A Guide to the Most Common Squash Draw Types
**This page is under construction, check back soon if there’s information missing, or contact the office: engagement@squashwa.asn.au
The most common draw formats you will see are:
- Round Robin draw
- Cross-pool draw
- Swiss draw
- Monrad draw
Please keep in mind that this page is for general information and education only.
Round Robin Draw
The round-robin draw is one of the easiest and most fair draw. In this draw, each player plays against every other player in the group. It is perfect for smaller groups, like 4 to 6 players. Another advantage of this draw, is that the seeding (the position of ranking of the players) is not that important, as each player will play against every other player.
For example, if you have 6 players, then each player will play 5 matches.
This draw format is not ideal for larger groups, as then a player must play 6 or more games over a weekend, which is not practical. It is also too exhausting for players.
Example
In this example, we’ll go through a 5-player draw. The table that you will see looks like the one below. We’ll follow the matches of Player A, and fill in the table as we go.
The first match for Player A was against Player B. Player A won 3-0 against Player B. On the scoreboard, in the row for Player A, the score that Player A got, which is 3 games, is entered under the column of Player B.
Next, the row for Player B, the score of 0 games is placed the row for Player B, in the column of Player A.
Next, player A wins 3-1 against Player C. In the row of Player A, 3 games are entered in the column under Player C. In the row for Player C, 1 game is entered under the column of Player A.
The scores are tallied up across the rows. Player D is the winner with 12 points, as this player won all of their matches. Player A came in 2nd place with 11 points. In third place is Player E with 9 points.
This type of draw is ideal when you have 8 players or even 10 players in a division. The players are divided into two pools, and the players in each pool play a round-robin. After all the round-robin matches are completed, then the winner of Pool A plays against the winner of Pool B for 1st and 2nd place. The players who came in 2nd in the Round Robin pools, then play out for positions 3 and 4. And so on for the rest of the players.
In this format the seeding of the players is important. Why? Because the players are divided into the pools based on strength.
Here’s how the seeding works. The strongest player is placed in position 1, the next strongest player is placed in position 2, and so on. For this example, Player A is the strongest player, Player B is the next strongest player, and so on.
Next, the players are divided into two pools. Here’s how the division typically happens:
Player A is placed in Pool A, Player B in Pool B. Then Player C is placed in Pool B, and then switching over to Pool A, player D is placed in Pool A. If you draw a picture with arrows, you will see a snake pattern of how the players are divided into the pools.
So here is what the 2 pools will look like after the players have been divided into the pools:
These last rounds determine the final positions .
When groups are larger, like 16 players, a Swiss format is often used. This format allows for large groups to play, as a round-robin or even a cross-pool format is impractical due to the time and size of the tournament.
A key aspect of a Swiss draw is that the seeding for the tournament has to be accurate. If the seeding is not correct, it can cause upsets.
Swiss draws work well for groups of 16 players or 32 players. For 16 players you will have 4 rounds, and for 32 players there will be 5 rounds of matches.
How Swiss Draws Work
The players are seeded according to strength. The format of the tournament is that players play according to their number. After each round, the winner takes the higher number, and the loser takes the lower number for the next round.
Let’s take you through the details in an example.
Example
For this example, we will review a 16-player Swiss Format draw.
The first and most important step is the seeding of the players. Tournament organisers put a huge amount of effort in to getting the seedings correct (based on ranking/ladders of the provinces) and results placed on SportyHQ. Players are then seeded according to strength.
In this example, I have created the following seeding. To make it easy, I used alphabetical names in the seeding.
This means that #1 is playing against #16, #2 is playing against #15, and so on.
What is happening is that the group of 16 players are being split into 2 groups. After round 1 there will be a top group and a bottom group. However, the players in the bottom group (the lower-seeded players) have ONE opportunity to play to get into the top group of 8 players.
Remember, that if you win a match, you now take the higher number into the next round, and if you lose, you take the lower number into the next round.
For this example, let’s assume that players 1-8 won all their matches. This means they keep their number (as it is the higher number), and the lower players on the right keep their numbers.
The group of 16 players are now effectively divided into 2 groups after round 1: A top group of 8 players, and a bottom group of 8 players. Next, the same principle now applies: in the top group, the first 4 players are paired up against the lower 4 players, and the same for the bottom group.
Round 2 results
In Round 2, #5 Emile won against #4 Devon. This now means that Emile takes the higher number, #4, while Devon now moves to #5. In the lower group, Nico beat Kayden. This means that Nico now is #11 in the next round, while Kayden is now #14 in the next round.
They will now take their new numbers into Round 3.
Round 3
The next round will look like the grouping below. I have highlighted the numbers where players changed numbers.
You should see a pattern emerging here, where after each round the group is split up into a top part and a bottom part.
Round 3 results
In round 3, there were now a lot of upsets:
- #4 Emile beats #1 Anton, which means that Anton moves to #4 and Emile moves to #1.
- #7 Gert beats #6 Frans. So Gert now has #6, while Frans moves down to #7.
- #12 Luke beats #9 Ian, which means that Luke takes #9, while Ian now moves down to #12.
Round 4
The last and final round (Round 4) will now look like this:
This final round now determines the final positions. #1 Emile and #2 Ben is playing for FIRST and SECOND place, #3 Charl and #4 Anton is playing for THIRD and FOUTH place, and so on.
Round 4 results
In the last and final round, the results were as follows:
- #2 Ben beat #1 Emile. So Ben is the winner and Emile is now in 2nd place.
- #8 Harry beat #7 Frans, so Harry is in 7th place, while Frans finishes in 8th place.
- #16 Paul beat #15 Oliver, so Paul finishes in 15th place, and Oliver finishes in 16th place.
Just for a final comparison, we have placed each player’s original seeding in brackets behind the name. Now you can see how the players shifted in positions over 4 rounds.
This has been a long explanation of how a Swiss draw works. In reality, you will only see a spreadsheet with number of matches for the rounds, and an instruction that “Winner takes higher number, Loser takes lower number”. Here is what it could like like:
Under construction…😊
Conclusion
Above we have explained the four most common draw formats that are used in squash tournaments. The reality however is that sometimes the number of entries is a weird number, like 9 entries, or 14 entries, or 21 entries. It is then that tournament organisers often use a combination of these draws to create a final draw.
Here are a few examples of combinations:
- 1 round of Swiss Pairing, followed by round-robin groups.
- Two rounds of Swiss Pairing, followed by round-robin groups.
- 3 groups of round-robin, followed by cross-pool groups of round-robins.
Happy squashing!