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Leistungsklasse

LK vs. UTR

UTR runs from 1 to 16.5 and higher is better; the LK from 25 to 1 and lower is better. No dependable conversion table for club players exists. What does exist: the one official bridge, and it reaches only to LK 4.5.

Updated

The direction first, because it confuses everything: UTR runs from 1.00 to 16.50 with two decimal places, and higher is better. The LK runs from 25 to 1, and lower is better. UTR is one scale for all age classes, sexes and countries; it is computed from the last 30 rated matches of the past twelve months, on the basis of games won and the strength of the opposition. The LK is a German federation number that knows only wins.

There is no dependable table

We have found none, and we publish none. The “LK comparison table” that comes up first on conversion questions is an Excel file from 2015 with a private author, carrying no DTB marking, on the old 23-step LK scale, and with no UTR column at all. It is mirrored on tournament sites and therefore looks official. It is not.

That it cannot exist has structural reasons:

  • The LK ignores defeats. UTR rates games won in defeats too. Two players on the same UTR can lie five LK steps apart, on the number of matches alone.
  • The weekly drift makes the LK partly a measure of how much you play. UTR only grows less certain when you do not play.
  • The LK reckons in age-class factors; UTR is blind to age.
  • The LK is normalised by sex (wins against the other sex do not count), UTR is not. At the same LK, men and women lie about three UTR points apart.
  • Nobody is rated in both systems where it would matter: in the range LK 10 to 20 there is no doubly rated group against which a table could be checked.

The one official bridge

The DTB uses UTR itself, in one place: German college players returning from the United States are placed on the German ranking list through their UTR, and a ranking place implies an LK under appendix A.5. From those ratings a chain can be built: UTR 14.0 corresponds among the men to about rank 38 and LK 1.1; UTR 12.0 to about rank 171 and LK 1.8; UTR 11.0 to about rank 365 and LK 2.8. Among the women: UTR 11.0 about LK 1.1; UTR 9.0 about LK 2.2.

That is real, but it ends at LK 4.5 for the men and 3.5 for the women. For club players it says nothing. Anyone looking for a number for LK 16 will get none from us, because any number would be an invention.

ITN, WTN and the others

The ITF has discontinued the ITN; its successor WTN is not in general use in Germany. The “ITN Conversion Chart” of 2009, on which the tables in circulation are built, compares systems two of which no longer exist.

Sources: LKO §10.5 and appendix A.5 of the DTB's implementing rules (tennis.de); the college UTR ratings of the DTB ranking lists (tennis.de); UTR methodology (utrsports.net).

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