"Universal Tennis Ranking" - What is it?
The Universal Tennis Ranking (UTR) will one day become a worldwide benchmark similar to the handicap in golf. And is not only aimed at professional players.
by tennisnet.com
last edit: Jul 17, 2020, 12:28 pm
Anyone who follows the invitation tournament in the Steffi Graf stadium in Berlin at one of the broadcasting TV stations this week will not only be presented with the participants' world rankings, but also their “UTR”. "UTR" stands for "Universal Tennis Ranking" - and should serve as an international benchmark in tennis in the not too distant future.
At the moment, different approaches are being pursued in this direction in different countries: in Austria the "ITN" (International Tennis Number) applies, in Germany, on the other hand, players who take part in the championship are classified in performance classes from 1 (strongest) to 23 (weakest) assigned. The aim of all these systems is to objectively assess players and to make comparisons between roughly equally strong partners.
Djokovic leads ahead of Nadal
However, the UTR system goes one step further, as Darren Cahill, coach of Simona Halep, explained in an interview with Todd Woodbridge for Tennis Australia: While the conventional approaches only scored after victory or loss, everyone goes at the UTR won point in the evaluation. A 5: 7, 7: 5, 5: 7 should ultimately be worth more than a 0: 6, 0: 6. The strength of the opponent also plays a role.
All results on the ATP, WTA and ITF tour are recorded, as well as those from the US College Sport and selected events specially introduced for the UTR rating (such as in recent weeks in Australia).
A worldwide UTR system would bring advantages, especially when it comes to university tennis in the USA: the scouting of students playing tennis would thus be practically eliminated. Which Darren Cahill also appreciates, whose son Benjamin has been accepted into a college.
In comparison to the current ATP ranking, the UTR looks similar but not identical. Novak Djokovic tops the charts ahead of Rafael Nadal - while Dominic Thiem is number three in the regular ATP world rankings, his UTR leads him to fifth. Still behind Roger Federer and Stefanos Tsitsipas . In the women Bianca Andreescu is ahead of Naomi Osaka and Ashleigh Barty .