USPTA adopts UTR

S

sureshs

Bionic Poster
April 11, 2018 (San Francisco, CA) - Universal Tennis and the United States Professional Tennis Association today announced a partnership to grow and enhance professional development resources for tennis teaching professionals and coaches.

Under the agreement, Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) Powered by Oracle will become the official tennis rating of the USPTA, the largest organization of tennis-teaching professionals and coaches in the United States and the only teaching association in the U.S. that is provisionally accredited by the governing body. Universal Tennis will enable all USPTA teaching professionals to use its technology for free, providing the tools and products to fundamentally change the way tennis is played at clubs and municipalities in the United States and worldwide.

“Our mission is to elevate the standard of tennis-teaching professionals and coaches. As such, we want our members to have access to the best resources to develop professionally,” said John Embree, USPTA CEO. “The Universal Tennis product platform is proliferating and is increasingly valuable in helping professionals improve tennis quality, enjoyment and participation in their local communities.”

Starting this summer, USPTA members will be able to access UTR’s database, which has 6.5 million match results from more than 700,000 players from 200 countries. Members can use UTR’s platform to register and communicate with players, create profiles and groups, develop tournament draws, post and submit scores, and compare players from around the world. USPTA members will also be able to leverage UTR’s event management system to facilitate level-based play.

In efforts to support the important initiatives spearheaded by the USTA, Universal Tennis and the USPTA will collaborate to support essential measures and protections to safeguard kids participating in events. The organizations will also partner on strategic marketing initiatives to support the growth and development of tennis and teaching professionals around the world.

“We’re excited to partner with the USPTA to grow tennis here in the United States and abroad,” said Mark Leschly, Chairman & CEO of Universal Tennis. “We are pleased to offer our suite of tools and technology to support club pros and coaches to engage their communities with more opportunities to play tennis and to use technology to safeguard kids.”

To learn more about Universal Tennis, please visit MyUTR.com. For more information about the USPTA, visit USPTA.com.
 
D

Deleted member 23235

Guest
https://www.ptrtennis.org/PTRTennis...rswithProfessionalTennisRegistryToExpand.aspx

UNIVERSAL TENNIS PARTNERS WITH PROFESSIONAL TENNIS REGISTRY TO EXPAND RESOURCES FOR TENNIS TEACHING PROFESSIONALS

World’s Leading Professional Tennis Association Adopts
UTR Powered by Oracle as Official Rating

April 10, 2018 (San Francisco, CA) - Universal Tennis and Professional Tennis Registry (PTR) today announced a long-term, official partnership to grow and enhance professional development resources for tennis teaching professionals and coaches.

Under the agreement, Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) Powered by Oracle will become the official tennis rating of PTR, the largest global organization of tennis teaching professionals and coaches. Universal Tennis will enable all PTR teaching professionals to use its technology for free, providing the tools and products to fundamentally change the way tennis is played at clubs and municipalities worldwide.

"I am really excited about PTR's partnership with UTR. As the Head Women's Tennis Coach at Georgia Tech, I believe UTR has truly enhanced our program, and college tennis overall," said PTR President, Rodney Harmon. "PTR is committed to offering the best resources for our members and I believe that UTR will be an invaluable tool for our professional coaches to grow the game at the local level."

Starting this summer, PTR members will be able to access UTR’s database, which has 6.5 million match results from more than 700,000 players from 200 countries. Members can use UTR’s platform to register and communicate with players, create profiles and groups, develop tournament draws, post and submit scores, and compare players from around the world. PTR members will also be able to leverage UTR’s event management system to schedule and run tournaments, camps and clinics, and facilitate level-based play. The two organizations will also partner on strategic marketing initiatives to support the growth and development of tennis and teaching professionals around the world.

“PTR and Universal Tennis are fully aligned in our missions to offer tennis players, pros, coaches and organizers a universal language and standard for tennis,” said Mark Leschly, Chairman & CEO of Universal Tennis. “Tennis professionals are key in establishing a love of the game and facilitating play for players of all ages and abilities. We are glad to partner with PTR to provide tools and technology to enhance the development of club and recreational tennis worldwide.”

