Universal Tennis Rating, a new way to classify tennis players

The tennis Mexico has a significant drought in terms of references and a clear path to reach them in the future. No man in the country today even reaches the top 500 in the world. The hope is Renata Zarazúa, the player who is on the verge of a top 100. Neither aspect is the work of chance, but things could change in the not too distant future.

Adhemar Rodríguez has been linked to tennis for many years. He worked in the Jalisco Open and Puerto Vallarta Open organizations and currently works at Universal Tennis Rating (UTR). This new challenge may change the way in which white sport is conceived not only in Mexico, but also internationally.

“It is a new way of classifying players (…), what he seeks is that we can classify all tennis players in the world under the same scale, that is basically the idea and it has to do with the fact that we have found that they are classified differently everywhere, ”Adhemar explained about UTR.

The influence of the UTR extends to the presence of local clubs to federations, all with the intention of achieving, as its name suggests, the universality of this sport. Created in the United States by a group of professors from the college system, it has quickly become the main tool for finding talent seeking college scholarships.

The study path could be a path that some Mexican tennis players could follow on the way to professionalism, although for Adhemar, the national player can avoid any pretext. “I think the Mexican tennis player has no way of complaining about the showcase he has to compete with. Mexico is a privileged country in the number of tournaments they have, especially from the professional stage, ”he commented.

For Rodríguez, the current problem of Mexican tennis has several factors to take into account, because it is not the only country that is trying to find a way to reach the tennis elite. “I would start by telling you that not only Mexico, there are many countries in the world that do not achieve this. It is really very difficult and very little understood. As a country we lost our way, we lost references and we have to find them, ”said Adhemar.

“We cannot measure because we are 126 million inhabitants, no. How many tennis players are we and what is our tennis culture, what is talked about in the corridors of a club. When you listen to the tennis talks in the locker room of a club, the level is very basic (…) It is a complex problem. It is difficult for countries that have structured federations, in our case we are in the process of renewal in that case, “he added to finish.

The Mexican Tennis Federation has not yet reached an agreement with UTR so that its tennis players can have international parameters in every competition in the country. For Adhemar, it is a pass that is close to happening, but that continues to represent a clear disadvantage for the national tennis player in several ways that bring him closer to being a professional.

​SRN

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