News

TEMPE, Ariz. — The Intercollegiate Tennis Association and Universal Tennis are proud to announce today a five-year partnership agreement, whereby the ITA will officially endorse the Universal Tennis Rating® (UTR) as “the official rating system of the ITA.”

The ITA Summer Circuit will now be branded as “powered by UTR,” with the ITA utilizing the Universal Tennis event platform “UTR Events” as the tournament management system for the Summer Circuit events. The two organizations will work together in developing the ITA Summer Circuit as a model for level-based play.

“The ITA is thrilled to be entering into a long-term partnership with Universal Tennis, a forward-thinking, innovative organization that shares a vision match with the ITA,” said ITA Chief Executive Officer Timothy Russell. “I’ve said before that for American tennis to thrive, and tennis to thrive around the world, college tennis and American junior tennis must grow and thrive. By partnering with Universal Tennis, we believe that college tennis will continue to serve as a model for the benefits of level-based play. The ITA and Universal Tennis alliance will demonstrate collective global leadership for our sport.”

“Our partnership with the ITA affirms UTR’s value as the one reliable metric anyone can use to gauge a tennis player’s skill,” said Universal Tennis CEO Bruce Waschuk. “It also implements level-based play for the ITA’s Summer Circuit, which we are excited to be a part of. The ITA clearly recognizes that its use of UTR will enhance players’ enjoyment of the sport of tennis, and the depth of their engagement in the game.”

Important benefits of the ITA and Universal Tennis partnership will include a consistently high standard of service for tournament directors and players using the UTR Events platform, as well as prompt and accurate posting of all match scores into the Universal Tennis Ratings system for all tournament participants.

About The ITA

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) is committed to serving college tennis and returning the leaders of tomorrow. As the governing body of college tennis, the ITA oversees men’s and women’s varsity tennis at NCAA Divisions I, II and III, NAIA and Junior/Community College divisions. The ITA administers a comprehensive awards and rankings program for men’s and women’s varsity players, coaches and teams in all divisions, providing recognition for their accomplishments on and off the court. For more information on the ITA, visit the ITA website at itatennis.com, like the ITA on Facebook or follow @ITA_Tennis on Twitter and Instagram.

About Universal Tennis

The UTR system was devised in order to encourage and facilitate competitive matches between similarly rated players. This led to the development of a truly “universal” rating system and methodology – now called the Universal Tennis Rating® System – that is based on principles not found in other tennis rating systems. Over the last ten years Universal Tennis has monitored hundreds of thousands of tennis results from professional, collegiate, and national, sectional and district level junior tournaments, as well as high school play. Our research has shown that events with the narrowest range of levels of players (fewer levels) produced the highest number of competitive matches, whereas the events with the largest range (greater number of levels) produced the lowest number of competitive matches.