What's your Universal Tennis Rating?

Kristianne Bontempo | Towpath Tennis Contributor

Do you know what your Universal Tennis Rating is? You might already have a Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) and just not know it! EVERY tennis player can have a UTR. Whether you’re a league player, recreational, junior, college player, or a tennis pro playing the circuit, UTR is available for everyone and will provide the most accurate measurement of a player’s true skill level. Sooo what is it? How do I look up my UTR? How does it work? Also, because I’m sure for those USTA players out there you might be thinking, I have a USTA rating so why would I want to know my UTR? 

Because its universal. Because its affordable. Because it can accurately match up players more competitively. UTR embraces and rates every type of player out there, not just those with a USTA membership. So you can now accurately compare your skills across the globe with those at any age, experience-level and gender. 

Unlike the USTA that uses a rating scale of 1.0-beginner to 7.0-advanced to gauge your playing level, UTR has a rating scale of 1.00 to 16.50. Why the big scale? Because there is a wide variety of players out there! You have your beginners, intermediate players (recreation/league players fall anywhere from 2.00-5.00 on average), high school players, tournament players, collegiate players (typical range is 9.00-13.00), and top-professionals (Roger Federer has a 16.14 UTR) all being rated along one scale. If you’ve played any sanctioned tournaments or are in any adult leagues such as the USTA, then you may already have a UTR and can simply claim your profile by searching for your name. If you’re brand-spanking new to competitive tennis, you get rated by posting a score from a casual hit or by playing recreational matches and poof, you have a UTR! Your UTR will become more reliable after approximately 5 matches, and then will continually update after each subsequent match.

The goal of @MyUTR is both simple and ambitious: measure every player’s ability along one scale.

So how does it work after you get rated? UTR calculates down to the 1/100 of a point and lets you know exactly where you stand by being super transparent with letting you know how its algorithm works. The UTR algorithm calculates your match rating and the match weight and averages the matches you've played to come up with a player’s UTR. What this means is it looks at the match rating (numeric level) and calculates based on how you perform vs. the expectation of the match. So if you're expected to win a close match against an opponent but end up dominating 6-1, 6-1, then your match rating goes up. Even if you are expected to lose, but then end up having a closer match than what was expected, your UTR will go up. Look at it as a win even though you didn't technically win! 

The match weight is actually pretty interesting because matches are weighed heavier on numerous accounts, such as playing an opponent that is closer in numeric rating than somebody 2 points above/below you, playing someone with a more reliable UTR which means they play often, and playing longer matches. A match format that is best of 2/3 sets has more weight than a match with a 3rd set tiebreak. So after looking at both your match rating and weight then voila! you get your new calculated UTR. Also, everything is in real-time. The system updates your rating after every match played (with the exclusion of mixed) within the last 12 months. That includes verified/sanctioned matches and tournaments or just a casual match at the park. 

Here’s my takeaway:  As a newbie to the UTR system I like it. It’s easy to get started, simple to track, and I like that it tracks your progress real-time. Yes, the USTA system is one of the best rating systems out there, because really what else was there to compare to before? The problem I see with tracking a player's level solely on the USTA rating system is we’ve become accustomed and groomed to compete based off of how we think it will affect our rating vs. going out there and competing to the best to our ability. Also, for some players I feel like it has become more of a status symbol. I’ve seen groups of friends break up based on ‘moving up or down’ in the world of USTA league tennis.  And that is why tracking your UTR instead can be so refreshing. We don't have to have this win or die mentality or that we have to "protect" our rating for whatever reason, but rather go out and compete often and win as many games as possible, because at the end of the day that is what makes you a better competitor.

Find out what your rating is

Kristianne Bontempo | Towpath Tennis Employee | Legit Tennis Fanatic

In our last blog post, we mentioned USTA’s latest method for how to self-rate. To make your life easier, we’ve attached the link to their simple video tutorial in self-rating. http://tennislink.usta.com/Leagues/HelpTutorials/ab050000.html

However, while we don’t need to hold your hand throughout the actual process, we do want to help guide you in how to come up with your rating request. USTA has again made life easy by creating a rating chart, so we first advise you to compare your skills to the following:

(click link below for larger image)

http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/USTA_Import/USTA/dps/doc_13_7372.pdf 

Also check out the link below for a second chart that describes exactly what skills you would expect to possess for each kind of stroke per rating level.

http://assets.usta.com/assets/1/USTA_Import/dps/usta_master/sitecore_usta/USTA/Document%20Assets/2006/04/03/doc_13_12278.pdf

Be honest with yourself and your skill level. You're not doing anyone any favors by rating yourself lower for easy wins (which might not be fun and will win you bad looks from other players) or rating too high where you’re constantly getting crushed (also not fun or great for popularity). If you find yourself deciding between two ratings, our rule of thumb is to self-rate yourself at the lower rating if you are a woman (who tend to see themselves about a .5 level too high-an NTRP social status thing) but at the higher rating if you are a man (men tend to be more concerned with winning than social status). After a year of playing, the dynamic rating system will have churned out a new rating for you based on your match results, which in fact might move you up or down a level after all.

If you need to appeal, the USTA has actually made this an easy process. If you think you have a good reason (e.g., haven’t played in years, “played” for a college but by sitting on the bench, have restricted mobility of some sort), then you may have a shot to submit a written appeal. Be aware that just because you make an appeal does not mean you’ll get it. In fact, the odds are probably against it unless you truly have a good reason.

Lastly, if you’re still struggling on what to self-rate yourself, ask any of our teaching pros for assistance. They know the rating system all too well and can give you a valid opinion or can set up a lesson for an evaluation.

Good luck and happy playing!


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