To learn more about Universal Tennis, please visit MyUTR.com. For more information about Professional Tennis Registry, visit PTRTennis.org.
 
S

sureshs

Bionic Poster
"Head Women's Tennis Coach"

Here the meaning is obvious, but I have come across references like Head Pro which turned out to be a teaching pro sponsored for equipment by Head!
 
navigator

navigator

Hall of Fame
Three interesting questions arise:

(1) Will UTR displace NTRP?
(2) If so, how will tournaments and leagues be organized using UTR?
(3) Will participants be happier with UTR than NTRP?

I have no idea. It will be interesting to watch this battle play out.
 
heninfan99

heninfan99

Talk Tennis Guru
I see that college recruiters like it but does it put extra weight on the last three months of play?

I just saw the Thiem was #27 on the UTR rankings.
 
D

Deleted member 23235

Guest
navigator said:
Three interesting questions arise:

(1) Will UTR displace NTRP?
(2) If so, how will tournaments and leagues be organized using UTR?
(3) Will participants be happier with UTR than NTRP?

I have no idea. It will be interesting to watch this battle play out.
Click to expand...
(1) utr probably won't displace NTRP, as NTRP is really there to provide a loose grouping... ie. beginner, intermediate, adv... as well as establish a normal distribution of groups (ie. if only 30 beginner play tennis, they will get distributed into 3 groups of 10 if using the beg, inter, adv model)
(2) i think folks will still use USTA for league/tournament finding, mainly because they provide the best marketing... i think eventually UTR can/should take over... which they might do by lowering the cost of admission (no ridiculous usta membership fee that provides little value except to be able to be added onto a team, or play in a tournament)... UTR just needs to provide the tools (API to their website), before i can become a central repository for communicating who won/lost.... main CON of UTR, is that they don't have league coordinators (ie. to police rules)... but arguably LC's don't do that now.
(3) anyone serious about improving in tennis will be happier. folks making no progress, or are not very good, will complain regardless of the system.

i've voting for UTR.

recently sent utr an request for "find a player" functionality.... how powerful would that be... no more lying about skill levels which i think is the major failing of any "find a player" website/app/etc...
 
J

jmnk

Hall of Fame
nytennisaddict said:
[...]
recently sent utr an request for "find a player" functionality.... how powerful would that be... no more lying about skill levels which i think is the major failing of any "find a player" website/app/etc...
Click to expand...
you mean like a web API to find a player? Because they have a search for a player/high school/college right now on the very first page....
 
D

Deleted member 23235

Guest
jmnk said:
you mean like a web API to find a player? Because they have a search for a player/high school/college right now on the very first page....
Click to expand...

“find players in <zip code, city, gps>, within +/-1 of my utr”

then provide a way to send them a msg asking if they want to play...
 
L

Limpinhitter

G.O.A.T.
sureshs said:
April 11, 2018 (San Francisco, CA) - Universal Tennis and the United States Professional Tennis Association today announced a partnership to grow and enhance professional development resources for tennis teaching professionals and coaches.

Under the agreement, Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) Powered by Oracle will become the official tennis rating of the USPTA, the largest organization of tennis-teaching professionals and coaches in the United States and the only teaching association in the U.S. that is provisionally accredited by the governing body. Universal Tennis will enable all USPTA teaching professionals to use its technology for free, providing the tools and products to fundamentally change the way tennis is played at clubs and municipalities in the United States and worldwide.

“Our mission is to elevate the standard of tennis-teaching professionals and coaches. As such, we want our members to have access to the best resources to develop professionally,” said John Embree, USPTA CEO. “The Universal Tennis product platform is proliferating and is increasingly valuable in helping professionals improve tennis quality, enjoyment and participation in their local communities.”

Starting this summer, USPTA members will be able to access UTR’s database, which has 6.5 million match results from more than 700,000 players from 200 countries. Members can use UTR’s platform to register and communicate with players, create profiles and groups, develop tournament draws, post and submit scores, and compare players from around the world. USPTA members will also be able to leverage UTR’s event management system to facilitate level-based play.

In efforts to support the important initiatives spearheaded by the USTA, Universal Tennis and the USPTA will collaborate to support essential measures and protections to safeguard kids participating in events. The organizations will also partner on strategic marketing initiatives to support the growth and development of tennis and teaching professionals around the world.

