The wrong ones cost you weekends, money and your child's appetite for the game. PlanMyCircuit shows you what each one is worth before you enter.
Every event weighed on ranking value, draw format, true cost and the load it puts on your player.
"Tournament selection is the first place families make avoidable mistakes. The instinct is to enter as many events as possible, assuming more competition equals faster improvement. It doesn't."
Tennis Central
One screen shows where the season stands. The other shows what to enter next.
| Event | Difficulty | Ranked above | E[pts] | Score | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Waco Spring Open L5 · 100 mi · $245 · compass |
Competitive | 4 / 24 | 147 | 92 |
| 2 | Austin City Championships L6 · 8 mi · $95 · compass |
Easy | 2 / 18 | 61 | 74 |
| 3 | San Antonio Open L5 · 80 mi · $190 · knockout |
Hard | 11 / 20 | 62 | 51 |
| Austin City Championships $95 ÷ 3 matches · compass |
$32 | |
| Waco Spring Open $245 ÷ 3 matches · compass |
$82 | |
| San Antonio Open $190 ÷ 1 match · straight knockout |
$190 |
| Expected points | 147 | |
| Guaranteed matches | 3 | |
| Field fit | seed 3 of 8 | |
| Cost efficiency | $245 | |
| Schedule fit | no clash |
Run this on your own season.No credit card required.
Request AccessEach of these decides whether a weekend was worth it, and most families only find out on the drive home.
A USTA standing counts only the six best results from the last twelve months. A new result is worth nothing unless it beats the sixth one, and a Level 6 title tops out at 95 points while a Level 5 quarterfinal pays 105.
PlanMyCircuit works out your player's current sixth-best result, then shows what each event you are considering would actually add.
Entering above your player's level burns money and confidence. Entering below it spends a weekend that could have moved a standing. Both mistakes cost the same Saturday.
Each event carries the points it would pay on a good weekend and on a poor one, so the choice rests on a number.
Draw size tells you very little. A straight knockout can be over in one match, while a compass draw guarantees three and a consolation format guarantees two. A long drive for a single match is poor value however big the draw.
The draw format is read for every event, which gives the minimum matches and what each of them costs.
Resistance to practice, emotional swings around match results, and performance sliding despite steady training are the warning signs. Overscheduling causes them. One tournament every two to three weeks in peak season, with four to eight week blocks off, is the pace that prevents them.
The year is mapped as entries are committed, and a stretch of calendar that asks too much of your player is flagged before it arrives.
An out-of-town event adds $300 to $500 on top of a $40 to $80 entry fee once you count the hotel, the fuel, tolls, parking and food.
PlanMyCircuit prices the whole weekend for every event on the list, so they compare on what they actually cost.
National events mean flights, extra hotel nights, and Fridays out of class that nobody budgets for.
The school days each trip takes are counted before the entry is committed.
Every event ends on a score out of 100. Five things decide it, and they do not count equally.
What the event would add to the standing, measured across every way the draw could run.
The minimum number of matches the draw format gives your player, whatever happens in the first round.
How many entrants stand above your player on the current list, and where that puts them in the seeding.
What the whole weekend costs, set against the matches it guarantees.
Entry deadlines, school days lost, and whether the level fits the season so far.
Every event gets the same three questions answered before your child is entered.
A standing counts only six results, so a title can be worth nothing while a quarterfinal somewhere else moves the number. Every event carries what it would actually add.
The entry fee is the smallest part of it. Fuel, the hotel nights the schedule forces, meals and school days all count, and the total is set against the matches the draw actually guarantees.
Level, timing and load are weighed against the year so far. Every option ends on a single score, and you can see exactly what produced it.
A single price for the full season, with no per-event charges.
Billed once per season.
No credit card required to request access.
Access is opened in small groups so that every family gets proper attention. Requesting it takes thirty seconds.
Access to PlanMyCircuit, free to request and with no card. For any event you are weighing you get what it is worth to your player, what the weekend costs, and how it fits the season.
Access is opened in small groups so that every family gets proper attention through a full season. The rate you sign up at also stays yours for as long as you use it.
$79 per season, billed once. Requesting access is free and does not require a card.
Competition and training camps commonly run a family between $5,000 and $25,000 a year, and all-in figures including year-round coaching run higher still. An out-of-town weekend typically adds $300 to $500 on top of the entry fee. Most of it is travel rather than tennis, which is why which events you enter matters as much as how many.
Ten to twenty a year is common for competitive juniors, which works out to roughly one every two to three weeks in peak season with four to eight week blocks away from competition. Push past that and the warning signs show up: resistance to practice, mood swings around results, and performance sliding while training has not changed.
Enter above your player's level and you spend money and confidence. Enter below it and you spend a weekend that could have moved a standing. The useful test is what a realistic result at that level would add once your six best results are accounted for, which is exactly what PlanMyCircuit works out for each event you are considering.
A national standing is the sum of your six best singles results from the last twelve months, plus fifteen per cent of your six best doubles results, plus bonus points for beating ranked players. Because only six count, a new result is worth nothing unless it beats your current sixth best. That is why a Level 6 event, which tops out at 95 points, can be worth less than a single quarterfinal at Level 5, which pays 105.
Entry fee, distance and drive time from your home base, fuel, the hotel nights the schedule actually forces, and meals. Flights are counted where driving does not make sense. What you see is the cost of the weekend, not the number on the entry form.
The full USTA junior structure, from local Level 6 and 7 events up to national Level 1. The published points schedule for the level and draw format is applied to every event.
Yes. School terms, other sports seasons and family travel are treated as blackout dates, and any event that lands on one is flagged before you enter rather than after.
Everything recalculates as new results come in. Your sixth-best also moves as old results expire after twelve months, so an event that was not worth entering in January can be worth entering by March.
Indirectly. Entering events that fit the level and produce results is what builds a record worth showing, and staying fresh enough to keep producing them matters just as much. PlanMyCircuit helps with entry decisions. It does not contact college coaches for you.
No. A USTA level is enough to work from, and UTR is not required at any point.
No. It is used to reach you about your access, and nothing else.