History of major Tour Rule Changes

Some of the dates for these changes are estimates; any exact dates would help

  • Sept 2015: A referee at the 2015-16 opening event in Overland Park, KS is spotted going to the IRTnetwork.com film crew to perform an "instant replay" check of a short serve. Is this a new rule change? Do players get "TV appeals" like they do on the Tennis tours?
  • Oct 2010: the US Open gives the top 16 players protected byes into the round of 32. Heretofore, the main draw started at the round of 64.
  • June 2010: new commissioner Jason Mannino implements several rule changes to the tour to address various issues and complaints about the game (announced in the IRT Newsletter 2010 v1, text below taken verbatim, italics are my comments):
  • Fall 2009 (for the 2009-10 season): Implementation of the use of side judges in tournaments that make use of the portable court (or in other words, for the Majors). For years the IRT has resisted calls to make use of the appeals judges as are available in amateur competitions. Reasons mentioned included costs, lack of enough qualified judges and the lack of empowerment of the primary referee.
  • Fall 2002: IRT introduces tournament "dropping" scheme, resulting from a loophole in the rankings system that existed prior to the Fall of 2002. Players are now allowed to drop their worst tournament points from 1 or more tournaments based on the number of events in the season. The number of results allowed to drop is as follows:

    This decision was made in part to allow for players to be able to overcome injuries mid-season and not have any chances for a high ranking be automatically dashed. Previously, players who missed events were given "divider" points, which were defined as the average round position attained that season. This turned controversial when Swain carried an injury into the last tournament of the 2001-2 season, and by skipping the event was given enouth "divider" points to ensure winning the title without playing. Had he played, he would have risked an early round loss and risked losing the season ending title to Mannino.

  • Aug 1999: New tourney format announced: top 8 players get byes into round of 16 (except for the US Open and Pro Nationals, and other major tourneys as determined by prize $). Also, prize money distribution changes announced, paying to the round of 16.
  • ?? Date (mid 90s I believe): Seeds 5-8 are randomly generated each tournament, to eliminate the same matchups occuring at each tournament. Per Mannino, the rule was officially changed in 2005 but I thought it was done far before that (in the mid 90s). Official rules define the "Seedings Flip" as follows (text Mannino's from a meetandplay.com post 11/4/10):

    The tour will use "Flip" seedings, which randomizes the 5-8 players in order to prevent repeated matchups in the 16s and quarter finals. All Grand Slam events are a straight draw, as are the first and last events of the season. Otherwise one of three seeding randomizations is used.

    The rotation is said to go Straight draw, then two "flips" then another straight draw, excepting for any GS events.

  • Aug 1991: Win by 2 implemented in in all games, not just in 5th supertiebreaker. Qualifying protects the top 16 players into the round of 32.
  • Aug 1990: Change to one-serve
  • ?? date: Quadrant serving used in experimentation, as reaction to dominant drive serving from Swain, Inoue, others.
  • Aug 1989: Mandatory eyeguards, new ranking system, 5th game win by 2 (supertiebreaker rule).
  • Aug 1988: Some Finals were played USRA rules (2 games to 15, tiebreaker to 11, win by one) for TV length purposes.
  • Oct 1981: scoring goes to 3/5 games to 11, win-by-one
  • Summer 1981: 1981-2 season the first where the "Season ending Champ" is determined by season ending points, not just who won Nationals.
  • Pro tournament entry open to all: top 24 given byes to round of 32, all others qualify.
  • Aug 1974: NRC starts first real tour (IRA also holds pro events). The "Season Ending Champ" was determined from the year end nationals tournament, not from points accumulated during the year. Rankings were really just used as tools for seeding during tournaments. Thus the winner of the NRC Nationals/DP/Leach was the winner each year, until 1981-2 season. IRA also had Nationals in 1975, resulting in two "Season Ending Championships" for that year.
  • 1973-4 "Season" had no Nationals and thus no real "Pro Winner."
  • Aug 1973: First "Pro" event occurs.
  • Aug 73: Original Pro tour Scoring was the best 2/3 games to 21, tiebreaker also to to 21, win by one. Qualifying protects the top 16 players into the round of 32.