How to run a Monrad tournament in padel
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To run a Monrad in padel, you pair neighbours by seeding in round one, then pair neighbours in the live table every round after, never repeating a match, until log2 of the number of pairs has been played. Eight pairs are ranked in three rounds, and nobody is knocked out.
Monrad is the Nordic name for the Swiss system played with fixed pairs, and the Monrad format page has the rules in short. This guide is the organiser's side: the round count, the pairing, the byes and one complete evening worked through round by round.
In short
- Rounds = log2 of the number of pairs, rounded up: 4 pairs play 2 rounds, 8 play 3, and 12 or 16 play 4.
- Round one pairs seeds 1v2, 3v4, 5v6; after that the table decides, neighbour against neighbour.
- No rematches: if the obvious pairing has already been played, the next legal opponent down the table is used.
- A bye counts as a win and goes to the lowest-ranked pair that has not had one.
- The table sorts on wins, then point difference, then points scored, then seeding.
How do you run a Monrad, step by step?
- Seed the pairs 1 to N. Strongest first, from last season's results or your best judgement.
- Play round one as neighbours. 1v2, 3v4, 5v6 and so on down the list.
- Sort the table. Wins, then point difference, then points scored, then seeding.
- Pair neighbours again, skipping rematches. 1st against 2nd, 3rd against 4th, unless they have already met.
- Repeat until the rounds are played. Log2 of the number of pairs, rounded up: three rounds for eight pairs.
- Read the final table. Every pair has played every round, and the last match on court 1 was between the two unbeaten pairs.
That is the whole format. The rest of this guide is why each step is the way it is, and what it looks like on a real night.
The three rules
Round one pairs neighbours by seeding. Team 1 meets team 2, team 3 meets team 4, and so on down the list. Nothing clever, and that is deliberate: before anyone has played there is no information to pair on except the seeding you brought.
After that the table decides. Teams are sorted by wins, then point difference, then points scored, and finally seeding, and paired neighbour against neighbour again. The teams on two wins meet each other, the teams on none meet each other, and the matches get closer as the evening goes on.
Nobody meets the same opponent twice. When the obvious pairing would repeat a meeting, the search moves down the list for the next legal opponent. This is the rule that occasionally produces a pairing that looks odd on paper: it is avoiding a rematch you would have complained about.
How many rounds does a Monrad need?
The round count is log2 of the number of teams, rounded up:
| Teams | Rounds |
|---|---|
| 4 | 2 |
| 8 | 3 |
| 12 | 4 |
| 16 | 4 |
| 24 | 5 |
Notice what happens between 8 and 16: the field doubles and the schedule grows by one round. That is the property to plan around. Adding six more pairs to a round robin adds hours; adding them to a Monrad usually adds nothing at all.
On a club night, work the evening out from there. With super tie-break only (about 15 minutes) three rounds and changeovers take an hour; with one set per match (about 30 minutes), as in the example below, plan on about 1 h 45.
Odd numbers and the bye
Fixed pairs need an even number of players, and PadelLoop will not start a Monrad on an odd count. An odd number of teams is fine.
The lowest-ranked team that has not already had a bye gets it, and the bye counts as a win. That surprises people, so say it out loud at the briefing. The alternative, a bye worth nothing, means an odd entry list quietly punishes one pair for something the organiser's sign-up sheet caused. Neither option is perfect; counting it as a win is the one every Swiss system has settled on. The bye does not touch point difference, so it never inflates a pair's margin.
How is the Monrad table ranked?
Wins first, including any bye. Teams level on wins are separated by point difference, then by points scored. Seeding decides the order within a group of teams that are otherwise identical, which is also what makes round one predictable.
One consequence worth understanding: with everyone on the same number of matches, point difference does a lot of the work, and it already shapes the pairing from round two. A pair that won its first match 6–1 sits above a pair that won 6–4, and meets the stronger of the other winners next. That is the system working as intended: it rewards margin, not just outcome.
A worked eight-pair evening
Seed the pairs 1 to 8, play one set per match, and run a Monrad over three rounds. These are the pairings PadelLoop's Monrad engine produces for these results.
Round 1 pairs neighbours: 1v2, 3v4, 5v6, 7v8. The odd seeds all win, 6–1, 6–2, 6–3 and 6–4.
Round 2 sorts the table. The four winners rank by margin: 1 (+5), 3 (+4), 5 (+3), 7 (+2). The four losers rank the same way from the top: 8 (−2), 6 (−3), 4 (−4), 2 (−5). Neighbours meet: 1v3, 5v7, 8v6, 4v2. A pair which lost round one is already playing another pair that lost.
