5 min read
Universal Tennis has been making a huge impact at clubs all over the world, and one in particular in Canada is reaping in the benefits.
The Challengers Tennis Academy in Ottawa runs year-round programs focusing solely on junior competitive development. Universal Tennis is giving the academy players more opportunities to compete and improve their UTR Rating for college recruitment while helping organizers host more successful events.
"We have been one of the earliest adopters of the Universal Tennis platform for use in structured events in Ontario and probably in the country," said Michael Paduch, President & Founder of The Challengers Tennis Academy. "The main drivers for use of the Universal Tennis platform in our case are the flexibility and convenience of the platform."
The Challengers Tennis Academies of Canada Inc. is a private, for-profit sports organization. The goal is to provide instruction for players of all ages with the year-round junior competitive Tennis Development Center (TDC) program at the Carleton University Tennis Center and summer camps at the Colonel By Secondary School, both in Ottawa.
"I am very thankful that my children were able to have some competitive tennis during the pandemic through Universal Tennis events," said Challengers Tennis Academy parent Dr. Farhad Motamedi. "By giving them a sense of normalcy and a healthy goal to focus on during the pandemic, Universal Tennis events played an important role in maintaining their mental wellness during a very difficult period."
Thanks to the partnership with Universal Tennis, the Academy is benefiting by having increased flexibility to run any type of event in any format anytime. They're able to generate revenue by taking advantage of slow court time by providing players with quality events. The Universal Tennis platform is easy to use since everything including messaging, draws, results, court assignments, and player info is on the web-based platform.
"It does not require organizers to carry laptops," Paduch said. "We do everything on our phones and we don't need a special app, either. It is all web-based. I usually set up events one month in advance. Players must sign up and pay electronically before a deadline, so I know well who will be attending."
Paduch even has full control to set his own formats, policies, and rules for events and registration.
Academy players are benefitting by getting more matches with weekly matchplay events. One consistent format called "The Challengers Academies Weekly Competitive Matchplay Event" offers each player three UTR Verified matches in just 2.5 hours (two singles and one doubles).
"Both of my children are accurately matched with opponents at similar levels resulting in engaging matches," said Michael Petrescu-Comnene, a parent of two academy players. "They enjoy tracking their progress through their UTR Rating and it gives them the motivation to never give up.”
Since UTR Rating is the gold standard for recruitment in the United States, academy players are also more able to get noticed by college coaches. Improving UTR Rating is a huge motivating factor for players to compete harder since every game counts.
"Universal Tennis provides the opportunity for players to compete regularly in events where they work toward something tangible: their UTR rating," Paduch said. "The events are competitive because they’re based on UTR Rating, which is remarkably accurate.”
For more information about Universal Tennis Clubs, click here.