Can Excel schedule a tennis tournament with functions?

**bmirish898** · 01-21-2012, 07:35 PM

I am trying to schedule the tournament using IF functions, but there are just so many variables. I want it to work for between 8 and 32 players and between 6 and 25 courts. You would then enter the start and end time for each day (5 max). Accounting byes and 8 different age brackets, is it possible for excel to schedule a tournament following these restraints?

**MarvinP** · 01-21-2012, 08:05 PM

Hi bmirish898 and welcome to the forum,

I've got a lot of experience with this topic, having done it in the early 1980's before Excel.

It seems to me you need to create a draw sheet by placing the ranked players so they don't meet each other too soon. After the ranked players are put at opposite ends of the draw sheet you can do a random draw for placing unknown players and Excel can help with that.

Having played a lot of tennis, a match can take anywhere from a half hour to more than 3 hours. I don't see how you can get around this problem with a schedule. More important for the tournament is to put the best matches on the courts with the most seats. You want the good matches to have more spectators.

To be more help I/we would need a sample spreadsheet of what you have to see if it can be improved.

I imagind a system that is a "Take a Number" type of scheduling. Players would check in and be introduced to their opponents. They would then be given a number for next court to be assigned. You might want to modify this system by putting better matches on courts with more seats.

**martindwilson** · 01-21-2012, 09:05 PM

this was of course before marvin retired with bad knees and tennis elbow,but i think the brain is still ticking over ok.

**MarvinP** · 01-21-2012, 09:58 PM

@Martin,

So right you are about my knees. I got two full knee replacements in 2011 after not playing tennis for 10 years. I've learned how to play golf now.

In 1983(?) I ran the San Jose Raquet Club Jr Tournament using my HP-85 computer. We had age groups of 12, 14, 16 and 18 Boys and Girls, Singles and Doubles. I was in charge of the consulation draw where you needed to lose a match to get into it. We had about 35 courts at 3 different sites. This was a national junior ranking tournament so it was a big deal back then. I printed out mailing labels with opponents each night and we stuck them onto 3x5 cards and used them to match opponents, assign courts and report scores back to the main desk.

Because Tennis, unlike many other sports, doesn't have a time limit; scheduling based on how long a match takes is a problem. A bigger problem is trying to schedule a doubles match for a player after s/he has played a singles match. The good news is that less and less players have this problem after a few rounds of a single elimination draw.

I do miss tennis AND getting old is the pits!!