“We’re excited to partner with the USPTA to grow tennis here in the United States and abroad,” said Mark Leschly, Chairman & CEO of Universal Tennis. “We are pleased to offer our suite of tools and technology to support club pros and coaches to engage their communities with more opportunities to play tennis and to use technology to safeguard kids.”

To learn more about Universal Tennis, please visit MyUTR.com. For more information about the USPTA, visit USPTA.com.
Click to expand...

This looks like a nice fresh target for Cambridge Analytica.

Maybe the USPTA should be more concerned about its members being able to understand and teach modern stroke production.
 
ChaelAZ

ChaelAZ

G.O.A.T.
Most coaches seem to really look forward to the change. Not one has said it ticks all the boxes of a perfect system, but most agree it is improved over The current ratings. Most college coaches like it for line-up rating and a more precise ranking of recruits. Most academies are already starting too. Just got this from Newks, so if we get my son there agin for summer we will get his UTR.

effe5e6987c93dc060fd1a4c05d6b78c.jpg


Most comment that the difference is a currently we have a rating (general) system vs. UTR being ranking (more specific to current/past performance).


Probably posting from the court between sets.
 
S

sureshs

Bionic Poster
ChaelAZ said:
Most coaches seem to really look forward to the change. Not one has said it ticks all the boxes of a perfect system, but most agree it is improved over The current ratings. Most college coaches like it for line-up rating and a more precise ranking of recruits. Most academies are already starting too. Just got this from Newks, so if we get my son there agin for summer we will get his UTR.

effe5e6987c93dc060fd1a4c05d6b78c.jpg


Most comment that the difference is a currently we have a rating (general) system vs. UTR being ranking (more specific to current/past performance).


Probably posting from the court between sets.
Click to expand...

I went to the web site and the categories are the conventional ones, divided by gender.

What is the point of a UTR tournament which is not mixed gender? The whole idea of UTR is that it is only a measure of relative skill.
 
Topspin Shot

Topspin Shot

Legend
nytennisaddict said:
if i were sandbagging, ideally i would win:
7-6, 0-6, 1-0
my rating should go down, right?
Click to expand...
Yes but if you risk letting it go to a super tiebreak you could end up losing the match. Better to win 6-4 6-4 where you get an early break in each set and ride it out. Not that I've ever done that. :)
 
ChaelAZ

ChaelAZ

G.O.A.T.
sureshs said:
I went to the web site and the categories are the conventional ones, divided by gender.

What is the point of a UTR tournament which is not mixed gender? The whole idea of UTR is that it is only a measure of relative skill.
Click to expand...

It will be interesting to see just how and where they break into UTR. Doesn't seem to be an all-or-nothing approach. I think it is still convoluted in adoption at best. So you have the USTA wanting to be the unbrella under which USPTA and PTR operate, but they use NTRP. The USTA isn't fully supporting UTR, but a lot of juniors programs in districts are, like NoCal now does UTR, but adult rec does not as far as I know. I've seen a few other announcement in other district as well, but all for junior and sanctioned open events for adults, with nothing on rec play. Anyway, now the USPTA partners with UTR, which I think gives more validity to the system, but until USTA fully supports UTR and get's rid of NTRP, you end up with this patchy use of it overall.

I mean, changes are really tough and caution is always needed to make sure outcomes are clear, but UTR has bullied some of the industry already and it is causing more confusion than helping with adoption, and the USTA needs to shizz or get off the pot here in my opinion. The only reason I see hold out would be if there is a cost to the USTA now for ratings, or if that cost will eat into profits. This MyTUR system has a cost, so where is that going to fit in? Are players now going to pay for leagues and have to pay MyUTR for match data and ranking? Will it increase league cost or tournament costs because the USTA picks it up and passes it on?
 
ChaelAZ

ChaelAZ

G.O.A.T.
So just thinking about it, who developed and owns UTR? Anyone?

Just curious because it has to be someone or a group inside the tennis industry, and they stand to make some serious bank $$$ if everyone has to use their system. Also, now there will be an additional cost for the USTA to monitor and pass the match data on to UTR for rankings.
 
