13 December 2012 | Tennis Victoria

Tennis Victoria is excited to launch an exciting new competition structure for the 2013 Premier League season. For the first time in the competition’s history the winning club will recieve $4000 in prizemoney and the runners up will recieve $1000 for both the men’s and women’s competitions.

The  2013 Premier League will commence on Friday 1 March  2013 and will conclude with the final on Sunday 14 April 2013.  The 2013 Premier League Competition model has been transformed to ensure it provides the Pro Circuit  players with an opportunity to play in the preliminary rounds and qualify for finals.

Player squad sizes have been reduced to a minimum 4 player teams (doubles players may vary from singles though if club chooses) with a match format of 2 doubles rubbers and 4 singles rubbers. The reduction in team size will see an increase in the overall standard of the Premier League competition. Doubles rubbers will be played as 2 sets with a match tie break (first to ten points, two points clear) if locked at one set all, and sudden death deuce on all doubles games.

The competition match days have also been revolutionised with rounds to be played under lights on Friday nights and on Sunday afternoons, with fixture dates providing numerous qualification and playing opportunities for Pro Tour players, whilist the addition of night matches will provide the competition with a significant positive facelift.

The competition will also feature Super Rounds for the first time in its short history, successfully introduced for the 2012 ATL Victorian Conference season. Each club will be given an opportunity to host a Super Round where all matches of that competition will be played at their venue, providing their local tennis communities with an opportunity to have the very best Victorian players at their venue at the one time.

Excited by the new model, Tennis Victoria’s Competitions Manager Jeff Downs said “It is imperative for the branding of the competition that we attract high quality players and the changes to smaller team sizes with a minimum 4 players (doubles may be different) will allow us to enter into Friday night rounds which will provide Pro Tour players with an opportunity to participate in the preliminary rounds and qualify for the finals. The addition of Super Rounds and night tennis will ensure a massive positive facelift for the competition moving forward and ensure the competition evolves and establishes itself in the Victorian tennis market.”

The Premier League competition will be an  attraction for many touring players and emerging elite juniors from across the country, and will also provide the selected clubs with an enormous marketing opportunity with their feature Super Round.

For Premier League information and nomination forms please visit the Premier League page.

Premier League Time line:

Wednesday 6 February 2013 – Club nominations & Super Round dates

Monday 11 February 2013 – Announcement of selected teams

Friday 15 February 2013 – Premier League Super Round fixture announced

Friday 1 March 2013 – Round 1 commences

Sunday 14 April 2013 – Premier League Men’s and Women’s Final