Tennis Canada, in partnership with all the Provincial Tennis Associations (PTAs) will launch the Rogers Rankings on January 1, 2009. This new enhanced ranking system is a direct outcome of more than three years of meetings and research of international and national best practices. The goal was to build a well organized and accurate ranking and events management structure to help promote competition at all levels.

The Rogers Rankings system is based on the innovative and proven Chess rankings. Points are awarded to players based on quality of wins (i.e. head-to-head results) versus rounds won in a tournament. Based on this premise, the stronger player is expected to win while the weaker player is expected to lose. As a result the system generates accurate rankings. The Rogers Rankings will work from a common database and management system called Baseline to run events and store results. This system was developed by Computan, a tennis savvy software company that has been working with many Provincial Tennis Associations for years. The new event management system has many new functions in addition to the new rankings to include: integrated national and provincial schedules, and event/player/results management.

Overall Structure
The Rogers ranking system has the ability to compile one ranking list to compare abilities with Canada’s top players. In addition, the Rogers Rankings also have the capability to filter rankings based on age, gender and provincial affiliation. Ranking points will be equated to the national rating guide to allow players of similar abilities to enter and compete among each other in events. The new system also allows all matches to potentially count towards your national and provincial rankings, including club and league matches that are designated as sanctioned events. Thus, the system encourages competition at all levels.

Initial Ranking
To be ranked, a player must accumulate at least one win and two losses against players who are already ranked, over the course of 12 months. The new ranking system calculates the average of these first three performances to establish an initial ranking. Once this initial ranking has been established, the player’s ranking will then fluctuate as he/she wins and loses matches in sanctioned tournaments or events.  Matches against non-ranked players are retroactively adjusted as soon as the non-ranked player in question becomes ranked, provided the result occurred within 12 months. 

International Matches and Equivalencies
An equivalency chart has been created for ATP, WTA, ITF and NCAA ranked players to allow international matches to count towards the new Rogers Rankings. 

Withdrawals and Defaults
Players that withdraw from a sanctioned event after the draw has been made (default match) will automatically lose points while their opponent will automatically earn ranking points for a win by default. 

Ranking Eligibility
Ranked players will be required to compete regularly and ensure a minimum number of matches are contested on an annual basis to maintain their ranking privileges. A player who does not play a match during a certain period of time (9 months for juniors and 12 months for adults) will lose their ranking. A player who loses their ranking will need to follow the above procedures to earn a new ranking.

Head to Head Ranking Points
Each sanctioned tournament or event will be associated with a specific weighting ranging from 1 to 5 stars.  These values will be published in the national and provincial tournament schedules. The 5 star value events will be recognized as premier elite level events held in Canada such as the Rogers Cup. The star value system in addition with players ranking points will influence overall ranking point fluctuations. The following point table and demo helps quantify how these two variables work together.

Tennis Canada, in partnership with all the provincial tennis associations, is very excited to launch the new Rogers Rankings to help promote competition at all levels and develop a well organized and accurate ranking and events management structure. For more details visit www.tenniscanada.com/rogersrankings