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Pacific Cup is a team tennis tournament for players with a GLTA rating no higher than B. GLTA Clubs from Los Angeles, San Diego, San Francisco, Seattle and Vancouver put together teams to compete.

The first West Coast Cup was held in San Francisco in 2002. In 2003, Vancouver joined as a participating club. Hosting of the tournament is rotated between the cities – so the location varies each year.

Each club enters a team of a minimum of 12 (and a maximum of 30) players competing in doubles and singles match play over a two-day period. The team with the greatest number of wins is proclaimed the winner of the Pacific Cup. The tournament is expected to occur over one weekend near the end of September or the beginning of October.

2024
Dates TBC
2025
Dates TBC

While this is a competitive tournament, it is a great opportunity to meet and socialize with other LGBTQ+ players across the participating cities. If you would like to participate, or volunteer as captain for the VTA team, please email: vicepresident@vtatennis.ca

Participating Teams
  • San Francisco Gay & Lesbian Tennis Federation (GLTF)
  • Los Angeles Tennis Association (LATA)
  • Vancouver Tennis Association (VTA)
  • Team Portland Tennis Association (TPTA)
  • San Diego Tennis Federation (SDTF)
  • Seattle Tennis Alliance (STA)

FAQs

What is the cost?

VTA members who wish to participate are required to cover several costs involved in participating in this tournament, including:

  • Tournament entry fee (often partly subsidized by VTA for members)
  • Flights
  • Accommodation (for tournaments in other cities)

For travel, often VTA members will share accommodation (like an Airbnb) to save costs and build team camaraderie.

Pac Cup Team Tennis Manual

Revised September 2015

Download PDF

Pacific Cup Vancouver team guidelines

The Pacific Cup is an annual team tennis tournament played in September/October of each year where “B” and advanced “C” level players from Canadian & US pacific coast cities meet to compete. The six eligible cities are Vancouver, Seattle, San Francisco, Palm Springs, Los Angeles and San Diego. Each team consists of a minimum of 12 and a maximum of 30 players competing in doubles and singles match play over a 2-day period. The team with the greatest number of wins is proclaimed the winner of the Pacific Cup. In the event of a tie there are a series of tie-breaking rules in place.

To be eligible to compete on the Vancouver Pacific Cup Singles and/or Doubles Team, ALL the following requirements must be met:

  • Participant is a registered VTA Member in the tournament year.
  • Participant has an average of less than 4250 Singles and 4250 Doubles tournament points (< “A” Level) in GLTA-sanctioned events as of July 15th in the tournament year.

Priority will be given to players who support other VTA teams (such as Spring League).

Participants should note that there are personal expenses associated with Pacific Cup Team membership. These expenses may include but are not limited to: (1) a try-out fee, (2) training/practice court fees, (3) team tournament entry fee (shared proportionally by all participants), (4) team uniform purchase and (5) travel and accommodation expenses.

Excluding travel and accomodation, each participant can expect to spend as much as a mimimum of $125.00 prior to the event.

Once selected as a Team Member, each player is expected to confirm his/her commitment to participate on the team within one week. If a selected player must withdraw (due to reasons other than injury), he or she is expected to do so no later than 3 weeks prior to the Pacific Cup competition date in order to allow a replacement player to adjust his or her schedule.

There will be between 3 and 5 scheduled team practices throughout the summer prior to the event. The dates will be announced after the team is selected. All Team members are expected to attend as many practices as possible. There may, of course, be circumstances that prevent a player from making it to a practice, and while understandable, to foster team spirit and camaraderie, attendance is greatly encouraged. As this is a VTA sanctioned team event, all participants are expected to exhibit a high degree of sportsmanship and demonstrate exceptional standards of tennis etiquette. As such, the team captain reserves the right to remove a participant from the team at any time if unacceptable sportsmanship or tennis etiquette are displayed.

It is the responsibility of the VTA Board to select a Pacific Cup Team Captain. By no later than January 1st of the tournament year, the VTA Vice-President will ask the previous years’ Team Captain, assistant captain(s), coaches and team members for an expression of interest in leading this event (Team Captain) in the current year. The VTA Vice-President will compile a list of candidates for the Boards’ review and make a recommendation for the Boards’ approval no later than February 28th of the tournament year. Each participating city is expected to provide the name of the Team Captain and Tournament Director (if applicable) to the Pacific Cup Commissioner by March 1st of the tournament year.

