Here are some the more common questions and topics people brought up. Because survey responses are anonymous we don’t know who posted each comment. So, we’ll respond to everyone here. 1. What my main request is to make sure to match players with equal or similar ability level.

– That is our main goal and why we started the site. The player matching algorithm looks for players of similar skill level and location.

2. Once a connection is established between two players in an area, I don’t feel I need to hear from Tennis Round any more – would appreciate the ability to connect more directly with the person instead of always having to use you guys as a go-between.

– You can. Just ask the other player for their phone or email. We don’t try to block or prevent that.

3. Yes, please allow email addresses to be seen so one can email a player.

– If you want to have someone’s email you can simply ask them. People often don’t mind sharing them after they’ve established a connection. But we don’t disclose everyone’s email publicly to prevent spam and abuse, and to protect people’s privacy.

Every time you send an invite or a response through the site, we send an email and a text message to the other player. They can read it right on their phone.

4. Perhaps a listing of local competitions. I use USTA for that, but am open to non sanctioned play.

– Good idea. We’ve had a few requests for local tournaments. We’ll put it on our todo list.

5. I’ve yet to play anyone from Tennis Round! How does this work?

– It works in two basic ways. You can either find players on your own (or wait for them to find you), or you can let the Player Matching Program see who wants to play with you. When someone accepts, we’ll connect both of you by email and SMS, and with a notification on the site under Messages.

6. I would like to put a limit on how far is located my opponent.

– We already have a limit. But sure, we can look into making that customizable by users. 

7. I would like an option to find tennis partners looking for regular practicing rather than match playing only.

– Actually a lot of people are looking to play socially, instead of competing. Just include that note in your invites or in your About section on your Profile. But yes, we can make that more prominent. 

8. Last minute meet ups, like a hot sheet for 48 hrs to 1hr, where players can post availability for easier search. Ppl generally suck in replying, and are late.

– This is a popular request. And how we’ve wanted Tennis Round to work from the start. It also depends on critical mass and player density per location. We’re at 28,000 users now. Hopefully once we get to about 50-60K users this will become a reality.

9. I am retired and only play during working hours and week days. Need more like me.

– Please add this note to your Profile in the About Me section. There are indeed a lot of folks who are retired and prefer playing during the day. We’ll also try to see how this can be part of the matching process.

10. I find it annoying that one cannot delete old conversations.
– Word! We do, too. We’ll make it happen.

11. Was confusing to post a score. I made a mistake and was not able to correct it.

– True. It is confusing. Currently, only matches that were arranged by the automated Player Matching Program can be reported. But, we’ll also provide the ability for anyone to report match results.

12. Many player accounts are inactive and don’t respond to requests.

– Indeed. Players tend to respond only if it suits them. If it’s not the right time, or they’re already booked, they don’t. We’ll look into calculating response rates and making active players rank higher in search results.

13. Accessing the messages is a little strange – is there a way to remove the messages once the conversation and the match is over?

– Yep, we’ll add the ability to delete old conversations.

14. I connect with a name to play but then never seem to complete the agenda and actually play!

– That can happen. After a while you’ll see that you’ll have a better list of players who always respond. And those that don’t really want to play, which you’ll probably drop from your personal play list.

15. I would like to have a system where players who are available to play last minute could post it.

– Good idea. That’s our goal, too – tennis on demand.

16. I just want to be able to add that I only want to play with players of the same gender.

– Understood. We’ll do it.

17. It would be nice that I would be able to communicate to all players at the same time, not individually. An individual communication to each player, I invited to play, took a lot of my time. I am the leader of a small group of 5 players who start to play tennis at 8 am to save the rest of the day for other activities. We need a substitution sometimes. I am sure that I would be able to get more people in our group would I be able to place my call to many players in my and surrounding areas at once.

– Good idea. We’ll look into it. Last minute substitutions are pretty common.

18. Mobile website functionality is workable but could be better.

– True. We don’t have a responsive site. We’ll do it.

19. Which cities its in and which clubs in those cities.

– It’s nationwide in all 50 states. We have players from about 3,000 cities and tennis courts in over 5,000 cities. So you can use it to find courts in all major metro areas and all cities with population above 10,000 people.

