A round robin schedule for 5 players in table tennis produces exactly 10 matches across 5 rounds, with every player facing every other player once. Whether you are a PT teacher setting up an inter-class league, a club secretary tired of WhatsApp chaos, or a state-association volunteer running a TTFI-affiliated district event, this page gives you the complete draw table, the formula, and a free tool to manage it all without a single spreadsheet.
The number of matches in any round robin is calculated with one simple formula:
This formula works for every player count — 4, 6, 8, 16, or 32. Bookmark it. Your state federation's technical delegate will know it by heart too. If you are planning larger groups, see our round robin schedule for 8 players for the next step up.
Label your players P1 through P5. The table below lists all 10 matches grouped by round. One player sits out (bye) each round because the total is odd.
| Round | Match 1 | Match 2 | Bye (Rest) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Round 1 | P1 vs P2 | P3 vs P4 | P5 |
| Round 2 | P1 vs P3 | P4 vs P5 | P2 |
| Round 3 | P1 vs P4 | P2 vs P5 | P3 |
| Round 4 | P1 vs P5 | P2 vs P3 | P4 |
| Round 5 | P3 vs P5 | P2 vs P4 | P1 |
All 10 unique pairings are covered. No match repeats. Every player competes in exactly 4 matches and rests once.
| # | Match | # | Match |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | P1 vs P2 | 6 | P1 vs P5 |
| 2 | P1 vs P3 | 7 | P2 vs P3 |
| 3 | P1 vs P4 | 8 | P2 vs P4 |
| 4 | P2 vs P5 | 9 | P2 vs P5 |
| 5 | P3 vs P4 | 10 | P3 vs P5 |
Every district-level organiser in India knows the drill: you write player names on chits, do a manual draw on the morning of the tournament, photograph the bracket, upload it to a WhatsApp group, and then spend the next three hours answering "bhai, mera match kab hai?" Someone inevitably screenshots the wrong version. Scores get disputed. The results sheet goes missing before you can file it with the state federation.
For a 5-player group this is manageable — barely. But once you add a second group, a consolation bracket, or UPI-based entry fees, the chaos multiplies fast. That is exactly the problem TT Arena was built to solve for Indian table tennis organisers.
TT Arena is a free tournament management platform built specifically for Indian table tennis — club leagues, school championships, state-ranking events, and everything in between.
Sign in at ttarena.app and tap New Tournament. Enter the event name, venue, and date. No credit card needed.
Type or paste player names. TT Arena accepts TTFI registration numbers if you are running a ranked event, but they are not mandatory for friendly or institutional tournaments.
Choose Round Robin — Single Group. The platform auto-generates the exact 10-match schedule shown above, assigns table numbers if you have multiple tables, and builds a live scoreboard your players can check on their phones — no app download required.
After each game, enter the score on your phone. Standings update instantly. When tiebreakers are needed, TT Arena applies ITTF and TTFI rules automatically — game ratio first, then point ratio — so there is no argument at the table. For a deep dive on tiebreaker logic, read our ITTF tiebreaker rules for round robin explained.
Export a PDF results sheet for your records or your state body. Share the live link directly to your existing WhatsApp group — they click it, they see the bracket, no more confusion.
Running this inside a school? Our guide on how to conduct an inter-school table tennis tournament in India covers permissions, equipment lists, and SGFI compliance in detail.
| Player | Matches Played | Wins | Losses | Games Won | Games Lost | Points | Rank |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| P1 | 4 | ||||||
| P2 | 4 | ||||||
| P3 | 4 | ||||||
| P4 | 4 | ||||||
| P5 | 4 |
Print this out or — better — let TT Arena maintain it digitally so you are not chasing a piece of paper at the prize distribution.
A 5-player round robin produces exactly 10 matches. Use the formula N × (N−1) ÷ 2, which gives 5 × 4 ÷ 2 = 10. Every player faces every other player once.
A 5-player round robin requires 5 rounds. Because the player count is odd, one player gets a bye each round. Each round has 2 live matches and 1 bye, cycling through all 5 players fairly.
Yes. On one table you play 2 matches per round with 1 player resting. All 10 matches complete in roughly 50–90 minutes depending on format (best-of-3 or best-of-5). TT Arena auto-generates the schedule and tracks scores in real time.
When two or more players finish with equal wins, tiebreakers follow TTFI and ITTF rules: first by head-to-head result, then by game ratio (games won ÷ games played), then by point ratio. TT Arena calculates all of this automatically.