The announcement, made jointly with several national tennis federations including the USTA, FFT (France), and LTA (Britain), doesn't offer many specifics but states that the WTN will
aim to break down one of sport’s key barriers to participation - uneven match-ups - allowing players of all abilities to determine their individual level. This will help players identify opponents and competitions of an appropriate standard and access to more competitive and enjoyable playing opportunities.It goes on to mention that the WTN (emphasis mine)
will be a powerful enabler in fulfilling the fundamental objectives of increasing participation, and recruiting and retaining players of any age, gender and ability.I don't believe the prior ITN specifically said whether it was or wasn't gender neutral, but clearly the WTN is intended to be gender neutral, unlike the USTA's NTRP but like UTR.
Some other items of note that I gleaned from reading the site and FAQ:
- Targets players of all levels, but a focus on recreational players.
- Reaffirms being gender and age neutral.
- Separate WTN for singles and doubles.
- No mention of calculation details other than it being "based on the player’s performance in matches relative to the strength of their opponent". It does say the principals of the calculation will be published for all to see, but it is unclear to what level of detail that will be.
- Late 2019 to early 2020 launch.
- Mentions an on-line community to connect players worldwide.
- Other countries participating in the development include Canada, China, Ireland, Netherlands and Switzerland.
It also discusses adoption of WTN and says national association's existing rating systems are unaffected by introducing the WTN, and the roll out of WTN within a nation is up to the association and it may or may not be adopted along side or as a replacement for the existing system.
To me, while there is no mention of UTR in the press release or site to my knowledge, this is a shot across the bow of UTR. The ITF is the international governing body for tennis and sees providing a way for players from or within any country to find and play competitive matches to be within their domain. And to be fair, they created the ITN years ago pre-dating UTR. Whether it is "international" or "universal" or "world" or "galactic" doesn't really matter, the aim is the same.
But ITN was not widely used (at least from my perspective in the U.S.) and frankly was dated in its algorithm and methodology as they were aiming to make it easy to implement by national associations or organizations 10-15 years ago or more. In many ways, this sounds like an update to ITN to get it current, and they decided to rebrand it at the same time to make a splash.
What does this mean to USTA League and Tournament players? My guess is nothing in the short term, I can't imagine there would be a change to use WTN in any way in the next few years. But the USTA is supporting the WTN so I imagine there will be some collaboration to either support the calculation of the WTN by the ITF, or perhaps even calculate a WTN for players from their USTA play. Regardless of how the USTA runs leagues and tournaments going forward, it appears players will have a WTN to use and gauge their play by.
What do you think? Is WTN late to the game? Or will a rating supported by the ITF and major national governing bodies carry more weight in the end?
Very interesting, I believe there is a place for an advanced open global rating system.
ReplyDeleteAt the beginning it was written that it would be based on Glicko-2, but according to the FAQ, other results may influence player's rankings, whcich means it will probably be based on even more advanced ranking system such as TrueSkill Through Time or Whole History Ratings.