 Bonus Pool payment will be equally shared.