Say 1 beats 3 6–4, 5 beats 7 6–3, 6 beats 8 6–2 and 2 beats 4 6–4. The table now reads:
| Place | Pair | Wins | Difference |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | 2 | +7 |
| 2 | 5 | 2 | +6 |
| 3 | 3 | 1 | +2 |
| 4 | 6 | 1 | +1 |
| 5 | 7 | 1 | −1 |
| 6 | 2 | 1 | −3 |
| 7 | 4 | 0 | −6 |
| 8 | 8 | 0 | −6 |
Round 3 splits three ways: the two unbeaten pairs meet (1v5), the four on one win meet each other (3v6 and 7v2), and the two without a win meet (4v8). Pairs 4 and 8 are level on wins, difference and points scored, so seeding puts 4 first. None of the four matches is a rematch.
After round 3 the field has split into one pair on three wins, three on two, three on one and one on none, and point difference orders the pairs inside each group. Three rounds, eight pairs, everyone played every round, and the last match on court 1 was between the two pairs who won everything. That final is not scheduled: it falls out of the pairing rule.
Monrad against the alternatives
| Rounds for 8 pairs | Everyone plays throughout | Complete comparison | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Knockout | 3 | No, half out after one | No |
| Monrad | 3 | Yes | No |
| Groups → playoff | 5 | Mostly | Within the group |
| Round robin | 7 | Yes | Yes |
Monrad matches the cup on time and the round robin on participation. What it gives up is completeness: most pairs never meet, so the table is a ranking rather than a full comparison. If two pairs finish level on wins and never played each other, the point difference is doing real work, so say so before someone asks.
Why does seeding matter so much in a Monrad?
Round one is paired straight off your seeding, and everything after it inherits that start. A seeding that puts the two strongest pairs at 1 and 2 sends them into each other in round one, which wastes the best match of the evening on the opening round and leaves one of them chasing.
Seed on what you know, last season's ladder, previous results, or just your judgement, and spread the strong pairs across the list rather than clustering them. If you genuinely have no information, say the seeding is arbitrary rather than letting people infer a ranking that does not exist.
What PadelLoop does, and what it does not
When you run a Monrad in PadelLoop, the tool draws every round, enforces the no-rematch rule, hands out the byes and keeps the table. You enter one number per team per match.
Be honest with your players about the limits, because Monrad is not one of the social formats. There is no hall screen, no share link for players' phones and no CSV export for this format yet: the table stays on the organiser's own screen. If you want the standings on a TV in the hall, run an Americano or a Team Americano instead, or read the format comparison before you decide.
If you are weighing it against everyone-plays-everyone, the round robin guide has the match count you would be signing up for, and the padel ladder guide shows how a monthly Monrad night can do a box league's job.
How to run a Monrad: common questions
How many rounds should I plan for a Monrad with 6, 10 or 12 pairs?
Log2 of the number of pairs, rounded up: 6 pairs play 3 rounds, and 10 or 12 pairs play 4, the same as 16. A group stage with a playoff uses five rounds to rank 8 pairs. Doubling the field adds just one round, so a big entry costs almost no extra time.
How does the pairing work after round one?
The table is sorted on wins, then point difference, then points scored, then seeding, and neighbours meet: 1st against 2nd, 3rd against 4th. After one round the winners play winners and the losers play losers. No pair meets the same opponent twice; if the obvious pairing repeats, the next legal opponent is taken.
Who gets the bye in a Monrad with an odd number of pairs?
One pair gets a bye each round, the lowest-ranked pair that has not had one, so nobody gets two. The bye counts as a win, as in every Swiss system; otherwise an odd entry list would punish a random pair for the sign-up sheet. The players must still be an even number, since the pairs are fixed.
Which Swiss pairing does PadelLoop use for a Monrad?
The Monrad variant of the Swiss system: sort the table, then pair neighbour against neighbour, 1st against 2nd and 3rd against 4th, with no rematches allowed. The Dutch variant pairs the top half of a score group against the bottom half instead. Monrad is also the name Nordic clubs know the system by, familiar from chess.
When should I pick Monrad over a round robin?
When you have many pairs, a hard finish time and still want a real ranking. 8 pairs in a round robin play 7 rounds; a Monrad ranks them in 3. The cost is that most pairs never meet, so it is a ranking rather than a complete comparison. With a small field and a long evening, play the round robin.
