USA Pickleball has announced a strategic partnership with UTR Sports that appoints UTR Sports as the rating/rankings, technology, and software partner of USA Pickleball for their tournaments, leagues, and recreational activities.
The USA pickleball announcement last week follows last year’s June, 2023 announcement where the Association of Pickleball Professionals (APP) appointed UTR Sports as APP’s exclusive player ratings partner for tournaments, matches, and leagues.
While these announcements may fall under the radar for many pickleball players, I think this is a big win for USA Pickleball and the APP tour going forward on a partnership with UTR Sports.
Who is UTR Sports?
UTR Sports was launched in 2008 as Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) and has become the gold standard for player ratings in competitive tennis. If you are a tournament player at the junior, collegiate, and even professional level, these players all have a UTR rating and this rating is recognized by coaches, players, tournament directors, and tennis organizations as the most accurate measure of tournament player ability available today.
More About the USA Pickleball and UTR Sports Partnership
UTR Sports has adapted its tennis rating system to develop a pickleball specific rating system called the UTR Pickleball Rating (UTR-P). Players with tournament experience will have both a 4-digit player rating and a 2-digit skill rating for each event category played. (more on that later) For players with no tournament experience those players will receive a provisional rating (P1 – P5) based on the completion of a questionnaire.
What this means for those that have played in USA Pickleball sanctioned tournaments is players will have separate and unique player ratings for 5 competitive divisions including men’s singles, women’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles.
Details for UTR-P Player Skill Levels
The USA Pickleball and UTR Sports player rating scale can be described as follows according to this explanation found on the UTR Sports website:
1 = Beginner: new to the game of pickleball with limited racquet sports experience (provisional rating equivalent of P1)
2 = Social/Casual: plays from time to time for fun and can maintain rallies (provisional rating equivalent of P2)
3 = Intermediate: has a solid understanding of the basics of pickleball and has an interest in more competitive play (provisional rating equivalent of P3)
4.0 – 4.9: = Advanced: consistent shot maker with the ability to compete in advanced level tournaments (provisional rating equivalent of P4)
5.0 – 10.0: = Expert/Pro: master of all shots and strategies and plays at the highest levels of competition (provisional rating equivalent of P5)
What is the Difference Between a 4-Digit and a 2-Digit Player Rating?
The new USA Pickleball and UTR Sports player rating system will generate both a 4-digit and a 2-digit player rating. USA Pickleball explains the difference between the two by saying “the more precise 4-digit rating will be used primarily for seeding while the 2-digit rating will be used primarily for tournament registration and structured club/league play”.
The first 2 digits of the 4-digit rating will make up the 2-digit skill rating. The 4-digit and 2-digit player rating scales will look like this:
4-DIGIT 2-DIGIT
1.000 – 1.499 1.0
1.500 – 1.599 1.5
2.000 – 2.499 2.0
2.500 – 2.999 2.5
3.000 – 3.499 3.0
3.500 – 3.999 3.5
4.000 – 4.499 4.0
4.500 – 4.999 4.5
5.000 – 5.499 5.0
5.500 – 5.999 5.5
with the scale going up to 6.999
USA Pickleball has shared that the old UTPR legacy player rankings will be transitioned in the coming months to the new UTR-P rankings and the details communicated to players when more information is available.
For the new UTR-P player rankings, the 4-digit rating will be updated weekly, while the 2-digit skill level rating will be updated quarterly. Quarterly updates will occur on March 31st, June 30th, September 30th, and December 31st. USA Pickleball members will be able to access their player ratings on the USA Pickleball website on their member profile page which can be found here.