Seven levels. Start low on purpose.

Tonight, open playtennis.com/tournaments and enter a Level 7 near you. That is the whole first move. Since January 2021 every USTA section has run the same ladder, from Level 7 (one day, close to home) up to Level 1 (the National Championships), and a level sets two things: how hard it is to get in, and how much a win or a round is worth in ranking points. A level is a scheduling decision, not a verdict on your kid. What follows is a map of the events; the only comparison that matters is still you vs your former self.

The ladder at a glance

Level	Who runs it	Length	How you get in	Champion's points
Junior Circuit	Section or district	Up to a half day	Sign up	None (by design)
Level 7	Section or district	One day	Sign up; unranked players taken first if the draw is limited	Per win: 12 a win, 8 for the champion
Level 6	Section or district	Up to two days	Open entry, any section	Per win: 20 a win, 15 for the champion
Level 5	Section or district (Closed or Open)	Up to three days	Closed is residents only; standings list or WTN may flight the draw	300
Level 4	Section (Closed or Open, fixed allotment)	Up to four days	Closed is residents only; National Standings List or a high-confidence WTN	540
Level 3	Section (Closed) or USTA (Open)	Up to four days	Closed is residents only; standings list	900
Level 2	USTA national	Multi-day	National Standings List	1,650
Level 1	USTA national	Multi-day	Standings list plus sectional quotas	3,000

Points as published in USTA's national junior points table (updated January 2025, still current for 2026). Levels 1 to 3 Open sit on the National Junior Tournament Schedule; everything from Level 3 Closed down is run by your section or district. Age divisions are 12s, 14s, 16s, and 18s.

Before Level 7: the Junior Circuit

A non-elimination round robin for all ages, up to a half day, with two to four matches guaranteed and orange, green, or yellow ball at the organizer's choice. It counts for nothing on the national ranking, which is the point. USTA's own readiness test is plain: the player can serve, keep a rally going, keep score, and has played something competitive first, such as Team Challenge or Junior Team Tennis. Players 10 and under earn PlayTracker points here.

These events exist because they are shorter, lower-stakes, and more fun than 12-and-over tournaments. Leave when your player is winning matches and wants more. Green and yellow ball results already feed the World Tennis Number once every player in the match is at least 9, so a rating starts moving before any ranking exists.

Level 7: where a first-timer starts

USTA strongly recommends starting here. One day maximum, draws that should not be capped, and bottom-up selection when a draw is limited, meaning players with no ranking are taken first. Formats you will see: round robin, round robin with a first-match consolation playoff, compass, or team. Scoring can be a single short set to 4, a 6-game set, best of three short sets, best of three 10-point tiebreaks, or timed matches of 20 minutes or more. No-ad is allowed, and green ball is allowed in the 12s.

Points are per win, not per round: 12 for a main-draw win, 6 for a consolation win, 8 for the champion and 6 for the finalist, and nothing counts past four matches in one draw. What a parent should read into that: two to four short matches against similar kids. This is where match craft is built, and the easiest place to practice two-tap tracking.

Level 6 and Level 5: the sectional middle

Level 6 runs up to two days (three with approval), is open to residents of any section, allows coed events, and adds feed-in formats. Still per win: 20 for a main-draw win, 10 in consolation, 15 for the champion, 10 for the finalist, with the same four-match cap.

Level 5 runs up to three days and is run by the section or district, Closed to residents or Open to any section; a district may hold up to two Closed District Level 5s. In elimination and feed-in draws the points switch to per round here, and the champion's 300 is the first number that looks like a result; a round robin at this level still pays per win. Events may be flighted by standings list or WTN so similar players meet.

USTA gives one rule for moving up: advance when the player is consistently winning more matches than losing. Not when a teammate moves up, and not because the next level has a better name.

Level 4 and Level 3: where entry gets selective

Level 4: like Levels 3 and 5, a Level 4 is either Closed to the section's residents or Open to players from any section, and each section gets a fixed annual allotment of each, up to four days per event. Selection is by the National Standings List or a high-confidence WTN. Proof of age and citizenship is required from here up, and wild cards are capped at 4 in a 64 draw, 2 in a 32, and 1 in anything smaller.

