Team results and your own level

Doubles is played by teams, but every player also carries a personal doubles level. Here is how a team level is built out of personal levels, and how a team result finds its way back to yours.

Where a team level comes from

A fixed pair - a doubles team in a league, or two players who sign up together - has a team level of its own that carries over from match to match. The first time that pair appears there is nothing to go on but the two players, so we combine their personal doubles levels into a starting team level.

It is a weighted average, not a plain one. In padel and tennis the weaker player counts for more than the stronger one, because opponents will aim at the weaker side and the pair ends up playing closer to that player's level.

In an Americano or an open match the team exists for one match only. We build the same weighted average before the match, use it to set the expected result, and drop it again afterwards - a temporary pairing never becomes a stored team level.

How much of the result is yours

Once the score is in we know how the team really performed, and its level moves up or down. That move then has to find its way to the two players, and how much each of you gets depends on how sure we are of your level. A level is uncertain if you are new, if you have not played for a while, or if your results swing around; it is certain once you have a long and steady record.

Fixed teams

For a fixed pair the new team level is a fact: this pair really did play at this level. Take your partner's level and weight back out of it, and you are left with the level the result implies for you. Your own level then moves towards that implied level, but only as far as the evidence justifies:

• If your level is well established and your partner's is not, the implied level is a vague number and you barely move - the surprise was most likely your partner's.
• If yours is the uncertain level, you move a long way: the result says more about you than your rating did.
• Playing with the same partner again and again teaches us less each time. Play with different partners and every result counts in full.

The team level itself is never adjusted from personal levels - only from results. That keeps it explainable: a team level changes because the team played, and for no other reason.

Temporary teams

In an Americano or an open match the team exists for one match only, so there is no team level to update. Instead, the team''s change goes directly to both personal levels. The two players do not receive the same share: the player whose level is least certain receives more than the team's full change, the player with a well-established level receives less.