4 min read
Voyager Tennis Academy was one of Australia's earliest adopters of the UTR Rating and has not looked back. With 12 locations across Sydney and two in Singapore, the performance-based academy heavily relies on the UTR Rating to develop its top talent.
“UTR Rating has been great for our performance programs — we can accurately place players in group training based on their rating,” said Tim Walter, Manager of Operations at Voyager. “Also, it’s benefits players because they have the ability to play more to improve their overall rating, especially if they play against higher-rated UTR players.”
With over 650 junior players across their 14 locations, many of them with college tennis and pro aspirations, Verified UTR Rated events are in high demand. So much so that Voyager Tennis even developed a product called the UTR Tennis Camp, which allows players to participate in as many match play events as possible to help improve their rating.
The UTR Rating feeds perfectly into the overall philosophy of Voyager Tennis Academy, which Walter describes as, “If you want to become a good player, you have to play a lot of matches to get there.”
Voyager co-founders Ryan Henry and Luke Bourgeois are so passionate about match play, they wrote a book in 2019 called Winning On and Off the Court: A Parent’s Guide to Creating World Class Tennis Players and People, which goes deeper into the Voyager tennis philosophy.
“This book provides a lot of stats that reference a lot of good players, including Luke and Ryan themselves, their journey, and how many matches they played compared to other players,” Walter said. “Coaching is obviously important, but a lot of match play is key at every level.”
The tennis guide, which is a best seller in the tennis coaching category, has been endorsed by Craig Tiley, Tennis Australia CEO and Australia Open tournament director, Pat Cash, former Wimbledon champion, and Mark Leschly Universal Tennis CEO, amongst others.
Another benefit of playing Verified UTR events is the partnerships with other tennis organizations around the world. With Tennis Australia adopting the UTR Rating in 2022, Voyager players, as well as all Australian players, have the opportunity to play more Verified UTR Rated events throughout the country.
“Tennis Australia rolled out the new Competitive Player Profile recently, and they tied it to the UTR Rating and the good thing about UTR Rating is that we’ve been using it for 4-5 years,” Walter said. “Players can play Tennis Australia events that count towards their UTR Rating.”
To sign up for a free Competitive Player Profile in Australia, click here.