Memorial Tennis Round Robin

[Don Gray]

I have very little time to produce a Round Robin mixed doubles schedule for a single Memorial Day of play for a tennis colleague who died suddenly. I would appreciate some help as we are trying to raise money for his favourite charity and I would like things to run smoothly on the day.

Preferred Rules of Engagement

• We will play mixed doubles, change of partner per session
• Avoid playing with same partner more than once; avoid playing against same person more than twice
• I have 12 men, 12 women
• 4 tennis courts for a period of 5 hours.
• Timed play only, so possibly 40 sessions (of 30 minutes), or 60 sessions (of 20 minutes)
• Ideally, everyone plays the same number of sessions

I am in awe of the work that has been done on this forum for so many different types of games and playing configurations.  Is there a "simple" algorithm for my 24 player one-day event which can be rendered in chart form?

Please let me know.

Regards,

Don Gray.

[Ian Wakeling]

While there are easy algorithms for singles play, mixed doubles is much harder to schedule unfortunately, so there is nothing simple I can chart.

From the two options that you suggest, I much prefer the second one with 60 sessions of 20 minutes over 15 rounds.  In total there will be 240 player slots, so the aim would be to have everyone play in exactly 10 sessions.  The first option would leave players with either 6 or 7 sessions each, and so your last criterion would not be met.

In turns out that there is a nice schedule for this, where everyone has 10 games, has 10 different partners, and has 20 different opponents, so nobody opposes the same person twice.

I hope it works well for your charity fund raiser.

      court 1             court 2             court 3             court 4                    byes
(M02 F11 v M08 F09) (M04 F02 v M05 F12) (M09 F03 v M12 F10) (M10 F05 v M11 F06) [M01 M03 M06 M07 F01 F04 F07 F08]
(M01 F08 v M11 F09) (M03 F04 v M10 F11) (M04 F01 v M12 F05) (M05 F07 v M09 F10) [M02 M06 M07 M08 F02 F03 F06 F12]
(M01 F06 v M08 F04) (M06 F09 v M11 F07) (M07 F02 v M12 F08) (M09 F01 v M10 F12) [M02 M03 M04 M05 F03 F05 F10 F11]
(M01 F05 v M02 F12) (M03 F02 v M11 F10) (M05 F11 v M07 F08) (M06 F01 v M08 F03) [M04 M09 M10 M12 F04 F06 F07 F09]
(M01 F04 v M12 F02) (M02 F09 v M07 F10) (M04 F07 v M11 F08) (M06 F11 v M10 F01) [M03 M05 M08 M09 F03 F05 F06 F12]
(M03 F11 v M09 F07) (M05 F10 v M11 F01) (M07 F12 v M10 F04) (M08 F05 v M12 F09) [M01 M02 M04 M06 F02 F03 F06 F08]
(M02 F08 v M03 F12) (M04 F05 v M08 F11) (M06 F10 v M12 F04) (M09 F06 v M11 F03) [M01 M05 M07 M10 F01 F02 F07 F09]
(M01 F02 v M09 F11) (M02 F07 v M12 F03) (M03 F01 v M04 F06) (M05 F09 v M06 F12) [M07 M08 M10 M11 F04 F05 F08 F10]
(M01 F12 v M03 F10) (M02 F05 v M10 F07) (M06 F03 v M07 F11) (M08 F01 v M11 F02) [M04 M05 M09 M12 F04 F06 F08 F09]
(M01 F11 v M05 F06) (M03 F09 v M12 F01) (M04 F12 v M06 F07) (M07 F05 v M09 F02) [M02 M08 M10 M11 F03 F04 F08 F10]
(M02 F01 v M09 F08) (M03 F06 v M07 F09) (M04 F03 v M10 F02) (M05 F04 v M08 F07) [M01 M06 M11 M12 F05 F10 F11 F12]
(M01 F09 v M10 F03) (M02 F04 v M05 F01) (M04 F10 v M07 F06) (M06 F08 v M09 F05) [M03 M08 M11 M12 F02 F07 F11 F12]
(M03 F08 v M06 F04) (M07 F03 v M08 F12) (M02 F10 v M04 F11) (M10 F06 v M12 F07) [M01 M05 M09 M11 F01 F02 F05 F09]
(M08 F06 v M09 F12) (M01 F03 v M04 F08) (M05 F02 v M10 F09) (M07 F04 v M11 F05) [M02 M03 M06 M12 F01 F07 F10 F11]
(M05 F08 v M12 F06) (M02 F03 v M11 F04) (M01 F10 v M06 F05) (M03 F07 v M08 F02) [M04 M07 M09 M10 F01 F09 F11 F12]


I have attached an Excel version of the schedule (you need to be logged in to download this).

[Don Gray]

Ian,

I cannot thank you enough for taking the time to look at this.  I am delighted of course, and grateful to you for coming up with such an elegant arrangement.

It will be put to good use.

With very best wishes,

Don Gray.