Half the fun of a ladder is the story that builds up over a season — your rivals, your streaks, and the badges you collect along the way.
Rivalries and head-to-head. Play someone more than once and they become a rival. Your head-to-head record (e.g. 3–2) shows on the ladder and on their profile, so you always know who's ahead. Lost to the same person a few times? They're marked as your rival — go settle the score.
Nemesis badge. Beat the same rival five times and you earn the Nemesis badge for that match-up. It's one of the most satisfying ones to unlock.
Badges and achievements. You earn badges as you play — your first result, win streaks, career milestones (like your 50th and 100th match), reaching the top of the table, and plenty more. See how close you are to the next one on your profile's Achievements tab (tap your avatar → Achievements).
Badges you can earn win or lose. Some badges are for playing well, not just winning, so a tough loss still counts for something. They sit first on your Achievements tab, under Earned by playing — win or lose:
- First match — play your first match
- 5 matches — play five
- Fighter — win a set in a match you lost
- Tiebreak hero — win a tiebreak
- Close call — take a match all the way to a deciding set or a tiebreak
- New faces — play five different opponents
- Every week — play four weeks in a row
Walkovers don't count. When you earn one you'll get a notification, even if you lost the match. For juniors, the parent or guardian is told.
Ball levels (juniors). Junior leagues can be set to the ball they're played with: red, orange, green or yellow. Players earn a badge for each colour they play, and the Yellow ball badge once they've come up through the colours.
Badges from your coach. Your club's organisers can give you a badge they choose (Coach's Star, Fair Play, Most Improved or Great Partner), often with a few words, and leave a note on any of your matches. Only you (and a parent, for juniors) and the club's organisers can read their words. Organisers: open a player's profile → Achievements → Give a badge, or Results → Add a coach's note under a match.
Monthly awards. At the end of every month the club's Unwrapped celebrates six achievements:
- Player of the Month — most Court Coins from playing, winning and games won
- Most Wins — the most match wins
- Most Active — most matches played
- Hot Streak — longest run of wins
- Biggest Climber — the most ladder places gained
- Giant Killer — the biggest win over a higher-ranked player
Follow the live leaders on Results → Honours → [month] race. Switch to the Hall of Fame tab there to revisit every completed monthly honour and the club's season and tournament champions. Past monthly honours have their own Share button, which creates a Tennis Ladder-branded winner card ready for WhatsApp or any other app.
How the awards are judged. Only matches that were actually played count: a walkover isn't a match played and doesn't add to a winning streak (losing one by not turning up does end your streak). A match that ended in a retirement counts as normal. Player of the Month, Most Active and Hot Streak each need at least three matches in the month. If two or more players finish level, they're joint winners — everyone level at the top gets the badge.
The full spread also arrives in the club's monthly Unwrapped email. Player of the Month, Top of the Table, Most Active, Hot Streak and Biggest Climber become permanent profile badges when the month closes — and every winner now gets a personal congratulations email too.
Every format crowns a champion. Beyond the ladder's monthly awards, each way of playing has its own honour, all on the Hall of Fame:
- Doubles Pair of the Month — the doubles ladder's top pair each month; everyone who played for that pair during the month earns the badge (so if you changed partner mid-month, all of you share it)
- Box Winner — top your box when a box-league round closes (the top box's winner makes the Hall of Fame)
- Night Winner — most games won at a club night
- Tournament Champion (and Plate Champion) — win the draw
- Doubles Champion of the Month and the Quarterly Champion — Pickup Doubles' own honours
Every award needs real play behind it — nobody gets crowned for sitting at the top of a table where no games were played that period.
Season awards. When a season ends, the club also recognises standouts like Most Improved, Iron Player (most consistent) and Giant Killer (beating players ranked well above you) — see How ladders work for how seasons wrap up.