Page 70 - Tennis Magazine April 2019

Novak Djokovic (UTR 16.28 at the 2019 Australian Open) and Tennis Australia
recently announced a partnership with UTR, which gives pro-tour insights.
Ranked No. 1 in Melbourne, Simona Halep’s UTR (13.28) was less than Serena
Williams’ (13.34); Williams won their fourth-round match, 6–1, 4–6, 6–4.

competition; the chance to improve at their own level, and that makes “My kids are
without traveling to distant tourna- a big difference.”
ments; the ability to better your In his winner’s speech, Querrey got crazy about
ranking even without winning (by to the heart of what made the event
playing well against higher-rated unique, and UTR’s impact on it. UTR. It lowers
opponent, in terms of games won) “It’s fun to have everyone from a lot of barriers
and a vastly expanded menu of tour- 8-year-olds to—I don’t know how
naments from which to build ratings. old the oldest person was—play the to getting
With UTR-based entry, the Cali- same tournament,” he said.
fornia Championships hosted 128 noticed and
matches on the first day, featuring “Tennis is a traditional sport, but maybe earning
players ranked as low as 2.96— it’s been held back because of it,”
roughly the equivalent of an NTRP says Leschly, the CEO of Universal a scholarship.”
men’s rating of 3.0. The early rounds Tennis. “We need to make some
were contested with Fast4 rules. changes to grow the game because
Using a staggered feed-in, play- we’re living in a digital world, “Say there’s a young Frances
ers with higher UTR ratings didn’t especially when it comes to kids. Tiafoe out there, but he doesn’t
compete until the later rounds, as a We need to take advantage of tech have the $50,000 it takes to travel to
way to ensure competitive matches and connectivity.” tournaments chasing points in order
from start to finish. After 223 total Using tech and its reach isn’t just to develop a ranking,” Leschly says.
matches, the highest UTR level was about fancy algorithms. It’s about “Now he can play locally across all
the champion Querrey’s, at 15.46. empowering disadvantaged players, age and gender groups, develop a
“It’s a great way to organize and broadening the pool of tournaments, UTR and become eligible for a col-
run a tournament,” says Tarango. finding players for teams and intro- lege scholarship.”
“The reverse [staggered] feed-in ducing a greater degree of certainty Until UTR gained traction,
works great. It brings in players in to college recruiting. Leschly’s own son, an excellent

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