Towels are one of the key items to have at your tournament.

How Many Towels Should You Have? It is not uncommon to have an inventory of 600 – 900. Some Women’s events see an inventory of 300 – 600. You can project 2-3 towels per player per day. For events held during hot summer months, it is recommended to increase the quantities. Initial discussions with towel vendors should include the expectation that there will be losses. It is inevitable that you will lose towels. Even the US Open experiences the shortage of towels. The only solution is to have more towels on hand than needed.

Towels

Where to Get Towels

Cleaning Towels

If you have hired a laundry service to launder the used towels, they may be picked-up at the end of each day and brought back the following morning. Make sure to have enough clean towels on hand while the used ones are being cleaned. Some tournaments such as those at Universities are fortunate enough to have industrial size laundry machines to handle cleaning of the towels. More than often, used towels are taken home by tournament volunteers to be cleaned.

Distribution of Towels Towels are usually brought to court by the officials and re-stocked by a volunteer between matches or on request. Towels may be distributed at the tournament desk once a player is called for his/her match. Some tournaments request that a player make a deposit such as leaving a driver’s license in order to guarantee the return of the towel(s). Requesting a deposit is a good way to control losses but this is not done at Challengers.

Some tournaments rent towels from a linen service/Dry Cleaning company for the duration of the event. Example: AT the Binghamton Challenger, the owner of the healthcare linen service that provides the tournament towels is a tennis player and supporter of the event. They are given a $1,500 sponsorship package for the exchange of the towels and cleaning. Some tournaments arrange a deal with their tournament hotel.

Who Else Uses Towels? TRAINER:

The Trainer will use a good amount of towels for the treatment of players both in the trainer area and on court.

OFFICIALS:

Officials also use towels to place as cushioning on their chair during a match. Please check with your Chief of Officials if an inventory of towels for officials will be needed.

BALL PERSONS: Don’t forget the ball persons may need to use towels, especially in hot temperatures.

If it rains, towels are often used to help dry off courts and seats after it rains.

Towel Hygiene

The USTA Pro Circuit has a Towel Policy is assist Tournament Directors in educating individuals working at Pro Circuit events (namely ball persons, court attendants, trainers and officials) about the proper handling of contaminated towels in order to reduce the risk of transmitting infectious diseases. The risk of catching a virus or bacteria from a used towel is small, but there are 4 key points to reduce this risk:

1. Cover all cuts or open sores on your hands • Skin is an important barrier to protect you from infection • Cover all healing cuts on your hands with a bandage

2. Do not handle towels or any other object contaminated with blood, vomit, urine, or feces

• Only tournament Trainers are authorized to handle contaminated towels 3. If you see a player blow his/her nose or spit into the towel:

• Do not handle the towel • Players have been instructed to handle their towels contaminated with • nasal secretions and spit • If such a towel is thrown at you, let it drop to the ground

4. Wash