Kid's a heck of a player. Gia isn't bad but very outclassed. Surprised they would be in the same division.
They're not really.
LTA tournaments have Grades, from 1 - 7. 1 and 2 are National, and include British Tour events, 3 is regional, 4 is county... and it gets a bit more messy after that. The tournament here is a grade 3.
Technically, all of the tournaments are open - there's nothing to stop a rank beginner entering a grade 1, or a world ranked player competing in a lower grade. Rankings points on offer are weighted as you would expect, so the latter doesn't really happen: there isn't a great deal to be gained from sandbagging. Entrants are organised by their ratings and rankings, and unless there is a shortage of players entering a tournament, those with a lower rating don't gain entry. Grade 1 and 2 tournaments typically have qualifying and pre-qualifying, and are well subscribed. Grade 3 can sometimes include outliers, particularly in summer when there is a higher volume of tournaments on offer.
In this video, Oliver has a rating of 2.1 (plus a national ranking of 75 in the U16s, 200 in the U18s, and 368 open). He's the second seed. Gianclaudio has a rating of 7.1, and is one of the lower rated players in the tournament.
There is some complexity with ratings... juniors seem to be inflated higher than in the past (there are a lot more 2.1 and 2.2s than there used to be), whilst adults can be horribly under-rated. The majority of league matches over here don't count towards rating, so unless you play regular tournaments, your rating doesn't improve. However, in this particular case, you can see that there's clearly a gulf between the two players.
