University of Tennessee graduate and former National Academy athlete Scott Jones has laid claim to the second UTR Pro Tennis Series event in Perth over fellow US college student and Wembley Downs State League player Scott Webster 6-2, 6-3.
The win sees Jones boasting a series win loss ratio of 7:1 having lost just one match across the first two UTR events. The loss came at the hands of Grand Slam Champion John Peers in the Final of the first UTR Pro Tennis Series event at the beginning of July.
Having returned home to Perth from college at the beginning of the year, Jones has relished the opportunity to train and play alongside a host of WA’s top performing professional players including Peers, Tristan Schoolkate, Maddison Inglis and Astra Sharma.
The former Cottesloe State League player and 2016 Australian 18/u National Champion says the UTR Pro Tennis Series event has been a great opportunity to get some matches under his belt having recently returned home from college.
‘It feels great to be back on court. These are my first matches out of college and I guess you’ve got to start somewhere and it does a lot for your confidence to get some wins,’
‘It was good to win after last week, finishing up a bit short against Johnny (John Peers). I played pretty well this week and it feels really good to be back on court and get a win in the Final,’
‘No one’s played in such a long time and with a few more matches under my belt now I’m building on each match I play and am playing pretty well at the moment,’
‘I’ll play the next event for sure and the plan will be to go back to back, that would make it 11 wins from 12 matches so that’s what we’ll shoot for,’ Jones said.
Jones was the 2016 Australian 18/u National Champion and experienced his first taste of Grand Slam action at the 2017 Australian Open having earnt a wildcard entry in to the main draw.
Perth Tournament Director, Loretta Hughes said it’s been wonderful to see players back on court competing in the second UTR Pro Tennis Series event.
“We are delighted to see the return of professional tennis to our city, its providing a wonderful opportunity for our players to compete at a high level,”
“Not only do these events provide much needed match experience for the players, it also provides some of our emerging junior players with the opportunity to play against some high quality opposition and learn from some of the best in the country”
The UTR Pro Tennis Series features events in Sydney, Melbourne, Brisbane, Adelaide and Perth, and provides players with the opportunity to compete for $450,000 in prize money following the months-long suspension of the international tours due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The events are a key opportunity for players to return to tournament play. Strict biosecurity measures are in place at each event.
The third Perth UTR Pro Tennis Series will commence on Friday 31 July.
Perth event schedule (Men’s)
Event 1: 7-10 July
Event 2: 19-22 July
Event 3: 31 July – 3 Aug
What is a UTR?
Universal Tennis Rating (UTR) is an international tennis rating system that connects millions of tennis players around the world to help them find better matches locally. UTR reflects a player’s current skill level based on head-to-head match scores, and rates all players across age, gender and nationality on the same 16-point scale. Every player can have a UTR – from the pros to juniors to social tennis players.
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