General Rules of Play and Court Etiquette

If questions or concerns arise that are not covered in the rules below, please feel free to contact your tennis chairs.

The golden rule to remember is to schedule your play on the club calendar.  If it is not on the calendar your game can be bumped at any time by any member that does schedule play for that time.  Scheduled play takes priority. 

General Court Reservations

Reservation Guidelines – Reservations may be made on the hour for TWO hours using the reservation features on the club calendar on our website – Mill Glen.org.    If reserving for a lesson or lessons, do not exceed the two hour time limit (this includes families taking a series of lessons).   

Courtesy Rules – Shirts and tennis shoes are required.  Please make sure that all used tennis balls, cans, and other trash is disposed of properly before leaving the courts anytime you play.  If the net trash cans are full, please take a moment and empty them.  This applies to any time you play, not just after team matches. 

The tennis courts may not to be used after 11:00 PM.  Whenever you leave the courts, please turn off the lights and lock the gates

If you have a reservation, or practice scheduled, you will not use, please cancel at least 24 hours in advance, or as soon as you know, so others may reserve it.   Multiple unused and un-cancelled reservations may result in the suspension of the right to make future reservations at the total discretion of the Tennis Chairs.

Monday through Friday, for courts 1 & 2, reservations must be 6-8 PM or 8-10 PM so we can optimize playtime on the lit courts.  You may book up to 2 hours on courts 3 and 4 starting at any time.

NOTE: We are running a trial to accommodate “flex league” (T-2,, Ultimate, etc).  For courts 1 & 2, schedule your play from 8 to 10, Monday through Friday.  If the court is available at 6 PM the day before you are scheduled to play you may reserve the court from 7 to 9 or 7:30 to 9:30.

Priority for Use of Courts

1. ALTA or USTA Matches

2. ALTA or USTA Make-up Matches

3. ALTA or USTA Practices

4. Mill Glen Singles League

5. General Reservations, ‘Flex’ Leagues or ALTA or USTA Matches Played before regular time

6. Open Court.

Team/League Play (ALTA & USTA) 

MGSTC supports team and league play at our club.  The more members from MGSTC on the courts, the better!  In doing such, the club extends court reservation priority for team practice and home matches.  However, please note that it is the responsibility of the team captains to ensure that the club calendar is updated with their practice and home match schedules.  Failure to do so forfeits court priority.  Please see details below.

Joining a team – MGSTC supports all ALTA & USTA team play.  Any active member of the MGSTC may join any ALTA or USTA team played out of our club given they meet the necessary requirements as put in place by ALTA and USTA.  Captains DO NOT have discretion as to who may join a team or who may not.  While the Captain may not turn down any active member who meets the necessary requirements, that does not guarantee any member will play in matches.  Line ups for match play are solely at the discretion of the Captain.

For a list of active teams and their captains please contact one of your two tennis chairs. 

Team Practices – Teams may reserve two courts for 2.0 hours once a week for practice.  Team practices are not allowed to be scheduled on Friday, Saturday or Sunday.  It is the responsibility of the captains to put their practice times on the club calendar.  If your team does not need both courts, please only schedule one court.

As a general rule we rotate evenings for team practice each calendar year.  For courts 1 & 2, practices must be scheduled from 6-8 or 8 -10 Monday through Thursday. Teams may ‘swap’ nights with another captain.  If there are open times, requests for a specific day and time should be submitted to the tennis chairs. Each season, for courts 1 & 2, we will rotate the time and day of play to accommodate as many teams as possible.  Rotation Schedule if there are more than four 4) teams

If a team is scheduled to move to a 6-8 slot, and there is no team practicing 8-10, they should contact the tennis chairs to move to the later  time slot.  If a new team wants to start practicing such that there are more than four (4) teams, this rotation schedule will be used for that season.

Practice times need to be posted to the calendar at a minimum of 7 days prior to the first practice.  Failure to do so automatically opens that time slot for general reservations by all club members and the team forfeits its precedence for court reservation that day.  

Home Matches – MGSTC reserves 2 courts for each home match.  It is the responsibility of the team captains to distribute their home match schedule for the season to the tennis chairs.  This notification must be done at least one week prior to that team’s first home match.  It is the responsibility of the team captain to reserve the tennis courts for their home matches at least one week prior to the team’s first home match. Failure to reserve the courts may result in a forfeit of court reservation precedence for that day and opens that time slot to general reservations by all club members. Teams may not reserve more than 2 courts per home match.  If neither of the other two courts are reserved by the Wednesday before the weekend matches, the home team may reserve one of the two open courts (leaving one court still open).  The home team may use the fourth unreserved open court during match play, but can be bumped by any club member who wishes to play at that time. 

