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Nicole Veleva

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How do you enter an official tennis tournament in Spain?

Reviewed on Valid for 20269 min read

With a current licence and an iSQUAD account, you enter before the deadline in the regulations and pay before the draw. Deadlines, withdrawals and walkovers.

In this article
  1. What do you need before you enter?
  2. Where are tournaments listed?
  3. How do you enter, step by step?
  4. What happens once entries close?
  5. How do the Canary Islands and Spanish Championships differ?
  6. How do you withdraw, and what is a walkover?
  7. Common questions
  8. Sources

To enter an official tennis tournament in Spain (a torneo federado, one run under the national federation's rules) you need two things: a current licence and an account on iSQUAD, the competition platform of the Royal Spanish Tennis Federation (RFET). Entries are normally made on iSQUAD, before the deadline in the tournament's regulations. Under the RFET's technical rules, that deadline can be no later than 19:00 three days before qualifying starts. You pay the entry fee before the draw. Once entries close, the referee publishes the acceptance list, makes the draw and posts the order of play at least 12 hours before the matches.

Steps and deadlines: licence, entry deadline and fee, then the referee's acceptance list, draw and order of play

What do you need before you enter?

  • A current federation licence (licencia federativa). Organisers must turn down an entry without one, and a player whose licence is not in force when entries close is left off the acceptance list. From 1 October only the new season's licence counts: how to get one is on the page about tennis licences in the Canary Islands.
  • An iSQUAD account. The FCT asks every licence holder to register on iSQUAD, on the web or through the "RFET Tenis" app, logging in with their licence number. You upload a copy of your own ID card or passport and, if you are under 18, an authorisation signed by a parent or guardian plus a copy of that person's ID card or passport. The instructions and the authorisation form are on the FCT's iSQUAD page.
  • An event your age category allows. You can only enter the events your category is eligible for: an alevín (under-12) may play alevín and infantil events but not cadete. The full table is on the page about tennis age categories in Spain.

Where are tournaments listed?

  • The RFET calendar. The RFET's calendars page brings together the Spanish junior championships, the national junior circuits and the calendar of each regional federation, the Canary Islands included. A tournament only counts as official, and for the ranking, if it is on the RFET website at least three weeks before its main draw starts.
  • The RFET competition portal. The Portal de Competición RFET sorts competitions by federation into open for entry, in progress and coming up. On the FCT website, the "Torneos" menu leads to the Canary section of the portal through "Torneos en inscripción" (open for entry) and "Cuadros y orden de juego" (draws and order of play).
  • The tournament regulations (bases del torneo). The tournament director publishes them in advance. They say how to enter, where the draws and order of play will be posted, when and where the draw takes place, the court surface and the size of the draws. Read them before you enter.

How do you enter, step by step?

  1. Pick the tournament and read its regulations. Check the dates, the events, the entry deadline, the fee and whether there is a qualifying sign-in (turning up in person the day before).
  2. Choose your events. You can enter at most three events in one tournament, no more than two of them singles.
  3. Enter the way the regulations say, usually from your iSQUAD account or the app. The rules ask for your full name, licence number, ranking and category, the events, an email address and a phone number.
  4. Pay the entry fee. To count as officially entered you must pay before the draw, or before your first match if the organiser allows it. The RFET recommends that organisers do not count anyone as entered until they have paid and sent proof before the deadline, so pay in time; the bank details are in the regulations. Tournaments with a qualifying sign-in work differently: the qualifying entry is paid at the sign-in, not before. What fees come to is on the page about what a season costs.
  5. Beat the deadline. Each tournament sets its own, but it can never be later than 19:00 three days before qualifying starts. After that, nobody is added to the lists except wildcards and players who turn up at a qualifying sign-in.
  6. If there is a qualifying sign-in, go. Some tournaments announce an in-person sign-in (firma) on the day before qualifying, closing by 19:00 at the latest. If you entered and do not turn up, you lose your place. Players who did not enter can sign in that day, but only as alternates behind everyone who did.

What happens once entries close?

