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Leistungsklasse

How the LK system works

LK 1 is the best class, LK 25 the worst. Only wins move the number, and a small amount is added every week. The formula from the DTB's implementing rules, explained in plain terms.

Updated

The Leistungsklasse (LK), the DTB's rating, has 25 steps. LK 1 is the best, LK 25 the worst. One decimal place is published, 17.3 for instance. Get better and you get a smaller number. New players start at 24.0; juniors are given that rating on 1 January of the year in which they turn eleven.

Only wins count

A defeat does not change the LK. A win lowers it by an improvement value V, which follows from five factors: the points P for the win, the hurdle H of your own LK, the age-class factor A, the scoring-format factor Z and the team bonus M.

V = (P / H) · A · Z · M          singles
V = (P / H) · 0.5 · A · Z · M    doubles and mixed, per partner

Internally the DTB carries a carried value (Begleitwert) with at least three decimal places. The published LK is that value truncated to one place, not rounded: 20.458 becomes 20.4. The floor is 1.5, the ceiling 25.0.

The Wednesday

The calculation runs weekly. Points and hurdle rest on the LK both players held when it was fixed on the Wednesday. Several wins in the same week are therefore all reckoned against that one starting LK and added up; they do not build on one another.

The drift

Every week 0.025 is added to the LK, whether you play or not. That is 1.3 a year, and the replacement for the old annual demotion. After twelve months without a match the accumulated drift is halved; after 36 months without an LK-relevant match you are deleted from the system. The current rules name no monthly figure; the “0.1 a month” of older articles describes the same drift in the version that stood before 2022.

Bonuses and penalties

  • Wins in team matches (the Medenspiele) count 10 per cent more.
  • Taking part in a German, Verband or district championship brings 0.1 once per calendar year, provided at least one singles match was played out in full.
  • Failing to turn up costs: the first instance in twelve months is free, the second +0.1, the third +0.3, every one after that +0.5.

What does not count

Under-10 competitions are not rated. Wins against the other sex do not count except in mixed doubles. An opponent without an LK counts as LK 25.0. A walkover brings nothing; a retirement after at least one game has been played counts as normal.

Source: the DTB's implementing rules for the Leistungsklasse (tennis.de) and the announcement of the new points curve (tennis.de, 29 September 2025). Work it through in the LK calculator.

Next

  • Points and hurdleThe points curve old and new, the hurdle table, and why “200 at LK 13” is wrong.
  • What is a good LK?Why there is no official distribution, and what the steps mean in practice.
  • LK vs. UTRThe two scales, the table in circulation and where it came from, the one official bridge.