Make Up Matches – All make up matches are required to be put on the club calendar.  Failure to do so does not constitute scheduled play and can be bumped by any member who does schedule play on the calendar at that time.  Make up matches do take priority over pick up play, lessons and practices.  However, it is the responsibility of the make-up match scheduler to contact whoever they are trying to bump and communicate their intention.  Failure to do so does not constitute a scheduled make up match.  Make up matches do not bump any play next to it.  It is expected that all players regardless of the kind of play to be respectful of those around them by trying to keep their balls in their own courts etc.  Make up matches that are trying to be scheduled prior to their original play date are not extended the priority of a normal make up match.  Such a situation is considered to be treated as al general court reservation.  It is recommended as a general guideline for make-up matches to not be scheduled any closer than 1 hour prior to a scheduled team practice, home match or other make up match.  If a make-up match needs to be scheduled closer than the 1 hour window it is the responsibility of the make-up match scheduler to contact the other party and communicate their situation.  If a match is running over into someone else’s scheduled time it is expected those involved can work it out. 

In case of conflicts in scheduling make up matches, please contact Tennis Chairs.

T2, Ultimate and Other ‘flex’ Leagues

MGSTC supports flex league play at our club.  In doing such, the club extends court reservation times for home matches to two hours.  Only two courts may be reserved at any given time for flex league play (or any combination thereof) matches.  Other than the court reservation time of two hours, flex league matches are to be treated as a general reservation. See  General Court Reservations above.

Club Membership Status

In order to play on a Mill Glen ALTA or USTA team, the player must be a current active Mill Glen Swim & Tennis Club member in good standing. Senior membership status allows for tennis play, whereas, inactive status does not. Since it is difficult for individual team captains to know the current Club status of each player, all team captains must send a copy of their final team rosters to one of the Tennis Chairpersons prior to season play. The Tennis Chairpersons will let the team captain know if there are any problems. If membership status is in question prior to roster submittal, either the team captain or the Tennis Chairperson may review membership status with the Membership Chairperson.

Non-Member Tennis Play

We recognize that due to the shifting popularity of tennis, some teams may struggle to gather enough players to field a team. Or, there may be enough players on a roster, but lack of player availability may cause excessive forfeiting of matches. At times, special circumstances may dictate that without additional non-member support, current club members will not be able to play on a team at all.  When this unique situation presents itself, we have created a vehicle to see if adding a non-member to the team is the right solution to the problem.

Non-members playing on junior ALTA or USTA teams are exempt from paying any fees.

For adult teams, the first step is for the tennis captain to complete the Mill Glen Swim & Tennis Non-Member Tennis Team Request Form at the end of this document. Once completed by the team captain, the form should be delivered to a Tennis Chairperson at least two weeks prior to the ALTA/USTA roster submittal deadline. A check for $60 must be submitted with the Request Form per non member request.  We view non-member play as a ‘last resort’ in ensuring our current members can play tennis and the tennis captain should be prepared to explain why non-member play is necessary. The Tennis Chairpersons will consider the request, gain Board input, and make a final decision. The Tennis Chairpersons will communicate the decision to the team captain in a timely manner. No non-member play should occur until

       A) a formal decision has been received.  Simply completing the form and submitting payment is not sufficient action for a non-member to be added to a roster.

And B) Should the request be granted, the non-member payment check in the amount of $60 will be deposited.

Non-member play is requested and approved on an individual basis for one season only. Should non-member participation be necessary in a subsequent season, this process shall be initiated and followed again. If there is any uncertainty in the process to add a non-member to a team, the team captain should gain clarification from a Tennis Chairperson. This procedure is subject to change at any time with or without advance notification.

A member resigning from the Club is not eligible to play on a Mill Glen tennis team as a non-member until a period of two years has elapsed from date of resignation 

After approval of the non-member by the tennis chairperson, it is the captain/co-captains decision on player lineups; the tennis chairpersons are not involved in who plays. Failure for a captain and co-captain to obtain the proper approval, or a captain/co-captain who plays an ineligible player could result in any of the following: suspension of Club membership, revocation of Club membership, suspension of Mill Glen tennis privileges.