1. The National Tennis Rating Program (NTRP) Guidelines define the characteristics of the various NTRP skill levels.

2. The USTA NTRP Computer Rating System is the official system to determine computer ratings for players throughout the country who participate in the USTA League Tennis Program. It is a mathematical system that assigns computer ratings to players by direct and indirect comparison of match results with other players.

Note: A computer-derived rating is valid for five years or until another computer rating is generated.

3. Players in the USTA League Tennis Program without a computer rating (generated within the last five years) must self-rate in accordance with the NTRP Guidelines. Factors such as a player's on-court performance, tennis background and any additional information should be considered in the self-rating decision. When players are rating themselves, if they question at which level they should play, they should place themselves in the higher NTRP level of play.

4. Players without a computer rating are required to declare a self-rating on TennisLink when entering the program regardless of the NTRP level they enter. They begin to generate a computer rating after their first match with a computer-rated player.

5. Players with a computer rating (generated within the last five years) must enter at that rating or higher.

6. In the adult/senior division, computer ratings will be calculated at regular intervals for all participants during local league competition, at the end of the local league season and either during or at the end of area and sectional championships.

7. At adult/senior national championships, players will continue to generate computer ratings through their last match played.

8. After the adult/senior national championships, benchmark and year-end computer ratings will be calculated using USTA NTRP Computer Methodology Procedures approved by the USTA League Tennis Committee.

9. In the mixed doubles division, computer ratings will be calculated for participants who play in that division exclusively. Year-end ratings will be based on local league and championship level competition.


About Dynamic NTRP

How are dynamic ratings calculated for a specific match?
In matches where both players or all players, have previous ratings, the procedure is as follows:
1. The system looks up the most recent current dynamic rating of all the players in the match
2. The system looks up the score of the current match
3. The system looks up the expected match score of the current match based on the ratings of the players.
4. If the winning team wins by a larger than expected margin, each player's rating is increased based on the margin of victory and the losing player's rating is decreased by the same amount. If the winning team wins by less than the expected margin, their ratings will actually decrease the losing team's rating will increase. Likewise, the team with the lower previous dynamics may win which causes their rating to increase markedly and the rating of the team which was favored to decrease by the same amount.
5. The rating obtained for each player in step four is averaged with their previous three dynamic ratings and that number becomes their new current dynamic rating. This indirectly connects the current dynamic to all previous matches but weights the four most recent matches more heavily. The reason for this averaging is to even out the ratings in cases where some unusual situation causes atypical results.

The difference is ratings of the two members of a doubles team are held constant in a calculation for a singles match. If the two players are three hundredths of a point apart going into the match then they are three hundredths apart after the calculation. But once that number is averaged with the three previous dynamic ratings that difference may change. This is how the National computer system measures the performance of players as they change partners.

How are dynamic ratings used for Early Start Ratings?
An early start rating is a tentative rating for exclusive use by players who register for an early start league prior to publication of year-end ratings. The number is based on the most current dynamic rating at the time of publication. Early start ratings are replaced by year-end ratings.

How are dynamic ratings used for Year End Ratings?
1. Dynamic ratings are not disclosed to players, where year-end ratings are published annually at NTRP levels.
2. Dynamic ratings are expressed to the one-hundredth of a point, where year-end ratings are expressed only to the one-half point.
3. Dynamic ratings are calculated regularly and based on an average of the previous four dynamic ratings, where year-end ratings are based 50% on one’s cumulative dynamic rating during the season and 50% on the comparison to the benchmark player.

New players who are Self-Rating: Important Information!
Congratulations! You have successfully registered for a league team, and you will soon begin your first season. We hope you have a very competitive (meaning playing people with similar abilities) season and would just like to take a minute to explain a few important regulations regarding the self-rate process and disqualification procedures.

• A Dynamic Rating will be calculated for each match you play. This dynamic rating will take in account the ratings of your opponents, your partners (in doubles play) and the score.

• A Self-Rated or new player will receive a strike if their dynamic rating for their match exceeds the maximum tolerance for each level. If they receive three strikes they will be dynamically disqualified and any wins will be reversed and deemed wins for your opponents.

• A Self-Rated player will not be notified if they receive or generate a strike. They WILL be notified only if they generate three strikes, to insure the player takes all opportunities to play as many matches as possible and does not "sit out" because they are worried about "striking out".

• A Self–Rated or new player may at any time, contact their local league coordinator if they feel they have inadvertently Self-Rated too low or they have improved quickly and want to move up to a new level immediately.

For more information on self-rating, please review the NTRP guidelines. Also, it is highly recommend for new players to contact a facility/pro and get rated. We want you to have a positive experience and playing at your correct level is a large part of that experience.

If you have any further questions, please contact Nancy Lundberg, Section League Coordinator at (952) 358-3286 or lundberg@northern.usta.com.