What Is Universal Tennis Rating? CEO Mark Leschly Explains the System

On this week's podcast, host Jon Wertheim talks with Universal Tennis Rating CEO Mark Leschly about the system and why you might be seeing more of it in 2018.

MANAN VATSYAYANA/AFP/Getty Images

On the Beyond the Baseline Podcast, Sports Illustrated executive editor, Tennis Channel commentator and host Jon Wertheim takes fans between the lines with tennis commentary and exclusive interviews with the top players and newsmakers on the ATP and WTA tours.

On the latest edition of the Beyond the Baseline Podcast, host Jon Wertheim talks with Universal Tennis Rating CEO Mark Leschly. 

• Never miss an episode of Beyond the Baseline. Click here to subscribe.

Wertheim talks with Leschly, a successful college tennis player at Harvard, a former ATP pro and member of the Danish Davis Cup team and a member of the USTA Foundation Advisory Board and USTA Player Development Council, about his new role as the principal owner of Universal Tennis Rating, which is an algorithm-based rating system between 1-16 that reflects level of play, based on competition, scores and recent matches. It aims to provide tennis players across age, geography, gender and economics with a common language and standard. Leschly explains in detail what the ranking system is exactly, how it works, how it impacts professional, college and recreational players and coaches, how it relates to handicaps in golf, how it compares to the WTA and ATP rankings and points system and more.

Wertheim and Leschly also discuss the new Universal Tennis partnership with Tennis Channel, which will make UTR an integrated part of on-air broadcasts throughout 2018. 

Listen below and subscribe to the podcast on iTunes or on Stitcher.​

Check back next week for another episode of Beyond the Baseline.