20. No responses from your website. Only met one other player!!!

– That’s a bummer. How many players did you contact? If you only pinged 2-3 people and they were busy, no wonder. By contrast, we’ve had people say they couldn’t keep up with all of their matches. It’s different in different cities.

21. I signed up for this when I was in Atlanta and this site is a good idea but I don’t live in Atlanta. Can you post what city a player wants to play in?

– Yes, each player is assigned a default home court, based on their location, when they register. Users often add more than one home court. That serves as an indicator where they play. You can also search by city or ZIP code and it will show you who plays there.

22. I would like to find for players by my area 10710. 

– If you search for 10710 on the Players page you’ll see results for 1,316 players. Filter by skill level and ping a few players you want to play with

23. Doubles meet ups at public parks.

– Okay! Doubles has been an ongoing request. We’ll add it to the list.

24. Meetups/events, getting to know others players, making this thing more social.

– We have one coming up in San Francisco, as we’re based here. If you’d like to help organize one in your city, please reach out to us.

25. Some players over rate themselves. Not competitive sometimes. Otherwise, great service for players like me looking to play more with more people.

– That’s a common problem. And it’s one of the reasons why we started the site in the first place – to find compatible players of similar tennis aptitude. That’s why in this survey we asked if people would like to rate other players after the match.

26. I have attempted to disable the player matching, and have not been able to do so, kinda annoying…

– Sorry, if this is hard to find. Login and go to your Profile, then under Premium Plan you can click on Cancel My Subscription.

27. This site could be more ‘senior friendly’…

– We’ll work on it. Thanks for the feedback. Please contact us with specific issues you’ve faced and we can improve them.

28. The only addition I can think of that may be useful is a doubles format of some sort.

– For sure, lots of folks have asked for doubles. We’ll do it.

29. I wish I could add additional courts. 

– You got it! We’ll provide the ability to add courts.

31. I wish others could rate courts so I knew what they were like before I got there.

– Good idea. We’d like that, too! We’ll build it.

32. I once played in a tennis league that rated players by a formula similar to the BCS college football method. It was AWESOME. It was way more fun than a typical ladder because it was so much more accurate. I can connect you to the guy that created the math if you are interested.

– We’ve done leagues in the past. We can do it again. Sure, an introduction would be great!

33. As I’ve already communicated, I would like the gross player overratings to be corrected.

– We hear you. We’re also looking into having the community rate the players.

34. More partners on my level in my area. So far I have next to none.

– If you’re 7.0 level or in a smaller town or remote area, it might take a little bit more time. We’re adding about 1,000 new players to the site every month, but again – some cities tend to have more players than others.

35. Expand the marketing of the website so more people know about it.

– For sure, we’re working it. We realize it’s a matter of awareness and participation to make it work for everyone. If you know local tennis stores, clubs, coaches or stringers, please send them our way so we can partner up with them.

36. I believe non active players and people that do not respond to requests should be removed so the system is filled with active and interested players only. It would be great if there was a way to post on a board the desire for last minute play or to find a 4th for doubles for example.

– Agreed, on all three counts. We’re looking at calculating response rates and for each player and dropping the non-responders from the index. “Last minute play” is also on our list. Doubles, of course, is a bit more complex (as in real life), but we’ll try a few things to see what will work.

Big thanks to all! Great to have your feedback.

We focused on the negative feedback and feature requests to save time and address pain points. But we do very much appreciate all the nice comments and compliments! It means a lot to us. If you’d like to chat more, you can reach us by email at support@tennisround.com or by phone and text message at 415-754-8068.

Couple of reminders:

Do we have your phone number? Please make sure you’ve added your mobile phone to your profile, if you’d like to get invites and messages by SMS and respond directly without having to log into the site. Your phone will not be shared publicly. Tennis Round’s phone system sends the SMS messages for you. Update your profile >>

Check out the Player Matching Program in the Premium Plan. It looks for available players for you, so you don’t have to. When someone says Yes, we connect you by email and SMS. Try it out today >>