Page 69 - Tennis Magazine April 2019
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ESPN tennis analyst Brad Gilbert Official rankings in such a compet- of four matches at a junior tourna-
ran into colleague Patrick McEnroe itively deep sport have always been ment were competitive.
and McEnroe’s daughter, Victoria, a a perilous exercise. They were princi- Howell’s inspiration for UTR was a
highly skilled junior player, the first pally comprised in two ways: through similar ranking system already used
words out of her mouth to Gilbert the subjective evaluation and com- in France, with some data-based
were, “So what’s your UTR?” parison of players’ performances in modifications. He ultimately sold UTR
UTR is not a coming thing. It is an sanctioned tournaments; or on the to a group headed by Silicon Valley
already here thing. basis of points earned, usually by the venture capitalist Mark Leschly, who
rounds reached in those events, as played college tennis and recruited a
Competitive tennis is like an enor- on the ATP and WTA. formidable group of investors includ-
mous onion, with layer after layer of One drawback of such rankings ing tech powerhouse Oracle, Blue
expertise. The weekend warrior who was that it favored players who Ridge Capital and Roger Federer’s
annually dominates his club cham- were willing and able to travel to and management group, Team8.
pionships enters a sectional USTA play many events, especially as the Almost overnight, UTR has given
event and gets waxed in the second competition grew stiffer. The other tennis players something they have
round by the No. 7 seed, love-and- drawback was that, except for the never had: a simple, clear rating
two. That player then can’t get a set top events, the skill levels of players system that, like a handicap in golf,
off of a solid Division I NCAA college was far too disparate. Virginia tennis provides an objective, results-based
player—who then can’t buy a win in pro Dave Howell, who launched UTR measure of one’s skill. That opens
an ATP Challenger qualifying event. in 2008, analyzed tournament results opportunities that had never before
And so forth. and found that, on average, only one been available in tennis: level-based
M A R /A P R 2 0 1 9 T E N N I S . C O M 6 7