D

Deleted member 23235

Guest
Topspin Shot said:
Yes but if you risk letting it go to a super tiebreak you could end up losing the match. Better to win 6-4 6-4 where you get an early break in each set and ride it out. Not that I've ever done that. :)
Click to expand...
well if i'm really going to excel at sandbagging, i'm gonna drop 2 levels, and play 3.5. pretty certain there will be little risk of losing the tb - kick it to the bh should be an automatic point :p
 
S

sureshs

Bionic Poster
I would expect UTR tournaments to be agnostic to gender and age and divided into categories purely by rating levels. I read about a 14 year old prodigy, and coincidentally saw another 14 year old prodigy last month in the Pacific Coast men's doubles tournament. He was playing against D1 college players and went deep with his partner. That was a clear example of how ability is not always tied to age.

it would also make for interesting tennis to see boys taken down by girls as they get frustrated and start to overhit, and girls taken down by old men with slices and drop shots. It would increase the variety in tennis.
 
S

sureshs

Bionic Poster
ChaelAZ said:
So just thinking about it, who developed and owns UTR? Anyone?
Click to expand...

C'mon man, learn to search.

Virginia tennis professional Dave Howell launched UTR in 2008 as a private company to promote the rating system he developed and tested successfully in southeastern Virginia. Alex Cancado, a tennis player and web designer in the area, developed an algorithm to operationalize Howell’s rating system. Howell brought in some early followers as partners and began to concentrate full-time on developing the UTR.

In his coaching career, Howell had mentored junior players from the United States who entered French tournaments. Juniors in the U.S. compete under various ranking systems, including a widely used PPR system administered by the USTA. In contrast, France employs a national rating system based on head-to-head won/lost results. This enables French tournament directors to facilitate "level-based play" — orchestrating matches between players of comparable skill, often without regard to their age or gender. French tournaments often use staggered-entry draws that allow stronger players to enter a tournament in later rounds. This design enables a single event to embrace a wide range of skill levels, from club players up to touring professionals, but the French classification system ensures a high probability of even matches for entrants at all levels.

Howell found that the French national rating system yielded events that were, overall, far more competitive than junior events in the U.S. To study why this was so, he defined a "competitive" match as one in which the losing player wins more than half the minimum number of games needed to win the match. In the common "best 2-of-3 set" format, that equals seven games, as the winner must take at least 12 games to capture the match. Hence, a result of 6-3, 6-4 or closer reaches the "competitive threshold," as defined by UTR. After statistically analyzing thousands of USTA boys' and girls' junior tournament matches at all levels, Howell found that on average, only about one match in four (27 percent) was competitive; USTA national junior events reached the 40 percent level.

Howell modeled UTR on the French system, developing, with his colleagues, an algorithm that calculated ratings from head-to-head results with specific opponents, taking their rated skill into account. He and his colleagues also made UTR more precise than the French system by entering the number of games won in a match, not only the won/lost result. The use of Howell's rating system in Virginia produced junior tournaments with substantially more competitive matches—a rate that equalled the 50-60 percent level typically seen at the top tiers of college and professional tennis.

The Founders of the Universal Tennis Rating are: Dave Howell, Darryl Cummings, Alexandre Cancado, Steve Clark, Niclas Kohler, Johan Varverud, Raquel Araujo Kohler, and Patricia Araujo Cancado.
 
ChaelAZ

ChaelAZ

G.O.A.T.
ChaelAZ said:
So just thinking about it, who developed and owns UTR? Anyone?

Just curious because it has to be someone or a group inside the tennis industry, and they stand to make some serious bank $$$ if everyone has to use their system. Also, now there will be an additional cost for the USTA to monitor and pass the match data on to UTR for rankings.
Click to expand...

Ahhhh, well now the big current push makes sense. Owned now by an investment capital firm so gotta get full adoption.

And who would have thunk...Tennis Channel president Ken Solomon is one of the owners in the group.

Looks like a serious land grab there, so watch out for additional fees and costs folks.



In January 2018, the Tennis Channel announced its partnership with UTR, making the rating system part of the Tennis Channel's coverage of competition.

