The 2017 season of the World Padel Tour comes with new rules. Changes will affect the points system at tournaments, with the inclusion of the Master Final as a point-awarding event. There are also modifications in the process for devising draws, in the case of absences in a tournament. Others include medical timeouts to wild cards; from kits to new “bonuses” in the tournaments.

Following is a summary of some of these changes, but if you want to view the detailed rules, click here: http://www.worldpadeltour.com/sobre-world-padel-tour/reglamento/

• Kit

From the quarter finals onwards, the use of similar colours is recommended in 2017 and will be made obligatory as of 2018. Players are hence requested to inform their kit sponsors regarding this change.

• Participating in WPT tournaments

Signing up to tournaments is no longer limited to the top 160 players in the rankings. This enables anyone with a WPT ranking to sign up, using the rankings of different Federations as a second criterion and maintaining the limit of registered pairings (96 at Open and Challenger tournaments and 100 at Masters).

• W.O (Walk Over) – Lucky Losers

If a pair wins a match and is not able to take part in their following encounter due to an injury, they will receive their points as long as they can prove their injury through a medical justification (confirmation by a medic or physiotherapist).

Changes in the draw:

If the absence is confirmed before the start of the first match of the final round of qualifying, the following changes will be made in the main draw:

• If the notification comes from one of the top four seeds, the number 5 pairing will occupy the slot left by the pairing that has withdrawn, the number 9 pairing will take the place left by the number 5 pairing and a lucky loser will occupy the place left by the number 9 pairing.
• If the notification comes from one of the seeds from 5th to 8th, the number 9 pairing will occupy the place left by the W.O. and a lucky loser will occupy the place left by the number 9 pairing.
• If the absence is confirmed after the start of the first match of the final round of qualifying and before the start of the main draw, the pairing that has withdrawn will be replaced by a lucky loser.
• If the absence is confirmed after the start of the main draw, a W.O. will be applied.

When the lucky losers enter the last sixteen directly and lose this match, they will be awarded the points from the last 32.

• Wild Cards
• The maximum number of wild cards in pre qualifying has been increased from 2 to 4.
• Wild Cards in the main draw of overseas tournaments, must be approved by the Board.

• Limit of Challengers

The 1/16 and 1/8 finals will take place in various courts simultaneously.

-Players ranked 17th and downwards in the WPT men’s ranking and 9th and downwards in the WPT women’s ranking can sign up

-The number of Challengers that award points, are limited.

One of the main novelties in the 2017 season, will be the fact that points are handed out at the Master Final for the first time.

• Master Final: will award points.
• Master Tournaments: will awards points.
• Challengers: modified and balanced out with regards to other categories.
• Qualifiers from the pre-qualifying round will receive bonus points which will be added to the total after they claim it.

Masters: 8 points

Open: 5 points

Challenger: 2 points

• There will be bonus points for pairings that defeat a seed in qualifying:
  • 8 points in Masters
  • 5 points in Opens
  • 2 points in Challengers

The period of use of a “Protected Ranking” will be limited to a maximum of 18 months from the moment of the injury before returning to the tour.

• Medical timeout

Cuts, bruises, knocks, etc. can be attended by the physiotherapist:

• If the injury is severe- Immediately (three minutes and two timeouts of 90 seconds in the following two changes of end, except for bleeding cuts which will have a maximum of 15 minutes and accidents which occur as a result of play will have a maximum of 5 minutes).
• If the injury isn’t severe- During the change of ends at the end of a game/set (not during 1-0 in a tie break) there will be a three minute timeout and two of 90 seconds in the two following changed of end.

• Cramp:

These cannot be considered as medical timeouts, they will have a maximum of two treatments per match, only during “breaks” (from 90 to 120 seconds), and they don’t have to be consecutive.

If a player suffers intense cramp during a game he/she must wait for the change of ends. Exceeding these times will be penalised as a time warning.

Courtesy- World Padel Tour (www.worldpadeltour.com/en/)