The catch-all category. It alleges a violation of the USTA Constitution and Bylaws, the USTA League Regulations, Friend at Court and The Code, or the standards of good conduct, fair play, and good sportsmanship. In practice that covers unsportsmanlike conduct, misrepresented scores, roster or lineup manipulation, and violations of local league rules.

In Florida, a general grievance filed during local league competition has to come with a $50 check. You get it back if the grievance is upheld, or at the discretion of the USTA Florida League Grievance Committee.

This one is about how the league program is being run, not about what a player did on court. Think a coordinator’s decision, scheduling, or how standings were handled.

It gets filed at the next level up, and for district or area matters USTA Florida is the final authority. File it within 90 days of the incident or it is barred. No filing fee.

This one contends that a player or team did not meet the requirements to participate: current USTA membership in good standing through the local league season, age 18 and over for Adult League, and not appearing on the Safe Play Disciplinary List.

It can be filed at any time, and there is no filing fee. For plain questions of fact like age or membership, a league coordinator can simply declare a player ineligible without a grievance at all. If a player is disqualified, the matches they played become 6-0, 6-0 wins for their opponents.

This one contends that a player’s NTRP level is lower than their actual skill level. It is aimed at self-rated players competing below where they really belong.

Players with a valid computer (C) rating, players granted an automatic appeal (A) of a computer rating, and players 60 and over promoted through an age-related appeal are not subject to one. Everyone else is, including players with granted medical appeals.

File it any time up to 48 hours after the player’s team finishes the Sectional Championship. They are not accepted at National Championships. The Sectional League NTRP Grievance Committee decides them, so these stay with USTA Florida. If upheld, the rating is adjusted and the player cannot compete at that level or any lower level, singles or doubles, for the rest of the Championship Year and the one after it. No filing fee.

In USTA League play, a player cannot file a grievance against another player. A grievance against an individual or team can only come from the captain of a team that competed in the match where it happened, a league coordinator, or a member of a Championship Committee. Eligibility and NTRP grievances follow the same list.

Tournament grievances work differently. They run under USTA Bylaw 43 on the national Grievance Report Form, you need an active current USTA membership to file, and players, parents, coaches, trainers, officials, and administrators can all be the one filing.

• During local league play. Before the involved team’s next match in that flight, or within 24 hours after the local league season ends, whichever comes first.

• At a championship. Within 30 minutes of the involved team’s match finishing, or before their next match, whichever comes first. Hand it to the site director.

• Administrative. Within 90 days of the incident.

• Eligibility. Any time.

• NTRP. Up to 48 hours after the player’s team finishes the Sectional Championship.

• Tournament grievances under Bylaw 43. Within 30 days of the incident.

Miss the window and the grievance is barred, so file promptly. These follow the 2026 USTA League Regulations, which are revised every year.

Information submitted to support a grievance is shared with all parties. It is not privileged and not confidential, and that includes your contact information. The national grievance form says the same thing. Worth knowing before you write anything down.

Your coordinator immediately sends a copy to the chair of the appropriate Grievance Committee and to the person named in it. The committee investigates as it sees fit, and holds a hearing only if it decides one is necessary. Then it issues a written decision laying out its reasoning and the deadline for any appeal.

Play continues while all of this is happening, but if the grievance is upheld, matches played in the meantime can be reversed. A committee can dismiss the grievance, direct corrections, or suspend an individual or team, following the League Suspension Point System. No one who sat on the original committee can sit on the appeal.

Abuse and sexual misconduct never go through this process. Report those to law enforcement and the U.S. Center for SafeSport within 24 hours. Emotional and physical misconduct goes to USTA Safe Play. See the Safe Play section above.

Unhappy with your own rating? That is an appeal, not a grievance, and only you can file it. A computer disqualification gets a review, not a grievance. And a coordinator can settle simple eligibility facts without one being filed at all.

Any party to the grievance can appeal, whether you were sanctioned or you were the one who filed. Send a written notice of appeal to your league coordinator or designee, who forwards it to the chair of the Grievance Appeal Committee. Use the USTA League Grievance Appeal Form.

There is no fixed number of days in the national regulations. The Grievance Committee sets your deadline case by case and states it in the written decision, so read that document closely. Both sides get to submit facts and arguments in writing.

The Appeal Committee can affirm, modify, remand for cause, or reject the decision, and it cannot hand down a harsher penalty than the original. Unless there is new information, its review is limited to whether the first committee got the facts, the regulations, the suspension points, or the procedures wrong, or acted arbitrarily.

If the grievance was upheld, the penalties apply while the appeal is pending. Decisions are final and binding, with one exception: a suspension of 12 months or more can go to the National League Grievance Appeal Committee.

Tournament matters run on a separate track, under USTA Bylaw 43 and the USTA Grievance Committee. Any grievance or appeal of a suspension has to be in writing within 30 days of the incident or the final suspension, or it is time barred.

Once an initial decision is issued, the person penalized, the person who filed, or the section has 30 days to request a hearing before the Grievance Committee in writing. Appeals of section tournament suspensions of six months or longer are heard nationally. The Suspension Appeal Form is encouraged but not mandatory, and what you submit is not held confidential.

This is for a permanently disabling injury or illness that happened after your current rating was generated and makes your NTRP level too high. Only the player can file. A captain, another player, a spouse, or your physician cannot file it for you.

Three pieces go in together: a written request from you, a completed USTA League NTRP Medical Appeal Form, and a current Attending Physician’s Statement. USTA Florida also accepts a statement from a treating nurse practitioner or physician assistant. It has to come from whoever is actually treating you and cover date of onset, diagnosis, your specific physical limitations, prognosis, and a medical release to play with the date you can resume. An incomplete appeal cannot be considered.

Send it to the section league coordinator. USTA Florida’s Medical Review Committee can deny it outright and that is final. If the committee thinks it deserves more consideration, it goes up to the National Medical Appeal Committee, the only body that can grant one. A granted rating holds until a new computer rating publishes or you become eligible to self-rate.

Set your expectations: very few medical appeals are granted, and a medical release to play tennis usually suggests your previous level is still within reach.

Year-end computer ratings can be appealed up or down right in TennisLink, and you get an instant decision measured against the national criteria. Sign in, find your NTRP level, click Appeal Rating Level, pick Up or Down, and submit.

Two things to know before you click. A granted appeal cannot be reversed, so be sure. And if an automatic appeal is denied, there is no further appeal.

Self-rated players can appeal up in TennisLink, but moving a self-rating down needs human review. In Florida that means the Player Background History/Appeal Form and the Self-Rate Appeals Committee, and it takes up to about three weeks.

A championship rating earned at the Adult 18 & Over or Adult 40 & Over Sectional or National Championships cannot be appealed down in the year you receive it, apart from medical appeals and age-related appeals for players 60 and over. Players 60 and over can appeal at any time. Year-end ratings stay valid up to three years for players 59 and under, and up to two years for players 60 and over, or until a new rating generates.

If the system disqualifies you at a level after you hit the disqualification mark three times, that is dynamic disqualification. It is automatic, nobody filed anything, and it is neither a grievance nor a rating appeal.

You have the right to a review under the NTRP Dynamic Disqualification Review Procedures, and that review looks only at missing or incorrect data, not at whether the rating feels wrong. Self-rated and appealed players can be dynamically disqualified. Players with computer, mixed, or tournament ratings cannot.