Today, Universal Tennis and Les Petits As – Le Mondial Lacoste announced a long term partnership to unify, evaluate and organize tennis events for elite junior players worldwide using the UTR Powered by Oracle rating and community platform.
Les Petits As will adopt UTR Powered by Oracle, the most accurate global tennis rating system, as its official rating and the metric by which the tournament will evaluate all players and establish draws. Les Petits As will also utilize UTR’s tournament and event management platform to organize and run all tennis events from qualification tournaments to its premier tournaments, including the Les Petits As – Le Mondial Lacoste in January 2019.
“Les Petits As is the global standard bearer for emerging elite junior tennis and we are pleased to partner with them to give coaches and organizers the tools to understand player level and facilitate competitive, fulfilling tennis events,” said Mark Leschly, Universal Tennis Chairman & CEO.
"The adoption of UTR Powered by Oracle by Les Petits As opens the doors for talented young players worldwide to qualify for the world championship tournament, regardless of their location and economics."
"The adoption of UTR Powered by Oracle by Les Petits As opens the doors for talented young players worldwide to qualify for the world championship tournament, regardless of their location and economics.”
The partnership between Les Petits As and UTR gives U-14 players worldwide an unprecedented opportunity to qualify for the elite Les Petits As – Le Mondial Lacoste through a planned Regional Qualifying expansion. By adopting the UTR Powered by Oracle system, Les Petits As – Le Mondial Lacoste tournament organizers are now able to compare and track players with a single, unified rating that is borderless, ageless and genderless. For example, players from Denmark, Spain, France, the US and China can now all be evaluated and rated across the same system. UTR’s tournament management system will allow Les Petits As organizers to easily set draws and tournaments based on player UTRs and automatically include all match results towards the players rating for an accurate, real-time view of player skill level.
“We have been impressed with the efforts made by Universal Tennis to support players, coaches and organizers, and improve the game of tennis through a single, unified rating system that defines ability for all players,” said Stephane Gurov, Top Five CEO, and Jean-Baptiste Simeon-Knaebel, in charge of Les Petits As Development.
“We are always seeking to gather the best kids in the world, UTR Powered by Oracle will help us to find out the most talented players and to run excellent events for players, coaches and fans at the highest junior level.”
“We are always seeking to gather the best kids in the world, UTR Powered by Oracle will help us to find out the most talented players and to run excellent events for players, coaches and fans at the highest junior level.”
Les Petits As – Le Mondial Lacoste is the world’s most elite junior tennis tournament with many of the game’s top players claiming the title in their youth, including Rafael Nadal, Michael Chang, Juan-Carlos Ferrero, Kim Clijsters, Frances Tiafoe, Catherine Bellis and Jelena Ostapenko, among others.
About Les Petits As – Le Mondial Lacoste
Les Petits As – Le Mondial Lacoste is the world’s most prestigious junior tournament. Created in 1982 in Tarbes, South-West of France, the tournament is considered the premier World Championship event for under - 14 players. Gathering all the best kids from all around the world, Les Petits As has proven its capacity to forecast the best future champions. Today, the seven first male players of the ATP and the seven best female players of the WTA have started their career at Les Petits As.
For 36 years, the greatest tennis champions have played and made history at the tournament, including Grand Slam winners: Roger Federer, Novak Djokovic, Andy Murray, Juan-Martin Del Potro, Marat Safin, Stan Wawrinka, Justine Henin, Lindsay Davenport, Dinara Safina, Ana Ivanovic, Mary Pierce, Amelie Mauresmo, Marion Bartoli, Angelique Kerber, Garbine Muguruza, Caroline Wozniacki, Sloane Stephens and Martina Hingis.
The new generation of talent who have competed in Les Petits As include Grigor Dimitrov, Alexander Zverev, Dominic Thiem, Borna Coric, Frances Tiafoe, Milos Raonic, Elina Svitolina, Daria Kasatkina, Caroline Garcia and Simona Halep.
To get more information, please visit www.LesPetitsAs.com.
