More on the ITF's World Tennis Number

I wrote last year about the ITF introducing the World Tennis Number (WTN) to replace the International Tennis Number (ITN).

Well, it appears it is beginning to be rolled out and a few more details are becoming available.

The LTA (Britain's more or less equivalent to the USTA) has an FAQ on the WTN and it appears they will be adopting it in 2020.  Here are a few items of interest from what list:

• The scale will be 40 to 1, beginners at 40, world class players at or approaching 1
• Ratings will be shown to one decimal place
• Separate singles and doubles ratings, no specific mention of mixed
• Mentions sets, not just wins, taken into account, which implies games or game differential won't be a factor
• Gender and age neutral
• Will incorporate matches played at home and abroad
• Provision for entering scores from personal matches and having them factored in

There is a specific item addressing why the LTA chose WTN instead of UTR.  The summary is they considered UTR focused on American Collegiate Tennis and select High Performance Academies, and thought appealing to and address players of all levels was more important.  They also valued partnering with the ITF and two other Grand Slam nationals (France and the USA).  Like I said before, the WTN is a shot across the bow of UTR.

The ITF also has a WTN FAQ, a few highlights from it:

• The calculation is based on a player's performance relative to the strength of their opponent
• Changes to an opponent's rating may result in a change to your rating, seemingly even if you haven't played more matches
• Implementation of the WTN will be overseen by relevant National Tennis Associations, e.g. the LTA as noted above

What does this mean for players in the USA?  I have not seen anything from the USTA on how they'll adopt it, but my guess is it doesn't affect USTA League or NTRP, at least for the foreseeable future, but the USTA will cooperate with the ITF to feed them match results so the ITF can calculate WTNs for players.  It is also possible the USTA will calculate WTNs for USTA members, but I bet they leave it to the ITF to calculate and just provide results.  We will see.