(Palo Alto, CA) - Universal Tennis and Tennis Australia announced the launch of the Australian segment of the 2021 UTR Pro Tennis Tour (PTT). PTT Australia will feature up to 45 events (men and women) in select venues across the country in 2021.
The Australian events of the PTT are a significant element of the three-year global commitment from Universal Tennis and their $20M investment to create 450 new tennis events around the globe. Each tournament will provide a minimum of $25,000 USD in financial commitment and create more opportunities for elite junior, collegiate and aspiring professional players with a UTR in the top 200-2000 in the world.
The UTR Pro Tennis Tour offers an innovative format, providing aspiring pro players with more opportunities to compete, improve their game and support themselves with prize money. All events will be single gender, singles only, entry based on Universal Tennis Rating (UTR), and feature a player group round robin followed by a World Cup-style playoff format. This format guarantees more player competition and results will count for UTR, the world’s most accurate global tennis rating system.
“We are thrilled to build on our strong partnership with Tennis Australia and continue to leverage the UTR tools and technology to bring more opportunities for players to have meaningful, competitive matches while increasing their earning potential. The growth of the 2021 Australian UTR Pro Tennis Tour speaks to our mutual commitment to support the player pathway and growing the great game of tennis.” said Mark Leschly, Universal Tennis Chairman and CEO.
Tennis Australia has collaborated with Universal Tennis to schedule dates that are complementary to the competitive calendar. The 2021 Tour will kick off with 18 events for men and women in the first half of 2021, with the balance of events being scheduled during the second half of 2021. Bendigo Tennis Association will host the first Pro Tennis Tour event in Fosterville Gold Tennis Centre, Bendigo, starting January 18.
“The UTR Pro Tennis Tour is a great platform to support our players and give them even more opportunities to play local while building their skills on an international level. We’re excited to continue our partnership with UTR and help our players to develop on a global scale,” Tennis Australia Director of Performance Wally Masur said.
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About UTR Pro Tennis Series Tour (UTR PTS)
UTR Pro Tennis Tour is launching starting January 1, 2021, with a three year commitment of over $20M to support tennis globally with prize money, venue support, technology, logistics, and opportunity.
Universal Tennis initiated the UTR Pro Tennis Tour in the Spring/Summer of 2020 in an effort to promote safe competition in players’ home countries as ATP/WTA and ITF events were cancelled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are excited about our expanded initiative and have received interest and enthusiasm from nations and partners around the world.
The Pro Tennis Tour is founded to create a development tour to support players, coaches, organizers and Federations worldwide. Over the last six months, Universal Tennis has worked through the challenges created by COVID to develop a global tour to provide safe, local opportunities for developing players to compete and earn revenue. We have established rules, guidelines and protocols, while building the technology to streamline operations, limiting personnel on site for safety purposes, and cut costs to pass savings on in prize money to the players. With reduced opportunities leading to higher cutoffs in futures and challengers, players are left looking for options that are becoming increasingly difficult to find. We have an opportunity together to help those players and create an infusion of capital and matches to support the tennis ecosystem making it additive and complimentary to other current and future efforts.
About Universal Tennis
The mission of Universal Tennis is to make tennis more affordable, accessible and fun for all players, regardless of age, gender, level and socioeconomic status. The UTR Engagement Platform is anchored by the Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) Powered by Oracle, the world’s most accurate singles and doubles tennis rating system; and provides the tools and solutions to make the Universal Tennis Rating relevant and valuable to players, coaches and organizers in their local domain. Universal Tennis is creating opportunities and pathways for players from all over the world, in all stages of life, to find better matches and unlock a more fun and flexible tennis experience. Go to MyUTR.com to sign up, activate your player profile and join the global tennis community. Watch our video and visit us on social @MyUTR.
Media Contact for Universal Tennis: Ben Makarenko / bmakarenko@universaltennis.com