ITF Approves Use of World Tennis Number for Junior Entry; Quarterfinals Set at ITF J300 European Championships, with No. 2 Girls Seed Upset Today

I missed this late last week, but the International Tennis Federation has announced that its World Tennis Number rating system will be used as a secondary entry criteria for 14s and 16s tournaments for the following federations: Asia, Oceania, Central American and the Carribbean, South America and Africa. January 1, 2025 is the start date for this initiative.

Obviously some large federations are missing, with no mention of the USTA or Tennis Australia, but the release does state that this secondary method for entry is one Tennis Europe "is hoping to implement in the near future."

An ITF junior ranking is still the primary method of acceptance to ITF Junior Circuit tournaments, but since 2022, a player without a ITF junior ranking could receive entry into smaller events based on their World Tennis Number. By introducing this WTN system regionally for the 14s and 16s should lead to more data and more accurate ratings throughout the system.

Last month the ITF announced that it would be making "enhancements" to the WTN algorithm, which were implemented in the ratings beginning September 11. It sounds from the release that the primary tweak focused on the juniors. The three key points:

1. As with any algorithm, it is important to ensure its accuracy and having closely monitored the data from junior players and their changes over time, it’s become increasingly apparent that some players are being initialised too high. By adjusting where players begin their journey on the WTN scale, they will now see a greater improvement to their rating as their level improves.
2. We are enabling player ratings to transition to their ‘true’ skill level faster from the initial rating given to them. This will mean that when a player is given an initial rating that is too low or too high, they will update to a more accurate rating much faster from their first few matches.
3. Every match you play counts towards your rating but it’s important that the rating change reflects the difference in ability. As such, we have listened to feedback and studied the data. Players will now experience smaller changes to their WTN in matches when losing to a superior player. However, players will still see a sharp increase to their rating should they beat a player with a substantially better rating.

Read the release, with other frequently asked questions, here. I think it's important that the ITF continue to work to improve the World Tennis Number, and the fact that they are being transparent about making these changes and doing so in advance, based on feedback from coaches and players, is a good sign.

The quarterfinals of the ITF J300 European Regional Championships will be played Friday in Austria, and although No. 1 seeds Luca Preda of Romania and Teodora Kostovic of Serbia have advanced, other top seeds have not.

No. 2 seed Jeline Vandromme of Beligum, who won the 16s title last year, beating Kostovic in the semifinals, lost to No. 14 seed 

Ekaterina Perelygin of Austria 7-6(3), 6-4.  No. 4 seed Andres Santamarta Roig of Spain was beaten by No. 15 seed Glib Sekachov of Ukraine 6-1, 6-3, and No. 6 seed Oskari Paldanius of Finland lost to Austria's Nico Hipfl 7-5, 6-3.

Hipfl is one of three unseeded boys to make the quarterfinals.

Boys:

Luca Preda[1](ROU) v Adam Jilly(HUN)

Glib Sekachov[15](UKR) v Nico Hipfl(AUT)

Jacopo Vasami[11](ITA) v William Rejchtman Vinciguerra[3](SWE)

Joao Dinis Silva(POR) v Henry Bernet[2](SUI)

Girls:

Teodora Kostovic[1](SRB) v Mia Pohankova[10](SVK)

Vittoria Paganetti[3](ITA) v Eliska Tichackova[6](CZE)

Noemi Basiletti[9](ITA) v Alena Kovackova[4](CZE)

Monika Stankiewicz[5](POL) v Ekaterina Perelygina[14](AUT)

For links to live streaming and live scoring, see the Tennis Europe tournament page.