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About HEAD USA HEAD TENNIS, a part of HEAD BV, is a global provider and marketer of premium branded tennis apparel, footwear, balls and equipment for athletes of all competitive levels. Since its launch in the late 1960s, when HEAD founder Howard Head first introduced the aluminum tennis racquet, the division's key products have attained leading market positions based on sales and reputation. Many of today’s top ATP and WTA players, including Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Alexander Zverev, Richard Gasquet, Tomas Berdych, Maria Sharapova and Sloane Stephens are part of the HEAD Tennis family. For more information, please visit: www.head.com/tennis. About Universal Tennis & UTR Powered by Oracle Universal Tennis is the Company behind UTR Powered by Oracle, a revolutionary system that provides a single, unifying language and standard for tennis players across ages, geographies and gender. The Company’s vision is to unify tennis for everyone by bringing cutting edge analytics and community-based technology to players worldwide independent of level. UTR Powered by Oracle is a unique, algorithm-based system for tennis that allows anyone to measure, identify and track their level relative to other players, while also providing tools for coaches and organizers to run UTR Powered Events that are level based rather than age or gender driven. Today, the UTR Powered by Oracle system is gathering data from over 8 million match results across 700,000+ players in over 200 countries. The Company has strategic partnerships with Tennis Channel, Oracle, OrangeCoach, Les Petits As – Le Mondial Lacoste, Cliff Drysdale Management, IMG Academy, International Tennis Hall of Fame, Good to Great Tennis Academy, Kim Clijsters Academy, and many others. UTR Powered by Oracle is the official rating system for Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA), World TeamTennis (WTT), Professional Tennis Registry (PTR), and the United States Professional Tennis Association (USPTA). The Company is owned by seasoned investors, advisors and operators across the tennis, sports, technology and media industries. To sign up for UTR Powered by Oracle, please visit www.MyUTR.com.
HEAD USA Partners with UTR Powered by Oracle
Universal Tennis
HEAD USA (HEAD Penn Racquet Sports) and Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) Powered by Oracle today announced a strategic partnership joining their technology and tennis expertise to drive engagement and growth among tennis players worldwide.
HEAD USA’s partnership with UTR Powered by Oracle is the first of its kind for the racquet sports brand, which has been marking a worldwide force in tennis innovation since its launch in the late 1960s, when founder Howard Head introduced the first aluminum tennis racquet, and is currently the US leader in the tennis ball market with the Penn brand.
UTR Powered by Oracle has experienced rapid growth among players, clubs, federations, coaches and tennis professionals who are using UTR’s rating, tournament management system and community platform to register and communicate with players, manage tournaments and events, post and submit scores, and compare players from around the world. Unlike any other system, UTR Powered by Oracle provides players and coaches with a dynamic, objective measurement of tennis skill that is based purely on results and takes every game played into account.
Today, UTR Powered by Oracle has over 8M results from 700,000 players worldwide and is the official rating system for a number of elite tennis tournaments, clubs and academies, including IMG Academies, Saddlebrook Resort & Spa, Cliff Drysdale Management, Citi Open and the International Tennis Hall of Fame. UTR also has strategic partnerships with Oracle and Tennis Channel, amongst several others.
“UTR Powered by Oracle is the talk of the tennis industry and for the first time delivers a true rating system that is an outstanding tool for the entire tennis community. It was a natural to team up with their team as HEAD continues to take new and innovative approaches to engage with players. It’s going to be a great partnership!” said Greg Mason, President HEAD USA Racquet Sports.
“We are excited to partner with HEAD USA to further advance UTR Powered by Oracle’s mission,” said Mark Leschly, Universal Tennis Chairman and CEO. “HEAD USA was founded on innovation and we look forward to working with them to provide more opportunities for all players to find fun, competitive level-based tennis wherever they are.”
As part of the partnership, UTR Powered by Oracle and HEAD USA will work on a variety of marketing initiatives, starting with HEAD USA’s “Speed Wins – You Win” campaign, celebrating the launch of the new Graphene 360 Speed tennis racquet. The promotion is offering the first 1000 consumers who purchase a Graphene 360 Speed racquet by August 20th to register their racquet (via head.com/speedwins) by August 24th for a chance to get their racquet for free. If HEAD sponsored athletes Novak Djokovic (UTR 16.07) or Alexander Zverev (UTR 15.88) win the final in New York on September 9th, all registered consumers will receive a check from HEAD reimbursing the cost of their Graphene 360 Speed racquet.
Later this fall, HEAD USA and UTR Powered by Oracle will begin a dedicated calendar of year-round programming and initiatives, which will include activations on UTR’s digital community and club platform, Penn tennis ball-related promotions, HEAD racquet offers and special promotions, custom content, and behind the scenes access.