What’s New with SwingVision ft. George Opelka For a few years now, USTA has been saying it was going to adopt the International Tennis Federation (ITF) World Tennis Number (WTN). Over the past several months, a few USTA sections have been piloting junior tournaments using WTN for selection, seeding, or both with varying levels of success. It appears USTA is ready to roll out WTN across all 17 sections by Fall 2022, so you need to be informed, educated, and ready.
This content is for members only.
Lisa Stone
Per the USTA Webinar on May 17, 2022 (Jenna Kelly, Dan Holman, Adelaide Wood):
May 17, 2022 at 5:34 pmAll match results reported in TennisLink (League & JTT) and Serve Tennis (Tournaments) will go toward a player’s WTN. WTN will be updated on USTA.com and your profile each week. You will also be able to view your WTN on the ITF website. The ITF is already using WTN as the 2nd entrance criteria – after ITF World Ranking – for selection into its tournaments. Starting this June, tournament directors will be able to integrate WTN into their L3 closed through L7 events depending on how each section plans to roll it out so be sure to check with your section for details. For 10-and-under events, WTN will count all green and yellow ball results – players must be at least 7 years old to be rated. Red and orange ball will NOT generate a WTN. In USTA Junior Circuit events, WTN will be used to group players. USTA rankings and WTN will co-exist to compliment each other for junior competition. Same with the USTA PlayTracker for 10-and-under. PlayTracker rules trump WTN rules in terms of progressing from one ball to the next. For Jr Team Tennis, WTN will replace the Junior NTRP rating in terms of placing players on teams in the 2023 championship year. USTA is piloting a high school tennis program to incorporate high school results into WTN. For those in the college recruiting process, WTN will be a valuable tool for college coaches as another data point when looking at players. USTA continues to work with tech partners like Universal Tennis (very vague answer to the question of how WTN impacts or will work alongside UTR). Playing one competitive match will generate a WTN; the more matches you play, the more accurate the rating. Response from pilot tournaments using WTN has been positive. The Family Profile on USTA will include all family members’ WTN.
Lisa Stone
For those interested in yesterday’s USTA webinar, here is a link to watch the recorded session: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1iJ6TawV78s8RALqQWAa5-yXJHcK6TukP/view?usp=sharing
May 18, 2022 at 7:40 am