29 September 2022 | Tennis West

The Tennis West Competitions and Leagues Team has been working hard behind the scenes this year to create the best possible experience for all league players here in WA and ensure competitive matches for all divisions.

The Competitive Play framework was launched at the beginning of the year to ensure all players are playing enjoyable and competitive matches every time they step on court and focuses on five key principles:

1. Localised competitive play
2. Level based competitive play
3. Team based competitive play
4. Simplified pathways
5. Consumer led formats

A significant part of level based competitive play is to provide players with access to more competitive matches which is achieved by grouping players within UTRs of 2 in Events and grading and placing teams in divisions of a similar level in Leagues.

Gathering and analysing current match and player data, the Competitions and Leagues Team has developed a system to calculate match evenness (as a match is considered competitive if the match evenness is high). Match evenness is calculated by the overall difference between games with a target number of 0.58. As more WA players activate UTRs, grading will become more accurate which leads to more competitive decisions and matches. Helping shape tennis in the state, the aim of this concept is that players will compete against others at a similar level, creating a healthy competitive nature as well as improve players’ skills and game sense. Below details the current match evenness for each league and we look forward to seeing the development of WA tennis leagues.