Tennis is an amazing sport to both watch and play. The other side is that for the one hundred and twenty players of each sex, who don’t make it to the quarter-finals, it is a brutal sport that “takes no enemies.”
There are seven rounds in the major tennis tournaments for the singles players of each sex, and there are six rounds for the doubles and mixed doubles players. Tennis players who don’t rank high enough to automatically qualify have the opportunity to play in three qualifying rounds.
There are one hundred and twenty-eight male and the same number of female players who enter round one of each of the four major tennis competitions in America, Australia, France, and The United Kingdom, and only half this number proceed into the second round. The rest must pack their bags and hope for better luck next time.
The Number Of Rounds In A Grand Slam Tennis Tournament
There are 128 players who qualify for the Grand Slam tournaments and It takes six rounds of the competition to find out who the two male and two female finalists are who will play in the seventh and final rounds.
The first six rounds are played over three days; the women’s finals are generally held on Saturday, and the men’s finals are on Sunday.
The doubles competition runs over six rounds, with the sixth and final being the doubles finals.
These players are assigned to the following categories.
- There are one hundred and twenty-eight women who play in round one of the singles championships.
- There are sixty-four teams who play in the doubles tournament.
- There are sixty-four teams who play in the mixed doubles tournament.
After each round of the tournament, the number of players remaining is halved. The process in the men’s and women’s singles competitions is as follows.
- There are one hundred and twenty-eight male and one hundred and twenty-eight female players who qualify and are drawn to play in round one of a grand slam championship.
- Half of these players are eliminated in round one, and half get promoted to round two.
- It means that sixty-four men and sixty four women play in the second round of the singles competition.
- Half of these are eliminated, and the number of players promoted to the third round is reduced to thirty-two men and thirty two women.
- The number of players who make it into the fourth round is again halved, and sixteen men and sixteen women enter the fourth round of the singles competition.
- Similarly, the total number of male and female players is again halved in the fourth round, and only eight male and eight female players are promoted to the fifth round (also called the quarter-finals).
- The eight male and eight female singles players are reduced to four of each sex for the sixth round of the competition, which is also called the semifinals.
- The winners of the semifinals are promoted to the seventh round, the last in the competition, and it is called the finals.
- These two winners of each sex from the semifinals play against each other to determine the grand slam competition winner.
The same process applies to the doubles and mixed doubles tournaments where.
- Sixty-four teams play in round one.
- Thirty-two teams advance to round two.
- Sixteen teams advance to round three.
- Eight teams advance to round four (the quarter-finals).
- Four teams advance to round five (the semifinals)
- Two teams advance to round six (the finals)
- The team which wins the sixth round is declared the winner of the grand slam championship.
How Do Tennis Players Qualify For The Major Tournaments?
There are also three qualifying rounds before the main draw in singles.
The players whose rankings are not high enough to qualify for direct entry to the main draw (or who don’t get in via other routes, such as a wild card) must play the qualifying tournament.
Like the main draw, each of the singles qualifying tournaments includes 128 players of each sex (and 32 seeds) who compete for the sixteen spots held open in the main draw.
It means that if the qualifying rounds are included, ten rounds make up each of the four major tournaments.
It is a very intense workload for the lesser-ranked tennis players to cope with.
You can learn more about how tennis players qualify for Grand Slams in this post.
Conclusion
There are seven main rounds in both the singles and doubles tournaments in each tennis majors competition. The total is reduced to six rounds in the doubles and mixed doubles tournaments.
In addition to the main rounds, there are three additional rounds for players whose rankings are not high enough to qualify for direct entry, giving them a chance to enter the main draw.