Frequently Asked Questions

The standards are still undergoing development and being reviewed and refined by a growing stakeholder group. Until we have a fully stable version that most stakeholders agree is complete in meeting the initial goals of the project the standards will remain in draft. We are currently aiming for a widely accepted version being available in November 2019.

Yes - absolutely, and we already have some large tennis organisations and technology solution providers actively working with TODS today. Although the standards are still changing, we would actively encourage you to start testing and using them now and provide feedback on your experiences. We expect a highly stable Version of the Standards to be released around November so at that point the risks of needing to do any additional work to incorporate later version refinements and additions will be greatly reduced.

At the moment we are focused on the definition of the standards themselves (i.e. the data model, formats, and data definitions) rather that the methods and mechanisms used to actually transfer the data files. We recognise that the standards will provide maximum value when used with automated APIs and so is something that we are currently working on with our technology partners. Through this work we hope to provide some guidance and definitions that can describe an API standard soon. We will announce this when ready.

Once we have a stable Version of the Standards we will begin a concerted campaign to raise awareness more widely within the sport and tennis community. However, right now we are keen to talk as many potential users of the Standards as possible and are actively seeking engagement with service providers and other key stakeholders, including all National Associations. Please get in touch with us if you would like to be more actively involved during the current development phase by emailing jake.middleton@itftennis.com

The standard codes may possibly change during the current drafting process of the Standards. The terminology, definitions and codes we use in the TODS are in the process of being aligned across as many of the major current controllers of tennis data worldwide as possible and across all levels of the game. Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions for improving our codes definition and handling.

Yes. We are continuing to test as many different draw structures as we can. Please share your tournament and draw structures and with us and we will see if the standards fit, or adapt the standards so that those structures can be represented.

 No, not at all. Underpinning the technical work is an understanding of tennis i.e. terminology, definitions, scoring methods, methods of tournament identification, draw structures. People who specialise in tennis can provide valuable input on all of these different areas.

No. The TODS have been designed to enable the sending and receiving of any type of tennis data between any organisations or systems. The World Tennis Number project is just one user of the Standards.