Universal Tennis Rating System

UTR is widely used throughout the tennis community by professionals, collegiate players, juniors, and recreational players. For any players that aspire to go to US College, UTR is the key measure that college coaches use to compare and select players for their teams.

UTR rates every tennis player, across age, gender, and geography, on a 16-point scale. It’s an objective, results-driven rating based on:

1. Strength of opponent
2. Games won
3. Your last 30 matches within 12 months

Your UTR can change even if you don’t play because people you have played continue to play.

If there is more than a 2-point difference between players UTR there is little or no impact on UTR ratings.

Waverley (via Club Zone/Tennis Results On-line TROLS) are uploading player results for the purposes of enabling weekly competition results to contribute to player UTRs. All results are uploaded.

• Trial bulk upload of the past Summer season’s results to see if it was possible (March 2021)
• Plan to make regular uploads during Winter 2021 but COVID derailed - bulk season upload again instead
• More regular transfer of data
• Evaluation of transferring data to UTR via TA League Manager (issues with this for most players as doesn’t work without a Match Centre ID)
• Currently a weekly upload of results  - cycle of competition may mean your results are delayed by a week.
• Process to correct incorrect scores, names, DOBs being developed and refined (discussed in "What to do if scores need to be corrected.")

If you are:

• Playing Hot Shots or a D grade competition and using green dot (or orange or red balls), your results are not uploaded to UT. This is because this grade of play is about enjoying playing, learning and enjoying the game of tennis. At this level, the results from week to week can be so variable that they are not an accurate reflection of a player's ability. Once a player moves to yellow ball competition graded, then your results will be uploaded.
• A new player to competition and your results aren't in the system yet. We batch upload results each week, so wait a couple of weeks and results should start coming through. Also make sure you create a UT account so that you claim your results.

Your results from Waverley competition are uploaded to a UTR profile that is created for your results, even if you don’t have a UTR account.

The benefit of uploading results to UTR is that results are there even if the player does not have a UTR account (e.g. can’t upload one player’s results and not the other).

It is not possible to know if a player has a UTR account or not unless you try to:

• Message them through the UTR app
• Select them to a UTR event (if you are an event organiser)

You only need a UTR account if you want to play UTR events (e.g. Flex Leagues).

If you create a UTR account, you can “claim” your results so they are included in your profile. When you create a UTR account search your name to request the results you find are included in your account. If you don’t do this, you will create (inadvertently) a duplicate profile. Make sure the spelling of your name is correct.

UTR accounts are free, unless you want to see more detail about your progress and your opponents - then you pay an annual fee.

If you don’t have a Tennis ID when you create your UTR account, just click “Add later in settings” under the submit button.

You only need a Tennis ID if you want to enter TA events.

If you have created a Match Centre ID and linked it to UTR, you should ask TA how to merge accounts.

UTR cannot use your information until you create an account with UTR, and then you control information and permissions.

You need a Competitive Player Profile (CPP) when you decide you want to play tennis events organised by Tennis Australia and Tennis Victoria. If you only ever intend to play club tennis, then you don't need a competitive player profile. Find out more about creating a competitive player profile on Tennis Australia.

There is also information about the CPP and the limited impact it has on Waverley Tennis on the CPP page.

You need a tennis Australia player ID when you decide you want to play tennis events organised by Tennis Australia and Tennis Victoria. If you only ever intend to play club tennis, then you don't need a Tennis Australia player ID. You may get asked for your Tennis Player ID when you create an account with Universal Tennis. You can skip this part of the process by clicking the "submit this later" button under the space where the number is requested. Note that players are automatically issued with a Tennis ID (11 digits, starting with '66') by Tennis Australia when they create a Competitive Player Profile.

1. You can do that here: Claim Your Profile, Check Your UTR Rating - Universal Tennis 
   
2. It's important that you are consistent with the use of your name for team entries and score sheets, so that you do not get multiple player accounts.

This can be caused by:

• Different results systems uploading results into UTR e.g. TROLS and League Manager.
• If you have used a different name to enter events run by say Waverley and TA (e.g. Steve vs Stephen as your first name). Another common discrepancy is DOB, as one profile may have it, but the other not.
• Players may create a new UT account without searching for an existing profile and linking to the profile and results already there.
• If you have more than one UTR account, then you need to decide which account you need to be your primary account, and let Waverley know if this is not the account where your Waverley match results are being uploaded. The procedure is explained in the next item.
• You can only do this if you have a UTR account. If you don’t have a UTR account, and are not interested, you can ignore it.