Step What it is When, under the general RFET rule
Acceptance list (lista de aceptación) Who goes straight into the main draw (DA), who plays qualifying (QA) and who is an alternate (ALT), in order of the RFET national ranking. Published after entries close. The RFET recommends leaving 48 hours between the close and the first draw.
Wildcards The organisers pick their invited players (WC). Just before the draw they will play in.
Draw Held in public, with two players, or two people unconnected with the organisers, as witnesses. The draw is put on display as soon as it is made. Date, time and place in the regulations; it should be no later than 19:00 on the day before the event. With a sign-in, the draw is made straight after it.
Order of play (orden de juego) Day, venue, time or slot ("followed by", "not before"), players and court, signed by the referee. Made public at least 12 hours before the matches.

How the draw, qualifying and seeds are put together is explained in how a junior tennis tournament works.

Check the acceptance list as soon as it appears. If you are missing from it by mistake, tell the referee straight away: once the list has been up for 48 hours, as the regulations announced, and the first day's order of play is out, you lose your place. What DA, QA, ALT, WC and LL mean is in the junior tennis glossary.

An alternate can still get in by signing in with the referee each day up to half an hour before the first-round matches and being ready to play within 15 minutes. Once play starts, you must be ready on court within 10 minutes of your match being called. At 15 minutes you are disqualified and lose the match, unless the referee takes the circumstances into account, and in the ranking a disqualification costs the same as an unjustified walkover.

How do the Canary Islands and Spanish Championships differ?

The championships also add their own entry rules:

Canary Islands Championship, singles Spanish Championships, singles (alevín to júnior)
How you enter Through the section the FCT opens on its website. Everyone fills in the form, including players who qualified through their island and wildcards. Cadete (under-16) and júnior (under-18): players enter themselves on the RFET website. Alevín and infantil: the regional federation enters its players.
Deadline Entries open at least 21 days before the start and close no later than ten days before the first weekend. Entries close 14 days before the start.
After the close Draw within 48 hours; draws and order of play posted at least 36 hours before the first match. In cadete and júnior, qualifying needs an in-person sign-in, closing at 18:00 the day before.
Fee Paid once you are accepted into the draw. None: no entry fee may be charged.

For the Canary Islands Championship you must be available on the first weekend. Who can play each championship is explained in junior competition in the Canaries and the Spanish age-group championships.

How do you withdraw, and what is a walkover?

If you cannot play, tell the organisers or the referee as early as you can, by whatever means the regulations give. Withdrawing before the draw passes your place to the next player on the list, which is what alternates are for. The RFET's technical rules do not say whether the fee is refunded after a withdrawal, so check the regulations or ask the organiser.

A walkover (W.O.) is a match your opponent wins because you do not turn up or cannot play. It has consequences:

  • Ranking: a player who loses their first match by walkover scores no points, justified or not. Each unjustified walkover also costs 30% of the points the winner of that draw collects. How those points work is on the page about the RFET ranking.
  • Prizes: an unjustified walkover forfeits any prize.
  • Fee: at the Canary Islands Championship, a first-round walkover means paying part of the fee, and nothing already paid is refunded; the figures are on the page about what a season costs.

If there is a reason for your walkover, give it to the referee with the supporting documents: the referee sends the walkover justifications to the RFET and the regional federation. For prizes, the RFET's technical rules accept an injury backed by an official medical report, or documented force majeure, as long as you paid the entry fee, and missing a match scheduled after the official dates in the regulations is not an unjustified walkover if you gave notice in advance.

Common questions

Can you enter two tournaments in the same week?

Only in set cases: one week-long tournament plus one weekend tournament, or two weekend tournaments that do not start in the same week. The RFET platform blocks a double entry that is not allowed, and a player who plays two clashing tournaments is disqualified from all of them that week and can be sanctioned.

Where do you find the draw and your match time?

Wherever the regulations say: usually on the tournament's page in the RFET competition portal, which in the Canaries is reached from "Cuadros y orden de juego" on the FCT website. The order of play must also be displayed at the venue.

What about international tournaments?

The RFET's technical rules do not cover them: the Tennis Europe Junior Tour and the ITF junior circuit have their own entry systems, explained on those pages.

Sources

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