The Team Captain will assume the decision-making power related to the Pacific Cup but the VTA Board reserves the right to reverse decisions made on any contentious issues that arise. The Team Captain may appoint up to two (2) assistant team captains and up to three (3) coaches for assistance at practices and during the event. The assistant team captains and coaches may or may not be members of the Pacific Cup Team. The Team Captain is responsible for the following: liaising with the VTA Vice-President and Pacific Cup Captains from other Teams, selecting and ranking team participants according to the guidelines approved by the VTA Board, collecting participation fees from Team members, organizing practice/training sessions, facilitating the acquisition of team uniform(s) and communicating all pertinent information to Team members on a timely basis. When the VTA is hosting the Pacific Cup Championship, the Team Captain will either assume the role of or appoint a Tournament Director who will be responsible for the following: presenting a break-even Pacific Cup Tournament Budget to the VTA Board for approval, securing and booking a tennis venue(s), running the tournament, arranging catering/food services, coordinating a draw party on the eve of play and a banquet on Saturday evening and recruiting volunteers as required. If the Team Captain meets the eligibility requirements, he is guaranteed a position on either (1) the Pacific Cup Singles Team or (2) the Pacific Cup Doubles Team (with his partner of choice).

The Team Captain is responsible for building the Vancouver Pacific Cup Team by communicating the eligibility requirements to all VTA members and soliciting expressions of interest for participation. This should be done no later than May 15th of the tournament year so that the team membership can be finalized and confirmed no later than June 30th. In the event that a try-out process is required to secure membership on the Team, the Team Captain will determine the process and make the arrangements during the latter part of May and the month of June.

In the event that there are more than 12 eligible registrants for Singles and 6 eligible team registrants for Doubles, the following Tables MAY determine the process for constructing the Vancouver Pacific Cup Teams (Tryout process if necessary will be confirmed at later date).:

Pacific Cup SINGLES
# of players expressing interest # of Players in Try-outs # of positions *
guaranteed
# of positions *
guaranteed
Total # of
Players
12 0 12 0 12
13-15 3-5 10 2 12
16-18 8-10 8 4 12
19-22 15-18 4 8 12
23+ 19+ 4 8 12
* based on GLTA Points as of July 15th in Event year

 

Pacific Cup DOUBLES
# of player teams expressing interest # of Teams in Try-outs # of positions *
guaranteed
Try-out Positions Total # of
Teams
6 0 6 0 6
7 2 5 1 6
8 3 5 2 7
9 5 4 3 7
10 6 4 4 8
11 7 4 4 8
12 8 4 4 8
13 9 4 5 9
14 10 4 5 9
15+ 11+ 4 6 10
* based on GLTA Points as of July 15th in Event year

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In order to balance team strength with participation, the Vancouver Pacific Cup Doubles Team may consist of 6 – 10 Teams depending upon the initial number of doubles teams expressing an interest in participation. As there are 12 doubles matches to be played in the event, the top ranked teams will play two matches and the remaining teams will play one match according to the following schedule.
Pacific Cup Doubles Matches
# of
Teams
Playing Two Matches Playing One Match
6 All Teams NA
7 Teams 1 – 5 Teams 6 – 7
8 Teams 1 – 4 Teams 5 – 8
9 Teams 1 – 3 Teams 4 – 9
10 Teams 1 – 2 Teams 3 – 10

Once the Team members are selected and have accepted a position on the Team, the captain will facilitate the ranking process. This will be done by each team member submitting an anonymous ranking of the team membership to the Team Captain. For example, the Singles Team members will each rank (from 1 – 12) the members of the team (including themselves). The Captain will tally the results to determine the team ranking. A similar process is repeated with the Doubles Team membership (each team submits one set of rankings). The Team Captain, however, may adjust the sequence of singles players and/or doubles teams in tournament play in order to obtain a strategic advantage over other competing teams.

View past results

Year
Host City
Winning City
2023
Vancouver
Seattle
2018
San Diego
2017
San Diego
2016
San Diego
2015
Vancouver
San Diego
2014
Los Angeles
Los Angeles
2013
San Francisco
San Diego
2012
Seattle
San Diego
2011
Palm Springs
San Diego
2010
San Diego
LA
2009
Vancouver
San Diego
2008
LA
San Diego
2007
San Francisco
San Francisco
2006
Seattle
San Francisco
2005
San Diego
San Diego
2004
Vancouver
LA
2003
LA
San Diego
2002
San Francisco
San Francisco