WTN vs Rankings

Not all players have the same standard and not all tournaments cater for the same level of players. This can make difficult deciding what tournament is the right one to enter. WTN and rankings can help to make that decision, once you become familiar with what they are and how they work. We provide details of the Rankings used in Ireland in a separate section, but from a practical point of view, we have summarized the main differences between both and show some examples.

The ITF World Tennis Number (WTN) value:

• It is a type of rating, and it is similar to the golf handicap.
• It takes into consideration the result of matches between players.
• It provides an indication of the standard of a player.
• It is globally used and is the same whatever country the player is playing in.
• It is independent of the age or gender of a player. 
• It helps to identify players of similar standard making easier to organize even matches between players anywhere in the world.

A ranking:

• Indicates the position of a player within a given group. Example: an Irish U14 ranking indicates the position of a player in the U14 age group in Ireland.
• It takes into consideration how far players progress in a draw and the Category previously allocated to that draw.
• The position (ranking) of a player in the group depends on how strong the other players in the group are.
• It is useful to compare players within the same group but cannot be transferred to other groups.
• Tennis Ireland Junior Ranking is the main tool used to seed players in Junior tournaments.