A walkover is a match that's awarded without being played: someone challenged you and it never happened. It's the one way to lose places without hitting a ball, so here's how to make sure it never happens to you. The numbers below are most ladders' settings; your league's rules card shows its own.
The short version
- Answer every challenge within 5 days. Accept it, or suggest times.
- Get a time in the diary within 7 days of accepting. Either of you can set it.
- Turn up. If you can't make it, say so before the match, not after.
- Going away or injured? Set yourself to Away (Your Serve → your status), and nobody can challenge you while you're off.
Do those four things and you'll never be walked over.
If you're challenged
- Accept or suggest times from the challenge itself (the notification opens it). You have 5 days to answer, and the match needs playing within 14 days of the challenge however it goes.
- Can't do it this week? You can postpone: 3 postpones in any 30 days. After that, a decline counts as a walkover.
- Once you've accepted, set a time. No time after 7 days and the match resets: free the first time, after that it uses one of your postpones. Whoever is holding things up is the one it counts against. If your opponent suggested times and you haven't answered, that's you.
- We remind you first. You'll get a heads-up two days before an unanswered challenge or an undated match would turn into a walkover.
If you can't play for a while
Set yourself to Away before anyone challenges you: holiday, injury, busy patch, anything. While you're Away nobody can challenge you, so you can't be walked over. Come back whenever you like. (Once a challenge has arrived you'll need to answer it first, so set Away early.)
Already accepted a challenge you now can't play at all? Don't leave your opponent waiting. Open the match, tap Match options → I can't play — give them the walkover. It's settled straight away: it counts as a walkover to them, and it costs you the same as any other walkover. To play another day instead, cancel and pick a new time.
If you simply stop playing, you'll slide gently down the ladder: after 3 weeks without a match you drop one place, then one place a week. That's the same whether you're Away or not. Your rung is for people who are playing.
What a walkover costs
- Your first walkover in a season drops you 1 place; the second 2; any more 5.
- Three walkovers in a row without playing a match and the app rests you: you're set to Away so nobody keeps challenging an empty chair, any challenges waiting for you are cleared (no penalty for anyone), and you and your organiser are told.
- Never played yet? New members get 3 weeks to get going. After that, if you let a challenge lapse your challenger takes your spot and you're rested straight away, so nobody can keep stepping over an empty rung on the ladder.
- Coming back from a rest: tap "I'm back — put me on the ladder" at the top of Your Serve, or play a match. Just opening the app doesn't bring you back. That way a quick look can't make you a target again before you're ready.
If you're the challenger
A walkover isn't a free ride up the ladder:
- A walkover moves you up at most your challenge range (usually 3 places).
- Every climb nobody played out counts towards one limit: a walkover, taking a never-played player's spot, or a result the other side never confirmed. The second within 30 days moves you up 1 place.
- After a walkover over someone, you can't challenge that same player again for 14 days (they can still challenge you). Challenge someone else in the meantime.
- No-shows need a match time you both agreed, or one set at least a day ahead. You can't claim a no-show for a time the other player never saw.
Fair warning, always
Nobody loses places for something they couldn't have known about. If a player has no email, no app and has never signed in, a challenge to them is cleared instead of becoming a walkover, and your organiser is asked to add their details. Walkover news that lands overnight waits until the morning.
Made in error?
Your club organiser can reverse a walkover, and positions and records are put back exactly as they were. Ask them from the league page.
For organisers: these numbers live in your league settings (Settings → Activity rules): the answer and match deadlines, postpones, slide, the walkover climb ("up to the challenge range" or the stricter "one place"), and "Rest a player after this many walkovers" (Off, 2, 3 or 5; default 3).