ITF & Challenger Practice Desk Guide
Smaller-event desks run differently from the tours. This guide covers ITF and Challenger practice: shared courts, hours, ball allocation and warm-up timing.
ITF World Tennis Tour and Challenger events (think M15 to W100, or CH50 to CH175) run a leaner practice desk than the big tours, with their own conventions. If you have only ever worked a 1000-level desk, a few defaults are different here.
Shared courts are the norm
Standard practice sessions are one hour and players share courts. Rather than handing a court to a single pair, the desk routinely puts more than one player or pairing on the same court for the session. Planning around sharing, rather than exclusive use, is the key mindset shift for a smaller event.
Hours and warm-up timing
Standard desk hours run 9am to 5:30pm. Match warm-ups are 30 minutes (sometimes 45 at ATP Challengers) and are prioritised in the 1.5 hours before play, scheduled in order of play. As at every level, qualifying is prioritised over the main draw.
How requests and balls are handled
- Work requests chronologically, by WhatsApp or in person; callers are not fast-tracked
- Qualifying is prioritised over main draw
- One ball allocation per player per day
- At W50/CH50 and above, players also receive towels and electrolytes
Keep it simple, keep it fair
The smaller scale is an advantage: with one chronological queue, shared courts and a clear warm-up window, a single capable person can run the desk smoothly. The failure mode is improvising under pressure and quietly breaking the order, which is precisely what a structured tool prevents.
Maindraw supports the same rules-aware workflow at Challenger scale as at tour level, so a small desk gets the chronological queue, shared-court handling and warm-up sequencing without needing a big team to enforce them.
Turn these rules into a live booking desk. Book a walkthrough on your own draw.