What do you need to know before participating in a fantasy tennis contest?

If you have played any form of fantasy football, you will know that the fixture list is published at the start of the season and although some games will be rescheduled due to cup clashes or postponements, it’s not too difficult to determine which games will form a particular game round, giving the fantasy manager ample time to carry out his or her research.

Tennis does not run in such a fashion, so it is imperative that you have an understanding of some key timings if you are planning on taking part in any fantasy tennis contest that focuses on a specific tournament. You want to make your selections once all the entrants are known and the draw has been made, so let’s look at those vital dates for the 2017 Wimbledon Championships as an example.

When are the Wimbledon seedings announced and when is the draw?

The Championships will get under way on the 3rd July but there are still a few spots up for grabs with qualifying set to take place from the 26th to the 29th June. The seedings will be announced on the 28th June and that all important draw will take place at 10:00 BST on the 30th June.

128 players will take part in both the Gentlemen’s Singles and the Ladies’ Singles, with 32 players being seeded in each category. The Ladies’ seeds are usually determined by world ranking but previous performances at grass court events is an additional factor in the allocation of the Gentlemen’s seeds.

Gentlemen’s Singles are played best-of-five sets whereas Ladies’ Singles are best-of-three sets.  A tie-break game is played if the score reaches 6–6 in any set except the decisive set, where the advantage set rule comes into play.

The 32 seeds will be sorted into different brackets so that they cannot be drawn against each other in the 1st round, with the Top 4 seeds all being assigned a specific quarter of the draw that ensures none of them will meet until the semi-final stage at the earliest. It’s a similar story for the Top 8 seeds who are also kept apart until the quarter-final stage.

It is therefore essential that you are aware of the draw before making those selections!

Playing Fantasy Wimbledon

‘Armed’ with this vital draw information, you can start dissecting the field and putting together your selections but before that you will need to choose a contest to play in.

At present, there isn’t quite the same game choice available to tennis fans as that which football fans are privy to but this situation should improve in the not too distant future as the growth of daily fantasy sports continues.

However, one of the operators that are offering Wimbledon Fantasy Tennis contests on the 2017 Championship is Fanto.

You will need to register to be able to participate in their freeroll contest but Fanto even allow you to complete a ‘Quick Registration’ so it should only take a matter of seconds before you get down to the nitty-gritty of player selection.

There are no budgets to worry about on Fanto – simply pick 8 players in their Fantasy Wimbledon contest, while satisfying the following criteria:

• You must pick at least 2 players from Gentlemen/Ladies’ Singles ‘Seeded 1-4’
• You must pick at least 2 players from Gentlemen/Ladies’ Singles ‘Seeded 5-10’
• You must pick at least 2 players from Gentlemen/Ladies’ Singles ‘Seeded 11-32’
• You must pick at least 2 ‘unseeded’ players from Gentlemen/Ladies’ Singles
• You must have a minimum of 2 female and 2 male players in your final team selection

Your 8 players will score points as follows:

The contest is free to enter and Fanto are advertising a 1st prize of £50 for the entrant that accumulates most points from his/her 8 player roster.

Register NOW

Give it a try and let us know what you think about this Fantasy Tennis format. If you recommend any changes, we will make sure we pass them on!

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