Hello Kenneth, at this time it is the LTA that decides which of their event results get submitted to Universal Tennis. British juniors playing LTA events what wish added UTR credit should make their requests directly to the LTA.

The results from the feeds they take are usually on within a few days.  They don't officially take a feed from the LTA, it's just the tournaments that Sarah B selectively gives them in relation to her client.  It's not really useful to coaches looking at British recruits unless they are playing predominantly on the ITF/professional circuit.  However, if your daughter looked up the UTR of a British player she knows who is already at US uni, then she could use that for comparison purposes when trying to work out where she would fit in any teams she in which she is interested.

Personally, I quite like the system as something running alongside other traditional ranking systems, although you do need to be predominantly playing in a system which feeds in regular results.  It's quite a good benchmark for a player to see how they are progressing results-wise, particularly if they're going through a period of playing well in strong draws but not getting the wins for example.  

My main gripes with it are that it is still largely N American based and that, like all American enterprises, you have to pay a subscription if you want to see any meaningful data. Although it claims to be a free service, a player can't even see their own UTR to a decimal place.

Edit: See Universal Tennis' post above as to how they get occasional British domestic results.

The Optimist wrote ... They don't officially take a feed from the LTA...

Universal Tennis does get direct results from the LTA. However, the process is not automated, which results in delays in our ability to calculate UTRs for British players. 

See event log posted at https://goo.gl/VRBw2d ...where tournament results are noted "Submitted by LTA".

Although it claims to be a free service, a player can't even see their own UTR to a decimal place.

Yes, you are correct that our free UTR Basic service is limited in functionality. However, with the free service, juniors are still able to use the UTR system to locate their competitive fit with U.S. college tennis teams. The following post should help explain how this is done: Using UTRs to find your college tennis fit https://goo.gl/ENi9HU

Please note that many of our customers have been able to use our services to help secure scholarships worth in the range of $40,000 to $240,000+ for a 4 year period. Our modest fee ($8.95/month) for the UTR Premium Plus subscription helps speed up the process of finding appropriate level college teams. If anyone here is curious as to how the UTR Premium+ subscription works, you are invited to take the system for a free 45 day test drive. Additional details can be found at https://goo.gl/K3Pxie  The trial request password will expire December 31, 2015.

Previously knowing nothing about Universal Tennis and their ratings I have found their initial contribution here and such conversation as have been spawned off it very interesting.

Whatever motives they may have included in this, they appear to be pretty well regarded and thought off, so why not make folk more aware of themselves on a tennis forum including to a tennis father who was asking questions. Subscribing to their services is up to the individual, but on a tennis forum all rather more relevant than kitchen posts 

Clearly ( well hopefully ! ) their ratings themselves make no diversity adjustments, that is for others to factor into their decision making. How much they themselves use any data to facilate diversity and / or follow up diversity recruitment based on part on their data I of course leave to them to reply as they wish. What responsibility they bear is debatable.

Thank you for taking the time to answer the questions I have asked, they were asked for a reason and with a view to raising awareness of a number of points. I welcome participation by any person, organisation or Ltd company who wants to post and participate in tennis related debate.

To reassure Indy I do not in anyway hold Universal Tennis responsible for the inequalities in college tennis recruitment in the U.S. However their data collection may be part of the problem. I agree the data they collect is upto them but that is a merely a happy geographical accident.

My understanding is they are a company that collects your data and sells it back to you, indeed the freedom of information act in the UK would mean that if trading in the UK there would be a strong case for having to give you your data; if you asked for it.

This is a British Tennis website. The UK is the only European country to mandate collection of such data and my aim was only to stress the importance of the concept "if you are not counted you don't count"

The lack of any depth in quality of US men's tennis in a country of 300 million with some of the worlds best tennis resources and conditions does however suggest that the recruitment process that revolves around copious data collection is flawed.

There are a number of ways addressing equity of access, however virtually all change management strategies involve an initial phase of data collection. The choice of data one collects reflects the attitudes and priorities of those collecting the data, there was an offer to test drive the Universal Tennis product before any of the questions posted where answered, and we were invited to ask questions.

I feel they are important questions given the overt difference in socioeconomic and ethnic diversity between the big time money making (for the college, not the athlete) college sports where enormous efforts are made to recruit the best athletes independent of race or any socioeconomic/intellectual impediment that may act as barriers to attending a U.S. college.

I would argue that if the will is there, there is an opportunity for Universal tennis to positively impact equitable college tennis recruitment and improve the strength and depth of US college tennis. The colleges will recruit the best athletes. It is a question of facilitating finding them and if a UK based company, universal tennis would have some of that data available.

Data is fascinating and it says a lot that we get Kitchen furnishing spam and have done for some time, this is the first time we have had direct contact with a company which faciltates recruitment to college tennis, one can extrapolate and not unreasonably that more readers of this site are likely to get a new kitchen this year than send a son or daughter to play college tennis. I am not even prepared to genu flex on the concept of relevance, the information we have received although very interesting has been part of a legitimate trawl for business (a conflict of interest was declared), the site is constructed in a way that allows one to post on almost any topic so there is also a thread where kitchen spam can be accommodate and unite venders with potential clients.

There are many occasions where thoughtful data collection can vastly improve outcomes and I feel this is one and would reiterate the sentiment that "if you are not counted you don't count"