ITF

9 ITF Beach Tennis Tour Rules and Regulations 2015 10. Protected Ranking A protected ranking allows a player to enter an ITF Beach Tennis Tour tournament using a historic ranking position obtained by the player before they were forced to stop playing. a) Application procedure. A player may petition the ITF for a protected ranking if he/she is physically injured and does not compete in any beach tennis event, including special events and exhibitions, for a minimum period of six (6) months. The petition must be made in writing and must be received by the ITF no later than six (6) months after his/her last ITF tournament. b) Calculation and Use. The protected ranking will be calculated as the player's average ranking position for the six (6) ranking updates immediately following the player's last ITF tournament. The protected ranking will be for entry into the main draw or qualifying draw. Protected ranking is not valid for seeding purposes. c) Limit of Use. A player is permitted to use the protected ranking at any or all of the first five (5) tournaments played after returning from injury and must state their request at the time of entry. A player has two (2) years from the date of the last tournament played in which to activate (compete in first tournament) his/her protected ranking. A player has one (1) year from the date of the first use of the protected ranking in which to use his/her allocation of protected ranking entries. At each of the first five (5) tournaments played upon return, a player can choose whether or not to use the protected ranking; however, use of protected ranking cannot be carried forward to the sixth (6 th ) or subsequent tournaments). d) Request due to Pregnancy. Protected ranking requests due to pregnancy will be treated in accordance with the regulations for physical injury. In cases of requests due to maternity leave, the player must activate her protected ranking within twelve (12) months of the birth of her child. 11. Tour Structure All tournaments on the Tour are categorised into Grades which are allocated by the ITF. The tournament Grade determines the number of ranking points on offer. The following minimum prize money levels must be met to be eligible for the respective grades of tournament, however other factors will also be taken into account, as determined by the ITF. Grade US Dollars (USD) Euros (EUR) 1 $10,000 €7,500 2 $6,500 €5,000 3 $2,500 €2,000 4 Not applicable Not applicable 12. Tournament Week The tournament week runs from Monday to Sunday with the week numbers calculated in accordance with the ISO (International Organization for Standardization) definition. A tournament is deemed to be in the tournament week in which the first day of the Doubles Main Draw is played. The Doubles Qualifying, if held, must be scheduled to finish before the Doubles Main Draw is scheduled to begin.

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