ITA/UTR Ranking Comparison

When the last set of ITA singles rankings came out I did a comparison between them and the UTR rankings so I thought I’d do it again this time. Below is a chart of the top 25 men and women sorted by UTR and ITA rankings. Down below the table I also tackled the team rankings using the UTR Power 6 which is the combined UTR of the top 6 singles players. I had to do some tweaking to these because there are several guys, in a team’s top 6, that aren’t playing for one reason or another that I had to pull out.

Here are some women’s ranking notables:

• North Carolina’s Hayley Carter is No. 1 in both while Virginia’s Danielle Collins, Pepperdine’s Luisa Stefani, and Ohio State’s Francesca Di Lorenzo are each in the top 4 of both.
• There are 8 women in both the ITA and UTR top 10
• The largest variance between UTR and ITA is Cal’s Denise Starr who has the 24th highest UTR but is just ranked No. 93 in the ITA. Starr has a 11-1 in dual-match, 2-1 versus ranked opponents, with most her matches coming at No. 4 singles. Starr was 8-3 in the fall with a 1-2 record against current ranked players. 
• The second largest variance is Arizona State’s Desirae Krawczyk who is ranked No. 24 by the ITA while having the 87th highest UTR. Krawczyk is 7-6 in dual-match play, 4-5 versus ranked, with all of her starts coming at No. 1 singles. Her biggest win this year came against No. 3 Francesca Di Lorenzo (Ohio State) with a 10-point supertiebreak played in lieu of a third set. 

Here are some men’s ranking notables:

• UCLA’s Mackenzie McDonald is still the top dog in the UTR ratings and No. 9 in the ITA while Dominik Koepfer is still tops in the ITA while No. 5 in UTR.  
• There are 8 men in both the ITA and UTR top 10.
• Andrew Harris at No. 2 in the UTR chart while unranked by the ITA; he is of course unranked by the ITA because he hasn’t played a collegiate singles match since last year’s NCAA tournament. 
• Virginia’s Henrik Wiersholm is the UTR No. 11 while unranked in the ITA. Henrik is 11-1 in dual-match singles play but he hasn’t played any ranked opponents since most of his matches have come at No. 5 or No. 6.  He may move into the ITA top 125 in two weeks because one of his fall wins, Virginia Tech’s Andreas Bjerrehus, moved up to No. 74 this week.
• Cal’s Filip Bergevi is the UTR No. 24 while unranked in the ITA. Bergevi is 9-1 in dual-match play, 1-0 versus ranked, after going 6-3 in the fall though 0-2 versus ranked. 

For easier viewing of the table click here to view the google sheet in a separate window.

Men’s team ranking notables:

• North Carolina, which is the current ITA No. 1, is ranked No. 13 in the UTR Power 6
• Both Cal and Florida’s ITA ranking is 10 spots lower than its UTR ranking
• The largest variance between UTR and ITA is Stanford. The Cardinal have the 12th highest UTR Power 6 while its ITA ranking is No. 43 due to an 8-6 record with 0 wins over anybody inside the top 40. 
• Georgia Gwinnett, a NAIA powerhouse, checks in at No. 25 due to it having two players with a UTR greater than 14 (Konfederak/Hatem).

Women’s team ranking notables:

• California, which is the current ITA No. 1, is ranked No. 2 in the UTR Power 6
• Florida, which is the UTR No. 1, is ranked No. 7 in the ITA. 
• The largest variance between UTR and ITA is USC. The Trojans have the 10th highest UTR Power 6 while its ITA ranking is No. 29 due to a 7-4 record with 1 win over a top 50 opponent. 
• South Carolina is the team playing the highest above its UTR with the Gamecocks No. 23 in the UTR Power 6 while No. 8 in the ITA. 
• Armstrong State, a D2 powerhouse, checks in at No. 25 with five of its six starters having a UTR higher than 10.50.

The UTR ratings are comprised of an individual’s last 30 results while the ITA rankings are comprised of X best countable wins and all losses. Both provide useful information and my analysis above just was noting the differences between the two – not saying one is better than the other because they both measure different things.

The latest in a series of articles over at Universal Tennis came out today with this week’s segment highlighting the Top 10 Brits in college tennis.  Last week’s post highlighted the Top 10 Canadians and about three weeks ago it was the Top 10 Americans. There are profiles on three men and three women as well so give them a read.