Universal Tennis ("UT") (MyUTR.com) today announced the launch of the UTR Pro Tennis Series Tour in the United States. As part of its three year global UTR Pro Tennis Series Tour investing over $20M and enabling 140 worldwide annual events, it will feature 40 events (men and women) in select venues across the USA in 2021.  Each event will provide a minimum of $20,000 in player prize money and create more opportunities for elite junior, collegiate and pro players.

The UTR Pro Tennis Series Tour offers an innovative format, providing aspiring pro players with more opportunities to compete, improve their game and support themselves with prize money.  All events will be single gender, singles only, entry based on Universal Tennis Rating (UTR), and feature a 32 player group round robin followed by a World Cup-style playoff format. This format guarantees more player competition and results will count for UTR, the world's most accurate global tennis rating system.

"As part of our mission to support all facets of tennis, the UTR Pro Tennis Series Tour is founded on our desire to create a development tour to support elite players, coaches, organizers and Federations worldwide. 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 CEO.

The USTA has collaborated with Universal Tennis as it relates to scheduling to ensure that these events are complementary to the competitive calendar. The Series will kick off with 15 events for men and women before the end of the first quarter of 2021 alone and will be held at four marquee venues across the United States. More events and locations will be announced shortly.

"At Charleston Tennis, it's a guiding principle to support the game of tennis from recreational and junior players through to the highest levels of professional tennis. The UTR Pro Tennis Series Tour 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.  We applaud Universal Tennis for identifying a need and are thrilled that this partnership will allow us to be part of the solution," said Bob Moran, President Charleston Tennis LLC.

Locations and dates for upcoming UTR Pro Tennis Series events are as follows:

Naples, FL: Sanchez-Casal Academy
December 14, 2020 - Men
January 4, 2021- Women
January 11 - Men
January 18 - Men
March 8 - Men

Newport Beach, CA: The Tennis Club at Newport Beach
January 4 - Men
January 11 - Women
January 18 - Women
January 25 - Women

Las Vegas, NV: Darling Tennis Center
February 8 - Women
February 15 - Women
February 22 - Men
March 1 - Men

Charleston, SC: LTP Academy
March 1- Women
March 8- Women

For more information on the UTR Pro Tennis Series Tour, calendar, prize money, event format, and to register for events, please visit https://www.myutr.com/pts.

About UTR Pro Tennis Series Tour (UTR PTS)
UTR PTS is launching starting January 1, 2021, with a three year commitment of over $20M to support tennis globally with prize money, venue support, technology, logistics, and opportunity.

Universal Tennis initiated the UTR Pro Tennis Series in the Spring/Summer of 2020 in an effort to promote safe competition in players' home countries as ATP/WTA and ITF events were cancelled or postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic. We are excited about our expanded initiative and have received interest and enthusiasm from nations and partners around the world.

The Pro Tennis Series is founded to create a development tour to support players, coaches, organizers and Federations worldwide. Over the last six months, Universal Tennis has worked through the challenges created by COVID to develop a global tour to provide safe, local opportunities for developing players to compete and earn revenue.  We have established rules, guidelines and protocols, while building the technology to streamline operations, limiting personnel on site for safety purposes, and cut costs to pass savings on in prize money to the players.  With reduced opportunities leading to higher cutoffs in futures and challengers, players are left looking for options that are becoming increasingly difficult to find.  We have an opportunity together to help those players and create an infusion of capital and matches to support the tennis ecosystem making it additive and complimentary to other current and future efforts.

About Universal Tennis
The mission of Universal Tennis is to make tennis more affordable, accessible and fun for all players, regardless of age, gender, level and socioeconomic status. The UTR Engagement Platform is anchored by the Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) Powered by Oracle, the world's most accurate singles and doubles tennis rating system; and provides the tools and solutions to make the Universal Tennis Rating relevant and valuable to players, coaches and organizers in their local domain. Universal Tennis is creating opportunities and pathways for players from all over the world, in all stages of life, to find better matches and unlock a more fun and flexible tennis experience. Go to MyUTR.com to sign up, activate your player profile and join the global tennis community. Watch our video and visit us on social @MyUTR.

Media Contacts

Universal Tennis: Erica Annon / erica@myutr.com

 

Source: prnewswire.com

Report Abuse