TEMPE, Ariz. – In its continued support of the Intercollegiate Tennis Association and collegiate tennis, Oracle Corp. will become the title sponsor of the ITA Summer Circuit Powered by UTR.
The newly-christened Oracle ITA Summer Circuit Powered by UTR will serve as a model for level-based play in the near 50 tournaments contested during the Summer Circuit’s six-week duration.
“The ITA Summer Circuit is yet another great opportunity to influence the quality of American tennis and Oracle is excited to play a part in it,” said Oracle CEO Mark Hurd. “The summer circuit is the ideal opportunity for all players, from collegians to juniors, to play competitively year-round.”
The Oracle ITA Summer Circuit is using UTR’s community platform as its official tournament management system to run all events throughout the circuit. UTR’s platform provides organizers with a suite of tools and technology to register players, create draws based on player UTRs, power matches, submit scores and communicate with players. The UTR Powered by Oracle rating system, which measures all players regardless of age, gender and geography across a single system, is the official rating for the tournament and will be the metric used to evaluate players and set draws.
Once registration is complete, competitor fields will be divided based on player UTRs into flights of up to 32 participants. Tournament directors will seed 25 percent of each draw based on player UTRs.
“The Oracle ITA Summer Circuit Powered UTR is a fantastic program for collegiate and high school players to compete,” said Universal Tennis Rating Chairman and CEO Mark Leschly. “UTR Powered by Oracle is working closely with the ITA to establish tournament draws, organize matches and ensure that results are counted towards player UTRs.”
The Oracle ITA Summer Circuit Powered by UTR, which began in 1993, provides college tennis players, along with junior players and alumni, the opportunity to compete in organized events during the summer months. For the third consecutive year, the Oracle ITA Summer Circuit Powered by UTR will feature close to 50 tournaments across 23 different states, during a six-week stretch from late June to the end of July, and will culminate in the ITA National Summer Championships, hosted by TCU from August 10-14.
The Oracle ITA Summer Circuit Powered by UTR will once again feature a Points Race, which highlights the top performers for both genders. At the end of the Summer Circuit, the top five men and top five women will receive automatic entry into the ITA National Summer Championships as well as a $600 travel reimbursement.
“The ITA would like to thank Oracle for believing in the vision of the ITA Summer Circuit Powered by UTR,” said ITA Director of Championships Cory Brooks. “The ITA Summer Circuit has always been about providing our college athletes and advanced level high school juniors and seniors match play opportunities during a time of the year where those opportunities can be scarce.
“Our allies at UTR have developed technology and tools to fundamentally change the Summer Circuit experience, including improved tournament registration, draw creation, score entry and messaging capabilities between players, organizers and fans alike. By organizing our competitor fields into flights based on player UTRs, we feel that the Summer Circuit is taking exciting steps forward on providing a model for level-based play events.”
