Standard point-a-rally scoring (PAR) to 11 points will be used in all accredited tournaments. All matches in accredited tournaments are best-of-5 games.

Referees should know and understand all World Squash Federation Softball Singles Rules. National Championships require that players take and pass the Full Club Referee exam that is available on your US Squash profile.

In all US National Championships, players are responsible for refereeing and marking. Players must be ready and present immediately following the completion of their match. While the losing player must remain at the court to time the four-minute warm up, the winning player may go to the tournament desk to turn in their score sheet and obtain the score sheet for the next match on their court if digital scoring is not being used.

A player not fulfilling their refereeing responsibilities may lose his or her current US Squash referee certification and may not be allowed to continue participation during a tournament.

A minimum of 3 scheduled matches will be provided for all players in National Championships. Club tournaments are recommended to schedule a minimum of 3 matches. Players are expected to complete all scheduled matches. If a player abandons a tournament, they may forfeit a tournament deposit at the discretion of the Tournament Director.

Late withdrawals may result in some players receiving less than 3 matches.

Tournament Directors are recommended to schedule a maximum of 2 matches per day.

For all events, players are recommended to have a minimum of 3 hours between scheduled match start times.

In any given draw, players will likely be seeded in order of their US Squash Rating.

For all events, randomized seeding groups are used: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5-8, 9-12, 13-16, 17-20, 21-24, 25-28 and 29-32. Players in each seeding group are drawn at random to fill the positions on the draw for those groups.

For National singles events, all withdrawals after the entry deadline are considered late withdrawals. As such, entry fees and any deposits will not be refunded. If necessary, draws will be reseeded to maintain the integrity of the draw. Within the 24-hour window of the start of a tournament, no reseeds will be processed. Accredited tournaments are encouraged to apply this policy at the discretion of the Tournament Director.

Any player who is registered for a tournament and does not show up to play is also considered a late withdrawal. Late withdrawals from National Championships may result in a player forfeiting a tournament deposit.

The tournament director may default a player if that player has not arrived on court by 15 minutes after the scheduled match time. Players who default a match in a tournament also default subsequent matches. Players may be permitted to continue in the tournament at the discretion of the tournament director. In making these decisions, the tournament director will take into consideration the level of communication with the player, court availability, and any other relevant specific factors. In no case is the tournament director obligated to make special accommodations for a player.

Players are expected to arrive at each tournament with the intention of playing and completing all scheduled matches. Any player deemed to have needlessly defaulted out of a tournament will receive a mid-tournament default which may result in any deposit not being refunded.

If a player begins a tournament but is unable to complete all scheduled matches due to illness or injury, the mid-tournament default can be waived with a doctor’s note. The doctor’s note must be submitted via email to tournaments@ussquash.com within one week of the last day of the tournament. The doctor’s note cannot be submitted by a family member and must be from an independent source.

In some cases, a tournament director may choose to combine age divisions due to low entries or other extenuating factors.

EXAMPLE: If the Men’s 55+ receives 5 entries and the Men’s 60+ receives 2 entries, the tournament director may choose to combine the 55+ and 60+ divisions into a single 55+ division. All players must be age eligible for a division from the first day of the of the tournament.

NOTE: If a tournament director needs to combine a skill level division, players will only be eligible to compete in a skill level higher than their own. E.g. if a 3.67 rated player is the only person signed up for the 4.0 division, they will only be able to be combined into the 4.5 division and cannot compete in the 3.5 division.

In the event of a tie in a round robin draws, finishing positions are determined based on the following criteria, which are applied in sequential order until the tie is broken.

• Most Matches Won
• Fewest Matches Lost
• Most Games Won
• Fewest Games Lost
• Percentage of Points Won

National Championships entries close Wednesday 1.5 weeks before the start of the event at 12pm in the time zone of the tournament. For accredited play, a tournament director can decide entry deadline at his or her discretion.

A minimum of 3 players is required to be an accredited division and tournament directors may combine divisions to reach this minimum.

Players must be age eligible as of the first day of tournament play.

The tournament director may allow players to participate in multiple divisions, however, players must be prepared to play all matches at their scheduled times and accommodations by the tournament director should not be expected.

US National Championships do not allow play in more than one division unless specifically stated. US Squash reserves the right to enter a player in more than one division to fill out an entry list.

The waitlist is released by tournaments after the registration deadline to confirm the final player entry list, and to indicate which players have been placed on a waitlist in the event of oversubscribed divisions. The waitlist is available for view from the entrant page of the tournament listing.

If there is an available playing position in a division, a player will be moved from the waitlist onto the main draw. 

Start times for all US National Championships will be released 5:00pm in the time zone of the tournament on the Monday before the start of the event.

For all events, online draws will be available by 5:00pm in the time zone of the tournament on the Wednesday before the start of the tournament.

The US Squash rating algorithm uses all matches from the previous 45 months in the US Squash database to calculate a relative measure of each player’s ability. Your rating is a great way to compare your level against friends and competitors, find a match against some of similar level, or track your improvement over time!  You can read more about the algorithm by clicking here.

The tournament calendar is designed to give players of all skill levels the opportunity for fun and competitive play.

Players of any rating and ranking may apply for entry into any level of tournament.  However, some tournaments may be restricted in size due to demand or court restrictions.

Players can only compete in a skill division higher than their current rating (e.g. a player rated 3.2 can enter 3.5 division or higher but cannot enter the 3.0 division)

In order to receive an age group or skill level ranking, members are required to:

– Have an active membership paid through date
– Have a gender selected
– Have an accurate birth date in the system
– Play an accredited match in the system within the last 12 months (tournament, league, box league, or ladder – note that friendly club matches are not included)

Age groups will display only the ages in the direct category. For example, 40+ will only show 40-44 year olds, regardless of skill rating.

End of Season rankings take into account any matches played between June 1 and May 31 during the current season.  In order to receive an End of Season Ranking, players must have a current membership as of June 1 in the current season and meet the exposure and match counts for a given division as described below:

Exposures:

• Tournament Exposures
• Skill Level exposure: competed in a skill level division (e.g. M2.5)
• Age Division exposure: competed in an age division (e.g. W40+) If a player competes in an age division younger than the one for which they currently qualify, they receive exposure credit in the division in which they competed, and their current age division. For example, if a 51 year-old man competes in a 40+ tournament, he would get one exposure credit towards the 40+ age division, and also 1 towards the 50+.

NOTE – in this case, even though receiving credits in two divisions, it would still count as only one toward the total exposure count

• Team tournaments (e.g. Howe Cup) count as a skill level exposure, NOT a league exposure
• League/Ladder exposures
• Any league (box or team) or ladder where the player competed in at least 4 matches counts as 1 exposure. Only 1 exposure is allowed per league. For example, if a player competed in 12 team league matches in the same league season, that is still only 1 exposure, not 3 exposures