Open Play Wait Times: The Math

The one formula you need

A doubles court holds four players. With C courts, 4 × C people can play at once and everyone else waits. If games take G minutes from first serve to the next group stepping on (including the changeover), then over a session each player spends this long, on average, between games:

Why it works: at any moment, the share of players on court is 4C out of N. Over a long session, each player gets that same share of court time, so time spent playing compares to time spent waiting in the same ratio as players on court to players off court.

What that looks like in practice

Assume a typical recreational game to 11 takes about 13 minutes, plus about 2 minutes to clear the court and start the next one — so G is roughly 15 minutes. Then:

The pattern is worth remembering: every extra player per court adds about a quarter of a game to everyone's wait. At eight per court, players spend as long waiting as playing. Most groups find five to six players per court the sweet spot — enough of a break to rest, not so much that people drift away.

Games per hour

The same numbers tell you how many games each person gets. With 15-minute games, a court runs four games an hour. Multiply by the share of time playing:

• At 5 players per court: about 3 games an hour each.
• At 6 per court: about 2½–3 games an hour.
• At 8 per court: about 2 games an hour.

For a two-hour session, that is the difference between six games and four for every player — a big difference in whether people feel the session was worth the trip.

Why real sessions differ from the formula

The formula gives a fair average, but the experience on the night can vary:

• Courts finish at different times. That is good: it spreads arrivals in the queue out, so nobody waits a full game just because they came off at a bad moment.
• Game length varies. A long deuce battle at 13–12 holds everyone up. A lopsided 11–2 frees the court early.
• Skill-restricted courts split the pool. If one court is reserved for advanced players and there are only six of them, those six wait very little while everyone else shares fewer courts. Check the numbers at each level, not just overall.
• Locked partners and late arrivals nudge the order around, though a rotation based on waiting time evens this out over a session.
• Idle courts are the hidden killer. Two minutes of "who's up next?" after every game adds two minutes to G — and to everyone's wait.

How to shorten the wait

Make games predictable

Playing to 11 without win-by-two caps game length and keeps the rotation steady. Timed games of 10–12 minutes are the fairest option of all when numbers are high, because everyone knows exactly when courts will free up.

Cut the changeover

Have the next group decided and ready before the current game ends. If four players are standing at the gate when the last point is played, G drops by a minute or two — which, at six players per court, cuts everyone's average wait by about the same share.

Use every court, every minute

A court that stays empty because of a strict rule (for example, a level-restricted court waiting for four qualifying players) costs everyone. Open it up, or run a drill court for the two or three players left over — our drills guide has ideas.

Cap the roster or add courts

If you are regularly at eight or more players per court, no rotation trick will fix it. Book another court, split into two sessions, or set a sign-up limit.

Estimating the wait during a session

The formula is useful for planning, but during a session you have better data: how long people have actually been waiting, and how long games are actually taking. A practical live estimate is:

It is a rule of thumb rather than a precise prediction, but it reacts to what is really happening — slow games, a sudden rush of arrivals, a court going idle — in a way a planning formula cannot. CourtConnect calculates exactly this on its Players tab, from the live wait timer it keeps for every player and the durations of finished games, and shows the same estimate on the live view players open on their phones.