01/28/21 – NFHS Announces Universal Tennis as New Official Partner

February 4, 2021 Athletic Department Blog Updates

INDIANAPOLIS, IN — The National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS) has announced a new official partnership with Universal Tennis, a global online platform for connecting players, coaches, clubs and federations to grow the sport.

Universal Tennis is most widely known for the Universal Tennis Rating (UTR), a system that provides an accurate rating for every participating tennis player in the world regardless of age, gender or nationality. The UTR algorithm uses scores and quality of opponents from a player’s past 30 eligible matches to calculate a listing value on a point scale between 1 and 16.50. Players also have access to additional statistics that allow for a better understanding of personal performance as they track their improvement. With more than 2.3 million users from about 125 countries, UTR seeks to help players find better matches for any skill level.

“The NFHS is excited to partner with Universal Tennis to help enhance the game at the high school level,” said Dr. Karissa Niehoff, NFHS executive director. “Our primary goal is to provide the best possible interscholastic experience within each of our athletics and activities programs and this agreement is a major step forward in fulfilling that mission.”

Through the partnership, the NFHS hopes to use UTR to significantly reduce “stacking” in high school tennis, a tactic employed by coaches to place higher caliber players against lower caliber players to create favorable scoring matchups. Using UTR’s numerical values to assess talent level will also cut down the hours that administrators, coaches and tournament directors spend determining player seeding for events.

“High school tennis administrators have long been searching for a way to utilize data to help organize tournaments and maintain integrity in the sport,” said Lindsey Atkinson, NFHS director of sport and tennis liaison. “UTR has really stepped up and become a leader as an organization that provides these analytics and has been universally adopted from the amateur level up to the professional ranks. It will be of great benefit to the high school game going forward.”

In addition to becoming an Official Partner, the multi-year agreement grants Universal Tennis the ability to produce advertisements and articles for the NFHS’ High School Today magazine, present at annual and quarterly NFHS tennis webinars, and distribute promotional materials and address conference attendees at NFHS Summer Meetings.

“UTR High School is completely free and connects high school players to the world’s largest tennis ecosystem,” said Anne Worcester, President of Universal Tennis. “UTR’s easy-to-use tournament management and dual match software allows players to earn credit for their high school performance and provides more accurate and objective matchups and tournament seeding. As the gold standard in college recruiting, coaches across the NCAA, NAIA and NJCAA ask high school players one question – ‘What’s your UTR?”

For more information on Universal Tennis and the Universal Tennis Rating, please visit: https://www.myutr.com.

Online link to article: https://www.nfhs.org/articles/nfhs-announces-universal-tennis-as-new-official-partner/

This press release was written by Nate Perry, coordinator of media relations at the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS).

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About the National Federation of State High School Associations (NFHS)
The NFHS, based in Indianapolis, Indiana, is the national leadership organization for high school sports and performing arts activities. Since 1920, the NFHS has led the development of education-based interscholastic sports and performing arts activities that help students succeed in their lives. The NFHS sets direction for the future by building awareness and support, improving the participation experience, establishing consistent standards and rules for competition, and helping those who oversee high school sports and activities. The NFHS writes playing rules for 17 sports for boys and girls at the high school level. Through its 50 member state associations and the District of Columbia, the NFHS reaches more than 19,500 high schools and 12 million participants in high school activity programs, including more than 7.9 million in high school sports. As the recognized national authority on interscholastic activity programs, the NFHS conducts national meetings; sanctions interstate events; offers online publications and services for high school coaches and officials; sponsors professional organizations for high school coaches, officials, speech and debate coaches, and music adjudicators; serves as the national source for interscholastic coach training; and serves as a national information resource of interscholastic athletics and activities. For more information, visit the NFHS website at www.nfhs.org.

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.