Tournament structure, ranking and seeding systems, planning and competitive success in tennis : a systematic review

Crespo, Miguel (author), Martínez-Gallego, Rafael (author), Germič, Aleš (author), Filipčič, Aleš (author)

This systematic review examined the structure of tennis tournaments and their impact on player development and success. A systematic search was conducted in September 2025 according to the PRISMA guidelines. The review summarizes the literature from various sources (Web of Science, PubMed, and SportDiscus) using the following keywords: (‘tournament ‘OR ‘competition’ OR ‘event’ OR ‘structure’) AND (‘ranking’ OR ‘rating’) AND ‘tennis’ NOT ‘table tennis’. The initial search yielded 363 articles. After screening, 14 articles were selected for analysis. The articles were categorized into four subject areas: success of tennis players, tournament structure, periodization and performance of athletes, rankings, and seeding systems. The results showed that early entry into professional rankings and sustained performance are closely linked to long-term success. Junior ranking was a consistent predictor of later professional success. Nations with more professional tournaments produced more players with international rankings, emphasizing the importance of competitive opportunities for player development. Studies on scheduling emphasized the role of tournament volume and periodization, with more successful players moving from junior to professional tournaments earlier. Research on rankings and seedings has confirmed their strong predictive and evaluative roles in tournament structures. This study provides insights for tennis stakeholders who want to optimize competition and training systems and promote the development of tennis players worldwide.

• Language: English
• Keywords: sport, competitions, junior, professionals, tennis
• Work type: Article
• Typology: 1.02 - Review Article
• Organization: FŠ - Faculty of Sport
• Publication status: Published
• Publication version: Version of Record
• Year: 2025
• Number of pages: Str. 33-47
• Numbering: Vol. 4, iss. 6
• PID: 20.500.12556/RUL-184481
• UDC: 796.342
• ISSN on article: 2796-0048
• DOI: 10.24018/ejsport.2025.4.6.9262
• COBISS.SI-ID: 268769795
• Publication date in RUL: 08.07.2026

Record is a part of a journal

• Title: European journal of sport sciences
• Shortened title: Eur. j. sport sci.
• Publisher: European open science
• ISSN: 2796-0048
• COBISS.SI-ID: 268766979

Licences

• License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0, Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International
• Link: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/
• Description: A Creative Commons license that bans commercial use and requires the user to release any modified works under this license.

Secondary language

• Language: Slovenian
• Keywords: šport, tenis, tekmovanja, mladinci, profesionalci

Projects

• Funder: ARIS - Slovenian Research and Innovation Agency
• Project number: P5-0147
• Name: Kineziologija monostrukturnih, polistrukturnih in konvencionalnih športov