At the same time, a new ownership group assumed control of UTR, which is based in San Francisco, California. Universal Tennis’s chairman and CEO is Mark Leschly, founder and managing partner of Iconica Partners, a global investment firm specializing in the intersection of technology, sports, and media, which heads the new ownership. The group's partners include Mark Hurd, CEO of Oracle Corporation; Ken Hao, managing partner of Silver Lake Partners; Jan Leschly, former CEO of SmithKline Beecham, a former top-ten ATP player and former chairman of the International Tennis Hall of Fame; Ken Solomon, president of the Tennis Channel; the Tennis Media Company; Major League Baseball; and the Los Angeles Dodgers' ownership group.​
 
S

sureshs

Bionic Poster
ChaelAZ said:
Hawkeye costs you nothing. You never use it.

If USTA adopts UTR fully, there is a cost for everyone to that private company. Big difference.
Click to expand...

How much do you think tournament fees will increase because of this?

How much did ticket price increase with Hawk Eye?
 
Last edited:
ChaelAZ

ChaelAZ

G.O.A.T.
sureshs said:
How much do you think tournament fees will increase because of this?

How much did ticket price increase with Hawk Eye?
Click to expand...

I could see USTA raising everyone's membership fee $5. And that would be just to keep the "free" basic service free and leaving MyUTR another level to charge individuals for. Again, everything has a cost. Maybe that doesn't matter to you.

Your Hawkeye example isn't any correlation.
 
J

jmnk

Hall of Fame
ChaelAZ said:
Hawkeye costs you nothing. You never use it.

If USTA adopts UTR fully, there is a cost for everyone to that private company. Big difference.
Click to expand...
What would "usta adopts utr" mean in practice? Like having 10 different league levels, one per each utr level from utr=2 to like utr=12? Having the ranking updated and visible after each match?

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
 
Dartagnan64

Dartagnan64

G.O.A.T.
jmnk said:
What would "usta adopts utr" mean in practice? Like having 10 different league levels, one per each utr level from utr=2 to like utr=12? Having the ranking updated and visible after each match?

Sent from my XT1575 using Tapatalk
Click to expand...

I suspect it would be leagues for every 1 to 1.5 levels of UTR.

The best thing about UTR is that it would improve mixed doubles leagues immensely with it's genderless system. It also would help some areas with lower population put together co-ed leagues.
 
ChaelAZ

ChaelAZ

G.O.A.T.
Dartagnan64 said:
I suspect it would be leagues for every 1 to 1.5 levels of UTR.

The best thing about UTR is that it would improve mixed doubles leagues immensely with it's genderless system. It also would help some areas with lower population put together co-ed leagues.
Click to expand...

You would have too striated competition I think. It would get rid of all the sandbagging gripes because you would have such variety within one rating, but also would have less overall match play with more levels. Not sure that is good either.
 
S

spun_out

Semi-Pro
sureshs said:
it would also make for interesting tennis to see boys taken down by girls as they get frustrated and start to overhit, and girls taken down by old men with slices and drop shots. It would increase the variety in tennis.
Click to expand...
Sounds good on paper, but how do you feel about a 10 year old girl being intimidated by a 40 year old man on the courts? Juniors will have to stay juniors, I feel. Perhaps, it will be fine for adults, but I also doubt that too.
 
S

sureshs

Bionic Poster
spun_out said:
Sounds good on paper, but how do you feel about a 10 year old girl being intimidated by a 40 year old man on the courts? Juniors will have to stay juniors, I feel. Perhaps, it will be fine for adults, but I also doubt that too.
Click to expand...

You have a point. It could lead to other problems unrelated to tennis.
 
heninfan99

heninfan99

Talk Tennis Guru
He should have also put the handicap into the rating like in the French system. So, for example, when navigator plays a 3.0/3.5 in Texas or wherever the 3.5 is spotted 15 or 30 in each game. The French system is great in this way. Then anyone can play anyone and it's more competitive with some pressure points.


sureshs said:
C'mon man, learn to search.

