USTA and UTR Partner to Stage a Tournament in Orlando

The United States Tennis Association’s (USTA) spectacular National Campus, on Lake Nona in Orlando, Florida, boasts no fewer than 100 lighted tennis courts. It opened in January 2017, and one year later, the USTA and Universal Tennis Ratings (UTR) will partner to present the first USTA National Campus Players UTR tournament there on January 3-5, 2018. Tournament director Scott Treibly of the USTA says, “It offers an opportunity for high school and college players to play singles and doubles matches at the beginning of the year, and also offers a chance to win prize money.” The event will accommodate 64 players and offer $3,500 in prize money. Its staggered-entry format will allow highly rated players to enter the draw at later rounds. Entrants will receive UTR credit for all matches played. The tourney will also use UTR to select players for the event as well as placing them in the appropriate division or draw. Seedings, too, will derive from UTRs. These applications of the UTR system ensure level-based play throughout the event, so that both athletes and spectators can feel confident of a large number of close, competitive tennis matches. All participants will play a minimum of two level-based singles matches and one level-based doubles contest. The scoring format will be best two-of-three “short sets”—regular scoring, but with a nine-point set tiebreaker played at 4-4. In addition, the tourney will allow coaching by professional coaches who check in at the first match. Coaching can happen at changeovers, within the regular pace of play, and without verbal interruption. “We are extremely pleased to be opening 2018 with an event on the beautiful USTA National Campus. This event will contain features that are already starting to appear in tournaments around the world. We expect these features to become common in tennis competitions over the coming years,” says Randy Jenks, UTR global director of events. Your event need not be national to benefit from UTR. Sign up for free here.