Level 3 Closed is the sectional championship: residents only, one or two a year per division, up to four days, draw size set by the section. Level 3 Open events are national, with up to 192 draw spots up to four times a year, plus the ITF J100s held in the U.S.; this is the first rung on the National Junior Tournament Schedule. A Level 4 champion earns 540 points, a Level 3 champion 900. A first-round loss earns nothing, and a bye is not a win.

Level 2 and Level 1: the national calendar

Level 2 is four concurrent national tournaments, four times a year, plus the ITF J200s in the U.S. and the Pan American Championships; the champion earns 1,650. Level 1 is the five USTA National Championships (Spring, Clay Court, the National Championships, Indoor, Winter) in the 18s, 16s, 14s, and 12s, plus the National Doubles, the team cups, US Open Juniors, and J300s; the champion earns 3,000. Clay Courts and the Nationals run 192 draws (128 in the 12s), Winter runs 128, Spring and Indoor run 64.

Entry is by the National Standings List, plus sectional quotas at the four National Championships that use them; every section holds a minimum quota, and wild cards are capped at 6 in a 192 draw. The pathway is long by design. Most families will never need this section, and that is fine.

How ranking points actually work

Two regimes. In elimination, compass, and feed-in draws, Levels 1 to 5 pay per round reached while Levels 6 and 7 pay per match win. Round robin and team events pay per win at every level. A player must win a round to earn anything; a walkover counts as a win for the player advancing but earns no bonus.
The formula. 100% of the six highest-point singles tournaments, plus 15% of the six highest-point doubles tournaments, plus bonus points for singles wins over a top-500 player, from 225 for a win over a top-10 player down to 11 for a win over a player ranked 351 to 500. Each bonus is attached to the tournament it came from.
Standings vs ranking. The National Standings List posts weekly on Wednesdays over a rolling 12 months and is what tournaments select from. The year-end ranking is calendar-year and needs at least 200 points. There is one national list, filtered by section.
Playing up. Points earned in an older division count down into the younger one once a ranking tournament has been played in that division and the event is among the six that count; 20% of younger-division points count up. Results usually post the Wednesday after the event, so check the player record.

What changed recently

January 2021 put all 17 sections on one seven-level ladder with one points system; the national regulations define Levels 1 through 7 and nothing below them, so a "Level 8" on a third-party page is not a national level. The ITF World Tennis Number is the rating written into the regulations, and sections decide how to use it for selection, seeding, and flighting from Level 3 Closed down to Level 7. From January 2025, ITF junior international team events count for national ranking and the 8-game pro set is allowed for Level 3 to 6 doubles. From January 2026, every ITF J30 and J60 held in the U.S. counts at Level 4 points. Amendments take effect each January 1, so reread the regulations every winter.

Entry basics

A USTA membership is required, and the junior membership is free through the month of the 19th birthday. A player must be 11, or have completed the 10-and-under Youth Progression, to enter section ranking events. You find and enter events at playtennis.com/tournaments. The New to tennis guide covers scoring, ratings, and the tournament-day kit; Planning the season covers how many of these to enter and when to rest.

Where TierBreak fits

TierBreak treats a tournament as something your family enters, never as a feed. The event goes on the Schedule with its first and last day, the app reminds you the evening before, and each match is tracked at two taps a point: the serve, then who won it, with the return as a free step. The level of the event changes nothing about the loop. After the match there is the athlete's own reflection, the parent's own reflection, and for a live-tracked match the optional car-ride brief, only with a guardian's AI consent on record and never for an athlete under 13.

Ratings are your family's own entries on the Season tab, and a parent can hide them from the athlete's login or limit them to one system. TierBreak does not pull draws, results, standings, or ranking points from USTA. Every number on this page is something you read on usta.com and, if you want to track it, type in yourself. That is the family-owned record, and it is the reason the numbers in it are yours.

No invite yet? Join the Inner Circle; spots are open a few families at a time.

Next: Planning the season →