Match Hub

**IMPORTANT UPDATE**

Tennis NZ has rolled out the ITF World Tennis Number a brand new, inclusive and modern rating system for all players. Tennis NZ will continue to run the Match Hub competition system for the current 2023 summer season for interclub and leagues. All players will still have a Match Hub grading - for both singles and doubles. This is necessary for organising divisions in many interclub competitions.

LEARN MORE

 

matchhub logo for site

Match Hub is Tennis NZ's competition management and player Grading system.

Go to Match Hub

 

Grading System

Match Hub is a Grading List of all competitive tennis players in New Zealand. All players, regardless of gender and age, are in the same grading list.  The list can be filtered by gender, age group and region/association. 

Match Hub gradings are based on results in head to head matches. Points are gained, or lost, depending on the relative grading points of the players involved at the date of each match. The number of points a player has denotes their Grading on a scale of 1 to 12, where 1 is best. 

A player moves up (or down) a Grade when their points place them in the range of the of the next grade. A player is not rewarded just for playing many matches - unless they consistently win against the same or higher graded opponents. 

The Grading Recalculation is run twice monthly – as at the 15th and last day of each month. The website is actually updated on the first following working day. 

You must be an affiliated tennis club member and have a Player Code to be listed on Match Hub or play in any tournament on the National Calendar. Player Codes are assigned by your Club or Association.

New players are added to the Grading List at a level relative to their playing ability. Generally this is done by assigning them the same Grade as other players who are known to be of similar ability.

What results are counted?
All results count from tournaments on the Regional and National Calendar, including consolation events that are run using Tournament Planner. 

Results from Graded events and Club championships are also included when they have been flagged as counting towards Match Hub.

National Teams events as well as many inter-provincial teams events are captured.

Interclub results are counted for competitions run using the Match Hub Interclub system.

Box Leagues results are counted when run using the Match Hub box leagues system

Results from matches between New Zealand players in overseas events are also captured (eg ATP, WTA, ITF, Australian events).

The table was changed Sept 2019 when the male and female grading lists were combined. 

Male Grade

Points

Female Grade

Points

Notes

12

0-299

12

0-199

 

11

300-599

11

200-399

 

10

600-899

10

400-599

 

9

900-1199

9

600-799

 

8

1200-1499

8

800-999

 

7

1500-1799

7

1000-1199

 

6

1800-2099

6

1200-1499

 

5

2100-2399

5

1500-1799

 

4

2400-2699

4

1800-2099

 

3

2700-2999

3

2100-2399

 

2

3000-3599

2

2400-2999

 

1

3600+

1

3000+

Reserved for WTA and ATP ranked players.
A player who loses their Pro ranking will be dropped to S2.

 

The Recalculation is run twice monthly – as at 15th and last day of each month. The website is actually updated on the first following working day. 

Players gain or lose points for each match depending on their relative points in the Win/Loss points adjustments table.

ADJUSTMENTS WHEN WINNER HAS THE HIGHER POINTS

Points Difference between players

Winner has less than
2000 pts

Winner has more than
1999 pts

Loser

0 – 99

+30

+20

-20

100 – 199

+20

+15

-10

200 – 299

+10

+10

-5

300+

+5

+5

0

ADJUSTMENTS WHEN WINNER HAS THE LOWER POINTS

Points Difference between players

Winner has less than
2000 pts

Winner has more than
1999 pts

Loser

0 – 99

+30

+20

-20

100 – 199

+45

+25

-25

200 – 299

+60

+30

-30

300+

+75

+40

-40

Grade promotions.  A player moves up a grade automatically when their points reach the next band level. An exception is that there is no automatic promotion from grade 2 to grade 1 which is reserved for players with ATP or WTA points. After promotion a player receives 2 months immunity from being downgraded (except for grade 1). 

Grade demotions.  A player moves down a grade if their points drop below the bottom of their current band. However if the player has immunity then the player will instead be placed at the bottom of their current Grade.  Immunity lasts for 2 months after a grade promotion. 

 

Adult players (over 18) who have not played a match for 18 months will be deducted 150 points. Singles and doubles are treated separately. These adjustments are applied in July/August each year.  This on hold because play over the 2 years has been limited due to Covid. 

Players overseas (e.g. at US colleges) can apply for an exemption.  Contact matchhub@tennis.kiwi 

All mixed gender matches, in competitions that allow mixed gender, will be counted for Grading purposes for both the male and female.  This will be simple to understand as there is a unified grading list.

Doubles grades will have the same bands as for singles.

The unified grading list means any combination of men and women can be treated equally for grading calculations.

Each partnerships’ points are averaged and the difference used to calculate win/loss adjustments in the same way as for singles.  Both partners receive the same adjustment.

As of September 30, 2019 the Match Hub grading system changed to using Points based promotion instead of Wins based.

On the surface not much changed and there are still 12 grading bands as before. However there are different Grade points bands for males and females.

This means that there can be one unified Grading List and mixed gender matches will count for points without having to make any adjustment to the female player’s grading.

Rationale for change

  • The reason for Grade Wins based grading was to encourage participation in competitive tennis by emphasising the reward for winning, rather than the fear of losing. However the pressure to get a Grade Win at all costs has created downsides especially in areas where it can be difficult to get a match that counts for a Grade Win. Match avoidance and defaults in consolations are not new issues but the added pressure of Grade Wins seems to be a compounding factor.
  • Another factor has been the difficulty in applying the Grade Wins formula correctly as the sequence of matches was extremely important.
  • Seeding for tournaments will be easier and should be better as there will be less players on the same points at the top or bottom of Grades.
  • Mixed gender matches, which have been a popular feature of the Grade Wins system, will still be possible and even easier to manage for tournament organisers.
  • The unified Grading List means that mixed gender Grade based tournaments and leagues will be simpler to organise.
  • Doubles gradings have been difficult to get right in the Wins based system due to the volume of matches played and variability of levels in partnerships. This has meant players being promoted too easily and above their true level.
  • As more shorter format tennis is played there will be the potential to count the results for points in a manner that would have less impact than in the Grade Wins system.

Tennis NZ will continue to run the Match Hub competition system for the current summer season for interclub and leagues. All players will still have a Match Hub grading - for both singles and doubles.

As the World Tennis Number is rolled out later in 2023, players will see on Match Hub both their WTN number and their Match Hub grading.  

In relation to player acceptance criteria and seeding for sanctioned tournaments and competitions, the aim is to replace the Tennis NZ Match Hub grading with the ITF World Tennis Number.  Date to be decided.

WTN and Match Hub are similar in concept in that all matches count towards a player's rating. However a significant difference is that the WTN takes into account the 'closeness' of a match. This means that a player can actually benefit from a close loss in a match that they are expected to lose anyway. In Match Hub a 3 set loss is treated the same as a straight sets loss.