How Ladr works
Play anyone, anywhere, in the format you agree on. You both tap Start and Stop on your phones, one of you adds the score, and your national rating updates. That’s it. The detail is below.
The idea
Ladr is a national amateur tennis ranking. You play locally, with whoever you like, but every result feeds one national rating.
- Your rating measures how good you are. It goes up when you win and down when you lose.
- Season One is about the rating. There’s no points race or Championship yet. Leaderboards rank players by rating, and by stats like wins, tiebreaks and comebacks.
- Playing is free. There’s no fee to join or to report matches.
Match formats
Agree the format with your opponent before the first ball, then report what you played.
| Format | Rating weight |
|---|---|
| Best of 3, match tiebreak | 100% |
| Best of 3 sets | 100% |
| 8-game pro set | 60% |
| Single set | 40% |
| Timed, Fast4 or unfinished | 0% |
Who won matters most. The game margin counts a little too (see Your rating), but a win always beats a loss.
Posting a match
- Both players track every match. When you start, one of you taps Play, picks the opponent and taps Start match. The other opens Ladr. and taps Join within an hour.
- When you finish, either of you taps Stop. The first Stop ends it for both, and Ladr. records how long you played. A match nobody stops ends itself after 5 hours.
- Then either player adds the score, set by set. The app works out the winner and the format. Add it within 7 days of the match.
- It counts straight away. Ratings, points and the leaderboard update the moment the score is in, and the match appears in the feed.
- Retirements: the player who retires loses, at that format’s weight.
- Rain-outs and abandoned matches don’t count. Don’t post them.
- Made a mistake? You can delete your post for 72 hours, then post the score again from Play.
- Your opponent must have an account. Invite them to sign up before you play.
- Think a result about you is wrong? Tell a founder, who can correct or remove it.
Your rating
- Your starting rating comes from a few questions when you sign up: the tennis you’ve played, how often, how you’d describe your level, any UTR or NTRP rating you have, and anyone on Ladr. you’re about even with. 1500 is a typical adult league player. Ladr uses Glicko-2, the system used in chess and online games.
- Next to your rating is a ± number: how sure the system is. New players start at ±250 (±200 with a UTR or NTRP), so their ratings move quickly. As you play, it shrinks and your rating settles.
- Beating a higher-rated player gains you more than beating a lower-rated one. Losing to a lower-rated player costs more.
- The score matters a little too. A win always raises your rating and a loss always lowers it, but a dominant win (6-1 6-2) moves ratings more than a close one (7-6 7-6). Every game you win in a loss softens the drop. A match tiebreak counts as one game, and a retirement counts as a plain win.
- Playing the same person over and over counts less. Your first 2 matches against someone in any 30 days count in full. After that each one counts less: the 3rd half, the 4th a third, the 5th a quarter, and so on. Play lots of different people to climb fastest.
- Every match counts in full (at its format’s weight), because both players track it on their phones.
- Time away doesn’t lower your rating. Instead your ± grows, because the system becomes less sure where you stand. A few weeks between matches makes no real difference; after a month off it starts to grow, to about ±150 after six months and ±200 after a year. When you come back your rating moves quickly again, up or down, until it settles.
- New players can’t knock your rating around. A match only moves your rating fully when your opponent’s rating is settled (±100 or less). Against someone still settling (a new player, or someone back from a long break, whose ± is well above yours) it moves yours less, and not at all at ±200 or more. Their own rating moves in full, so they find their level fast. The match still counts for wins, stats and head-to-head.
- Ratings update in weekly batches (Monday to Sunday). Matches in the same week are calculated together, so your rating won’t always move after each one.
Fair play
- One account per person, under your real name.
- Report every match you play honestly, wins and losses.
- Founders can void matches that look fake or don’t follow these rules, and can remove players who abuse Ladr.
- Unusual patterns, such as the same two players trading wins, are reviewed.