ATP & WTA Practice Booking Rules Explained
A clear walkthrough of how players book practice and warm-ups at ATP and WTA events: the one-slot rule, peak-hour pairing, and how the desk ranks requests.
If you have never run a tournament practice desk, the booking rules can feel like folklore. Everyone has a strong opinion and almost nobody can cite the actual guideline. This guide lays out what the ATP/WTA practice guidelines actually say, so you can answer a player's question without guessing.
The one-slot, next-day rule
The core mechanic is simple. A player books a single 60-minute practice slot for the following day. That is the unit of allocation, not blocks of hours, not standing reservations. A match warm-up is separate: it runs roughly 30 minutes and is the first priority of all, because a player who is competing that day needs court time to prepare.
What changes during peak hours
Peak hours are typically 10am to 4pm, though the exact window varies by tournament. During peak, a player may only sign onto a court with another tournament player, not with their own coach or an outside hitting partner. The intent is to make scarce peak court time go to people who actually need to prepare for matches.
How the desk ranks competing requests
- 1. Players with a match that day
- 2. Players still in the tournament with no match that day
- 3. Top lucky losers and alternates
- 4. Players no longer in the tournament
- 5. Players not competing that week
Doubles teams share a court with another doubles team during peak unless a court happens to be free. Two simple guardrails finish the picture: players scheduled first or second on a match court get priority for the last two warm-up slots, and opponents must never warm up on the same court. A rules-aware booking platform such as Maindraw encodes all of this so the desk applies it consistently instead of from memory.
Turn these rules into a live booking desk. Book a walkthrough on your own draw.