7 min read
Take your game into the future with the newly launched Universal Tennis app. The free app, available on iOS and Android, makes it easier than ever to get on the court, have fun with friends and compete with players around you.
Designed to improve the player experience, the Universal Tennis app boasts new features, impressive capabilities, and a user-friendly interface. More enjoyable, level-based play will now be at your fingertips, with the app becoming the new home for your entire tennis life.
A Universal Tennis App Home Feed Built for You
With the Universal Tennis app, players can reap the benefits of having everything Universal Tennis offers in one place.
The app lets you customize your home feed to find tennis near you. View stats and rankings, follow players and colleges, keep up with results, and post scores. Arrange practice partners and find a hit through Paid Hits, the newest initiative by Universal Tennis to pair local players with elite junior, college, and pro players.
The core of Universal Tennis is the UTR Rating, the world’s gold standard rating system, which offers the most accurate index of someone’s playing level on a scale from 1 to 16.5 points. Moving through the app, you will dive deep into player profiles by viewing enhanced charts, analytics, and stats.
Your UTR Rating will always be visible in the top left of the app. Quickly view and swipe through all upcoming events directly from your home feed or tap on the calendar icon at the top right. The settings gear allows you to customize your feed, profile, view your player groups, clubs, and manage your subscription.
If you do not have any upcoming tennis scheduled, you will see two buttons at the very top of the app to either Find Play or Create Play. The Universal Tennis app streamlines the steps to get you on the court.
Find Play in the Universal Tennis App
The Find Play feature is how Universal Tennis gets you on the court more seamlessly than ever before. By selecting Find Play from the home feed, you can search for events by location, date, and/or event type (tournament, matchplay, Flex League, or Paid Hit). Once you’ve found an event, you can view all event details, connect with the organizer, register, and pay.
Create Play in the Universal Tennis App
Finding players near your level in your community to hit with used to be one of the biggest challenges in tennis—not anymore. This feature in the Universal Tennis app can help you grow your group of players to hit against or partner up with.
The Create Play feature keeps you connected with your tennis friends, past opponents, and new players close to you. By selecting Create Play from the home feed, you can set up competitive or casual tennis with friends and players near your UTR Rating for singles, doubles, or mixed doubles.
Create Play allows you to set the date and time, location, game type, and invite players with a share link or choose from your player groups. There are three types of format: competitive sets that count towards your UTR Rating, recreational sets with no plans to post scores, or a rally just for fun. You’re then able to publish your event into players’ feeds and search. Universal Tennis will notify you when players accept, and you’re ready to play!
Player Groups in the Universal Tennis App
Our new Player Groups are a convenient way to connect with and manage communication with players when scheduling tennis. There are two types of Player Groups. First, Universal Tennis automatically creates a group based on players you’ve competed against in our database. As you play more, your pool of opponents grows.
Second, you can grow your own player group through the Create Play events you organize or by sharing a link to your Player Group for your tennis friends to join.
Player Group features will expand over time, empowering you to end the struggle of corralling players on various messaging apps or social media platforms to schedule matches or meet-ups.
Paid Hits
Everyone remembers the best player they’ve ever hit with. Now you can regularly make more of these memories while improving your game with Universal Tennis Paid Hits. Arrange a hit with elite junior, college, and pro players in your local area.
Launched in mid-September, Paid Hits already has 100 elite players signed up and ready to hit with anyone willing to pay to play including Will Blumberg, Bradley Klahn, Kevin King, Chris Eubanks, Taylor Johnson, and Martin Redlicki.
With Paid Hits, Universal Tennis is connecting players with tennis “providers” in its marketplace. The Paid Hitters set their own rates and Universal Tennis takes no service fees.
Find nearby Paid Hitters on your home feed, or search by player name. You can also click on the button labeled “Request to Hit” found now on every player profile with a UTR Rating above 8.0.
How To Get Started with the Universal Tennis App
- Download the app on iOS or Android
- Sign in with your Universal Tennis account or signup for free
- From Settings in the top right corner, you can update your subscription, profile, feed preferences, notifications, account information, Saved Lists, and Player Groups
- Keep your profile up to date with your home club or court location, playing background, and preferences
- The top of your home feed will have two buttons: “Find Play” and “Create Play” and when you scroll down, you’ll see events and Paid Hits near you as well as local players and clubs and your recent results
- Tap “Find Play” to search for local events and leagues
- Tap “Create Play” to set up singles or doubles with players in your area or from your Player Groups
How to Navigate the Home Screen
The bottom bar includes five buttons to make it easier to access the most common features.
- The action (+ sign) button allows you to post media, offer Paid Hits, Create Play, and post a score.
- The tennis court button is your Home Feed.
- The search button makes it easy to find and research players, events, Paid Hits, Flex Leagues, clubs, colleges, and high schools.
- The messaging bubble opens your inbox and is how you also connect with other tennis players in your community.
- The profile button leads you to your UTR Rating history and results, analysis, win/loss record, trending UTR Rating, and more. See your recent results, and upload or view media to share with others on your profile.