results from 15/33 ITA summer circuits from 1st 4 weeks not in UTR

[jcgatennismom]

Almost half the results from the first 4 weeks of the ITA summer circuits (6/25-7/18) are not included in the UTR database. One guy won two tournaments, and none of those results are in UTR. However, 7/18 weekend results from tournaments that used the tennislink management system are in UTR. In a different thread, a UTR rep said that players should have checked before they entered a tournament to see if results would be included (blame the victim). However, if half the tournament directors are running their tournaments using software outside UTR or the tennislink system, players didn't really have a choice if they wanted to play locally or regionally.

I looked at two tourneys that were on tennislink that were 64 draws; over 60 matches were played at both. Using those tourneys for an estimate,there could be 15x60=900 missing matches for the men just for the first 4 weeks. The missed women's matches are probably close to the same number. There are 9 tournaments over weeks 5 and 6 that are not on tennislink or the UTR database. It is possible that close to 3000 matches that featured crossplay between juniors and collegians of all division levels could be excluded from UTR this summer. Those are some of the matches most valuable to the accuracy of the rating system since one of UTR's weaknesses is correctly rating across groups that normally dont play each other-college players and juniors. If players only played ITA circuit tourneys this summer and the ones they played are excluded, their UTRs are not accurate. Players whose results are missing will be upset, and college coaches who know their players played summer tournaments but don't see the results will view UTR as unreliable or incomplete. Midmajor or D2/D3 players who beat higher D1 players or high ranked juniors will not get the jump in UTR they deserve. Rising high school juniors and seniors who chose the ITA circuit tourneys as a closer and cheaper alternative to USTA to bump up their UTR may be disappointed.

No one in my family played any of these, but I know players who did play. Some had results included, some didn't. It does not seem fair though to include only half the results. This is what UTR says on Facebook:
The ITA is using the UTR Events site to manage online draws and to capture results so that they are included on the UTR system for a small selection of 2016 ITA Summer Circuit tournaments. However that post was probably put on the UTR site on July 9 as a Cover You Axx statement; by that time registration for the first 4 weeks of tourneys had probably ended. Why didn't UTR ask the ITA to put that statement on the ITA Circuit page with the list of tournaments or ask ITA to asterisk the tournaments it would not include in UTR?

Fortunately, half the results are in UTR which is more than a small selection, but is the glass half full or half empty? UTR boasts of 3million results online, but for the players that chose to play ITA circuit over other options, they are interested in the missing 3000 results that could have a significant impact on their recruiting and selection/seeding in future tourneys. I hope UTR and the tournament directors can figure out a way to get these results in the database in the near future. Those players who traveled and then battled it out in the summer heat deserve to get credit for their wins and close losses.

Note: I checked the winners of all tournaments in the first 4 weeks to see if their results were in UTR. I made the assumption that if the winners and their 4-5 matches leading up to the finals were not in UTR, then the rest of the results were not either. It seemed a reasonable assumption for a relatively quick audit.

 

[Tennis Sam]

The position that they posted on the other thread (although slightly snarky) seems defensible. I'm not sure why it is Universal Tennis' responsibility to key in all the results from these tournaments. That costs time and money. It seems like it is the tournament director's responsibility to provide the data in a format acceptable to import. Universal Tennis provides a template spreadsheet for data entry. If it is too much of a pain for all the individual tournament directors to enter, imagine how much of a pain it would be to enter the results for all of the tournaments combined. Also if the winner or finalist of the tournament really cared, they could key in and submit the results themselves. I doubt they care all that much, though.

The question is whether some results are better than no results. It seems to me it wouldn't help the other half of the players participating in the Summer Circuit if their results were purged from the site just because some of the tournament directors don't want to spend the time to get the data in an acceptable format. Obviously all the results would be great, but we don't live in a perfect world.

On a slightly related note, if I was Universal Tennis I probably would not be pushing too hard to have their system used for seeding and selection until they are confident all the data will be available in a useful format. They could have egg on their face if a player gets left out of a tournament because the data isn't entered in a timely fashion. Let the governing bodies take the flack for those problems. I wouldn't willingly place that burden on my shoulders.

 

[andfor]

My question for UTR being used for tournament seedings is what is the criteria for a players UTR to be used? I saw a tournament last December that used UTR and some players with a high UTR that had not played a documented match in 2-3 years were seeded ahead of players with a UTR that had recent results.

 

[Austinator]

Delete post

 

[Universal Tennis]

The position that they posted on the other thread (although slightly snarky) seems defensible. I'm not sure why it is Universal Tennis' responsibility to key in all the results from these tournaments. That costs time and money. It seems like it is the tournament director's responsibility to provide the data in a format acceptable to import.

We apologize if we sounded "snarky". We tend to get a little defensive when comments are posted on forums that we believe are misleading. As previously mentioned, we do not have the resources to regularly monitor forums. However, we do reply to anyone who posts questions at our website. And we certainly appreciate your efforts to support our position.

For the record...

• Universal Tennis will not make public our communications to tournament sanctioning organizations or tournament directors. We believe that the conversations and partnering agreements we have with the ITA, or any other tennis association or federation, should remain private.
• We are not in the position to dictate who sends us results data, or what systems tournament directors should use, or that they should use a tournament management system at all. We stand by our recommendation that the consumer should be educated in what they are looking for as part of their tournament experience.
• At our expense, Universal Tennis recreated all 2015 ITA Summer Circuit tournament draws so that all players would get a UTR credit. This effort established the minimum requirements for tournament results to be submitted to the UTR system going forward.
• This year, tournament directors that wanted to ensure their participants receive a UTR credit, ran their 2016 ITA Summer Circuit tournaments on either TennisLink or the UTR.Events site. These results were added to the UTR system in a timely manner.
• The balance of the 2016 ITA Summer Circuit tournaments have either been added to the UTR system (30+), or are in the process of being added to the UTR system. However, this process is time consuming when dealing with a circuit that has more than 50 tournaments. Unfortunately, we are not able to provide a definite timeline for when this work will be completed. We do believe everyone who plays the ITA Summer Circuit should get a UTR credit.

...if I was Universal Tennis I probably would not be pushing too hard to have their system used for seeding and selection until they are confident all the data will be available in a useful format.

It is the governing bodies that make the decision to use or not use UTRs for their draw seeding and selections. In some cases, we are not informed that our UTRs are being used for draw seeding and selections. When we are invited to be part of the event planning process, we do our best not only to ensure results get added to our UTR system in a timely manner, but that the event itself utilizes level-based draws to ensure better competition and higher customer satisfaction.

Thank you for this opportunity to set the record straight. We'd be happy to answer any further questions posted at our website.

Team UTR