UT have an easy way or merging accounts when you have multiple accounts. On your player profile, on the right of the screen, there is a button "request player profile merge". Click this and follow the instructions. The support team are very helpful and can be contacted on support [at] universaltennis.com

When a player forfeits:

• The match result is 6-0, 6-0 (depending on format) BUT
• The player result is 0-0, 0-0 (e.g., no match)

When a player retires at, say 3-4 down in the first set

• The match resultis 3-6, 0-6 (depending on format) BUT
• The player result is 3-4 retired - must record as set not finished in comments or it goes in as a 0-6

The space at the bottom of the scoresheets needs to include notes for the Records Secretaries to know that:

• The match result (for the purposes of the Waverley League Ladder) and
• The player result (for the purposes of UTR) are different. The correct player result is then sent to UTR

If players play out of order/the wrong opponent, the match result does not count towards the competition league ladder, but the player result is still sent to UTR.

• Spelling mistakes (same player listed more than once with different spelling)
• Names too hard to read (bad handwriting)
• Lack of info about emergency players e.g., only first name provided
• Scores entered to opposition team in error or vice versa
• Incorrect DOB’s
• DOB’s optional for seniors
• Incorrectly filled in scorecards
• Mismatched DOB’s if a player plays more than one competition or plays for more than one club (in different competitions)
• Wrong opponent selected on Club Zone/TROLS

The Record Secretaries have to make sure that the right player is selected and assigned the right results.

Important to remember the difference between match results and player results.

• Players should advise their club of an incorrect score ? Use comments to record if a set is forfeited due to injury etc...
• Clubs should then advise the relevant Record Secretary for the competition
• Evidence (e.g. photo of scorecard) is required to substantiate any requests
• Record Secretaries will adjust the scores
• Scores will be updated as part of a weekly batch upload (so it is not an instant process)
• Results are flagged to be sent to UTR (by Record Secretary)
• Corrections can only be done during the current season (e.g. for past seasons changes can no longer be made)

• Friday Afternoon - extract all match set/rubber results (not previously sent to UT), excluding those with a Forfeit, Wash-Out, or a No Player was listed for the set, or result was 0-0 (player score), combine into a single file and upload to UT
• Saturday-Sunday - UT process the result that where uploaded, and resolved the Merging of UT Profiles, & Spelling corrections
• Saturday-Tuesday - receive a mapping file of TROLS Id s to UT Profile Ids and a new “Possible Duplicate Players file
• Tuesday - download player UTRs and update the various associations with their players

1. Results on TROLS are for teams and inter-club competition ladders. Whilst results are uploaded for individual matches, points are allocated to teams. This means that points are awarded for forfeits, even though a match hasn't been played. You should use TROLS to look up your team's position on the competition ladder. Once a season is completed, results are not stored - they are overwritten for the next season competition (e.g. you cannot look up historical results).
2. Results on UT are your individual match results for singles and doubles. Your rating is based on your last 30 results, to reflect your current form. These results are maintained on UT and you can look up results and statistics over the years that you play tennis matches that count to UTR (e.g. results are not overwritten, like they are on TROLS).

When you need to correct a match score in the current season, the Record Secretary needs an updated scorecard to be approved through the process used for a disputed score. Once the update score has been agreed, the Record Secretary:

1. Corrects the score in Scoring Program
2. Uploads to Web
3. In Club Zone, in “Record Secretary Menu”, “UTR Features” uses “Rest and Resend a Match to UT” option, by selecting, the Day/Time, Section, Round, and Match, then click the “Reset and Resend Match to UT” button

If a Match needs to be removed from UT, then the Record Secretary has to provide Match details (Association, Day/Time, Section, date & Round, and Match), and TROLS admin will request the Match be removed.

Removal is required where for example, a 6-0 was recorded, but in fact it was a forfeit, 0-0 scores are not sent to UT, so the only option here is to remove it.

For a new player result, UT creates a UT Profile with the spelling of their name. If a spelling mistake is found, this is first corrected in the TROLS database, and TROLS admin is notified to include this in the weekly UT update.

Players or parents who notice errors in the spelling of their name, should notify their Competition Convenor, who will then notify the relevant Waverley Tennis Record Secretary.

To assist Waverley with player identification, especially where players play in more than one competition (e.g., Junior and Senior), it is helpful to use DOB.

Over time as players age out of Junior Competitions and migrate to Senior competitions (and perhaps move clubs) it will become increasing difficult to match up the “Same” player. This will be much simpler if Senior Competitions also request player's Dates of Birth.

We have been advised by UTR that recording a super tie-break score as a set score i.e., 7-6 or 1-0 rather than the actual super tie-break score of 10-3, does not affect the player's rating.

For more information about UTR, go to the UT Help Centre home page, and from here you can search on a variety of topics.

Related articles:

Understanding the algorithm

Doubles rating Algorithm