Ellison-Backed Universal Tennis Invests $20M In Three-Year Global Tour

Universal Tennis, which owns the Universal Tennis Ratings (UTR), is investing $20 million in a three-year global tour aimed at elite junior, collegiate and pro players.

The UTR Pro Tennis Series Tour  (UTR PTS) initially started in the spring and summer of this year in the US, Australia, Denmark, Spain and other countries, after all professional tennis was suspended for five months due to the coronavirus pandemic. The virus outbreak also led to the first cancellation of Wimbledon since the Second World War, and the suspension of the lucrative China swing in the fall.

Tennis players, and especially those on the lower ranks, were hit particularly hard by the pandemic. Unlike athletes in team sports, professional tennis players operate as independent contractors, who pay for their own travel, accommodation and coaching and only get paid when they compete.

“The UTR Pro Tennis Series Tour will create more opportunities for aspiring professional players with UTR rankings of 200 to 2000 globally to compete and earn a living while working their way up to the highest level pro tours,” said Mark Leschly, Universal Tennis chairman and chief executive officer.

Powered by Oracle software, the free UTR platform provides each player with a ‘tennis handicap.’ The platform, which is used by leading academies, clubs and federations around the world, has attracted a host of high-profile investors, including Oracle cofounder Larry Ellison, Roger Federer‘s management company, TEAM8, and world No. 1 Novak Djokovic.

The new tour will stage 140 worldwide annual events. These include 40 tournaments for both men and women across the US in 2021. Universal Tennis said it had worked closely with the U.S. Tennis Association to make sure its new series doesn’t clash with the tournament calendar of the US tennis governing body.

Each UTR event will offer $20,000 in player prize money. All events will be single gender, singles only, with entry based on the Universal Tennis Rating, and feature a 32-player group round robin, followed by a World Cup-style playoff format. This guarantees more player competition while the results will  count for the UTR tennis rating system.

Bob Moran, president of Charleston Tennis LLC, welcomed the new tour, saying the UTR Pro Series “will fill a valuable role by providing eager, talented players additional opportunities for high level competitive match play and at the same time the ability to earn a better living.”

The LTP Academy in Charleston, South Carolina, will host the UTR PTS for women on March 1, followed by the men on March 8.

“With reduced opportunities leading to higher cutoffs in futures and challengers, players are left looking for options that are becoming increasingly difficult to find,” Universal Tennis said.

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