In April 2023 Tennis New Zealand will be the first Federation in the Oceania region to introduce the ITF World Tennis Number (WTN) – a brand new, inclusive and modern rating system for all players.
The International Tennis Federation (ITF), the world governing body of tennis, together with the LTA, the USTA and other leading tennis nations have cooperated in the development of the new rating system, which will be used by national associations around the world to help create a common language across tennis.
It is a single global tennis rating for all players, regardless of age, ability or gender – from the world’s elite to a player taking part in their first competition. The scale will see players given a rating from 40 to 1, with recreational players starting close to 40 and the professionals being close to 1.
The modernisation and innovation of NZ’s grading system was identified as a priority area to improve on during Tennis NZ’s competition review by coaches, officials, players and parents. The ITF WTN presents a timely opportunity to help meet this goal.
Julie Paterson, Tennis NZ Chief Executive, said “We’re excited to join many of the world’s leading tennis nations in rolling out the ITF World Tennis Number for Kiwi players. Having a unified, global ratings system for our sport is a huge step and we look forward to the WTN becoming the go-to rating in New Zealand.”
The roll out will begin early in April with Tennis NZ and tennis regions using the WTN for seeding during National and Tier 2 and 3 tournaments for the remainder of the 2023 season.
From April onwards the WTN should be the main scale for seeding players in national, regional, and association run events. As the WTN becomes more widely used and understood, we will see a transition to all association and club run tournaments using the WTN.
More than a million public ITF player profiles have already been released on worldtennisnumber.com and 152 countries have signed an agreement with the ITF to become part of the WTN rating system.
