About the Tournament

Santa’s SleighBrawl – Official Team Match Rules

🏆 Format WE WILL HAVE COURT MONITORS ON SITE TO HELP YOU! 😊

Each team match is composed of four (4) games to 21 points:

1. Women’s Doubles

2. Men’s Doubles

3. Mixed Doubles #1

4. Mixed Doubles #2

If two teams are tied after these four games, a DreamBreaker™ will be played to 11 points (win by 1).

In the DreamBreaker, each player will play two points of singles, rotating through all four team members until one team reaches 11 points.

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👥 Players

Each team will consist of four players:

• Two (2) females

• Two (2) males

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🎯 Scoring: Rally Scoring

• A point is earned after every rally, whether won by the serving or receiving team.

• A team must win by two and on their serve — this introduces a temporary “freeze” at 20 points when the non-serving team wins a rally (their point won’t count until they regain serve).

• Trailing teams never freeze and continue rally scoring until they catch up.

• If the score is tied, rally scoring remains in effect.

• To win, a team must win by two and must have served to win.

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🪙 Coin Toss Procedure

At the start of each match, a coin toss (or similar random selection) determines initial choices.

The winner of the toss chooses one of the following:

1. To be Home or Away

2. To serve or receive first in each game

3. To choose which end of the court to start Women’s Doubles

Then the loser of the toss chooses one of the remaining options.

Finally, the winner chooses the last remaining option.

Example:

• Team A wins the toss and chooses to be Home.

• Team B chooses to receive first.

• Team A chooses the court end to start Women’s Doubles.

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🏠 Home vs. Away Responsibilities

• Home Team:

• Reacts to the Away Team’s mixed doubles lineup (the Away team declares first).

• Declares first during the DreamBreaker™ singles lineup.

• Away Team:

• Declares mixed doubles lineups first.

• Reacts to the Home Team’s singles lineup in full.

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🔁 Court End Changes

• Teams switch ends once per game — when one team reaches 11 points.

• Teams do not switch ends between games. The end where a team finishes one game is where they’ll start the next.

• If you chose to serve during the coin toss, you’ll start every game serving. If you chose to receive, you’ll start each game receiving.

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🔄 Player Rotation and Sides

• Players do not switch sides after winning points during rally scoring.

• Player A serves from the right (even) side, and Player B serves from the left (odd) side.

• Players must receive serves on their respective sides.

• Teams may switch player sides only:

• At the 11-point end change, or

• During a time-out (must be announced before play resumes).

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⏱️ Time-Outs

• Each team receives 1 time-out per game (up to 1 minute).

• An additional 1-minute time-out is allowed during the change of ends.

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💥 DreamBreaker™ Details

• Immediately following the final Mixed Doubles game, the Home Team has 1 minute to declare its full singles lineup.

• The Away Team then has 1 minute to declare its opposing lineup.

• Rally scoring continues as normal.

• Each player plays 2 rallies, then rotates (Player 1 → Player 2 → Player 3 → Player 4 → repeat).

• Players serve from the right side when their team score is even, and from the left side when their team score is odd.