Virginia tennis professional Dave Howell launched UTR in 2008 as a private company to promote the rating system he developed and tested successfully in southeastern Virginia. Alex Cancado, a tennis player and web designer in the area, developed an algorithm to operationalize Howell’s rating system. Howell brought in some early followers as partners and began to concentrate full-time on developing the UTR.

In his coaching career, Howell had mentored junior players from the United States who entered French tournaments. Juniors in the U.S. compete under various ranking systems, including a widely used PPR system administered by the USTA. In contrast, France employs a national rating system based on head-to-head won/lost results. This enables French tournament directors to facilitate "level-based play" — orchestrating matches between players of comparable skill, often without regard to their age or gender. French tournaments often use staggered-entry draws that allow stronger players to enter a tournament in later rounds. This design enables a single event to embrace a wide range of skill levels, from club players up to touring professionals, but the French classification system ensures a high probability of even matches for entrants at all levels.

Howell found that the French national rating system yielded events that were, overall, far more competitive than junior events in the U.S. To study why this was so, he defined a "competitive" match as one in which the losing player wins more than half the minimum number of games needed to win the match. In the common "best 2-of-3 set" format, that equals seven games, as the winner must take at least 12 games to capture the match. Hence, a result of 6-3, 6-4 or closer reaches the "competitive threshold," as defined by UTR. After statistically analyzing thousands of USTA boys' and girls' junior tournament matches at all levels, Howell found that on average, only about one match in four (27 percent) was competitive; USTA national junior events reached the 40 percent level.

Howell modeled UTR on the French system, developing, with his colleagues, an algorithm that calculated ratings from head-to-head results with specific opponents, taking their rated skill into account. He and his colleagues also made UTR more precise than the French system by entering the number of games won in a match, not only the won/lost result. The use of Howell's rating system in Virginia produced junior tournaments with substantially more competitive matches—a rate that equalled the 50-60 percent level typically seen at the top tiers of college and professional tennis.

The Founders of the Universal Tennis Rating are: Dave Howell, Darryl Cummings, Alexandre Cancado, Steve Clark, Niclas Kohler, Johan Varverud, Raquel Araujo Kohler, and Patricia Araujo Cancado.
Click to expand...
 
S

sureshs

Bionic Poster
heninfan99 said:
He should have also put the handicap into the rating like in the French system. So, for example, when navigator plays a 3.0/3.5 in Texas or wherever the 3.5 is spotted 15 or 30 in each game. The French system is great in this way. Then anyone can play anyone and it's more competitive with some pressure points.
Click to expand...

"The day will come when tennis players ask each other, “What’s your UTR?” the same way golfers now inquire, “What’s your handicap?” "
 
ChaelAZ

ChaelAZ

G.O.A.T.
WTH? Their event registration site is a completely separate site? So you have your MyUTR registration, then if you use their event finder and want to signup for an event you have to register AGAIN to do it.

Hopefully the integration between USTA and UTR isn't as half-azz'd.
 
Moveforwardalways

Moveforwardalways

Hall of Fame
Hard to see how UTR would be applicable to adult league play. All the coaches and pros quoted on it reference juniors and college recruiting and college line up preparation. None of those players have a valid NTRP anyway, which is designed for amateur adult play. The days of guys sandbagging at 3.99 on TR.com are far from over. Lol.
 
S

sureshs

Bionic Poster
Moveforwardalways said:
Hard to see how UTR would be applicable to adult league play. All the coaches and pros quoted on it reference juniors and college recruiting and college line up preparation. None of those players have a valid NTRP anyway, which is designed for amateur adult play. The days of guys sandbagging at 3.99 on TR.com are far from over. Lol.
Click to expand...

I was thinking the same myself. If adults are not playing juniors in tournaments, the NTRP rating is more than enough. Adults don't deserve finer ratings as they mostly suck and don't go beyond 4.5 in their lifetime, if that.

However, there are non-USTA flex leagues, including one used by players in my club, where UTR is being used to schedule adults and juniors together. I have seen old men playing small girls in this league. As long as the junior's parents are OK, maybe there is no problem. I even found that some parents encourage this in order to get their kids exposure to a variety of styles, and on the girls side, exposure to harder serves, because there are many club men with a 10% chance really hard serve and no other worthy stroke.
 
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