Pilot Edition · July 18

Hat-Trick
Tennis Open

5 teams of 4 Singles / Doubles 2 courts 1:30–7:30 PM

A single-elimination finish built on a friendly round-robin. Five teams of four playing singles, with doubles semifinals, across three stages: group play to seed the field, then semifinals, then a final.

Group Stageround-robin
Semifinalsdoubles
Final1 court

Run of day

1:30Check-in, warm-up, teams announced
2:00Group round-robin begins
4:30Break + mid-event awards (Tennis Star vote, Lucky Guest draw)
5:00Semifinals — #1v#4, #2v#3
5:40Final — first to 7 games
6:30Awards ceremony
7:00Social & photos
Dress code — Wimbledon whites.

All white, head to toe, players and spectators alike. Lean in.

The setup

Five teams, four players each

Everyone plays singles. In the group stage, each of your four players takes one match — your team decides who plays which, and you send a different player each time so all four get on court.

A B

Each matchup is one player vs. one player.

The field

The five teams

Here's the full field. Use it to plan your line-ups and decide who plays which match. On the day, each team wears a wristband in its color — no more A through E, just find your color. Levels are self-rated NTRP, sorted strongest first.

Red Team
Qingqing Zong
Smartsens
4.0
Sasha Hydrie
Anthropic
3.5
Andrew Tan
TLDR AI
3.0
Jason Chen
Nirva Labs
3.0
Green Team
Ken Bai
Tennistry
4.0
Ethan Chen
Lexington Partners
3.5
Zhou Wang
Leapcon Capital
3.0
Connie Hui
Reer
2.5
Blue Team
William Li
Pebble
4.0
Peter Pan
Hat Trick Capital
3.5
Charlotte
3.5
Keyan Li
Hat Trick Capital
3.0
Yellow Team
Yash More
Cohere
4.0
Yimeng Qin
Nimo
3.5
Mark Liu
UpscaleX
3.0
Audrey Zhou
MongoDB
3.0
Orange Team
Richard Sheng
UpHonest Capital
4.0
Yinan Na
Creatify
3.0
Andrew Lee
Google DeepMind
3.0
Celina Hong
Evercore
2.5

Wristbands are handed out at 1:30 check-in. Find your color, meet your team, and start planning your order before the first round.

Stage 1

Group round-robin

Every team plays every other team once — ten matchups in all. Each matchup is a single match: one player per side. Send a different teammate each time so all four of your players compete.

Order of play

Five rounds, two courts running at once, one team resting each round. Rounds start every 30 minutes.

Round 12:00 · Orange rests
Court 1RedvGreen
Court 2BluevYellow
Round 22:30 · Yellow rests
Court 1RedvBlue
Court 2GreenvOrange
Round 33:00 · Green rests
Court 1RedvYellow
Court 2BluevOrange
Round 43:30 · Blue rests
Court 1RedvOrange
Court 2GreenvYellow
Round 54:00 · Red rests
Court 1GreenvBlue
Court 2YellowvOrange

Each team plays all four others once and rests exactly one round. The resting team can watch, scout, and network.

Match format — 4-game pro set

First to 4 games wins the match. No sets.

1
2
3
4
·
·
↑ First to 4 games takes the match (~15 min)

No-ad scoring

Every game is played no-ad — no long deuce battles.

Game reaches40–40
One pointReceiver picks side
Winnertakes the game ✓

One point decides it. Fast and clean.

Serving

Spin a racket before each match. The winner picks serve or side, then serve alternates every game. Same in the semifinals.

Win your match, your team earns 1 point.

Standings

How teams are ranked

One point per match won. Teams are ranked by total points across the round-robin. The top four advance to the semifinals.

TeamW–LPtsSeed
A4–041
B3–132
C2–223
D1–314
E0–40

Example standings. Top four (shaded) move on.

If teams tie

The higher seed goes to whoever won more games than they lost —

game differential (games won minus games lost).

Stage 2

Semifinals

The top four seeds cross over. This is the one doubles round of the day — each semi is settled by a single doubles match, two players a side. The two winners advance to the final.

#1 seedvs
#4 seed
#2 seedvs
#3 seed

Doubles — pick any two players per team. Same match format as group play: 4-game pro set, no-ad, one match decides it. Winners through to the final.

Stage 3

The Final

Both finalist teams meet on one court for a single match — the whole event watching. First to 7 games takes the title.

Match format — first to 7 games

1
2
3
4
5
6
7
↑ First to 7 games wins the championship

Everyone plays at least once

Teams substitute freely — swap players in and out whenever you like. The only rule is that all four players must take the court at least once before the match ends.

The score runs continuously. Subs don't reset it, the count carries straight through to 7.

Serving

Spin a racket to decide who serves game 1. The two teams then alternate serve each game — whoever's on court for the serving team takes it.

What if it's 6–6?

Score reaches6–6
Sudden deathone point
Winner7–6 ✓

One point decides the title.

On the line

Awards

ChampionsThe winning team. All four players take home the grand prize.
Fan FavoriteCrowd favorite, voted by everyone. The winner takes home a custom racket.
Best FashionBest look of the day, voted by the whole crowd. Comes with a special gift.
Lucky GuestOne attendee walks away with a surprise, just for showing up.