Part II of our Tennis organizations series will talk about the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and how it plays a role in junior tennis on a worldwide scale. Tennis players outside of the US seeking to put their names on the map for college will have to get familiar with this organization and its rules for competition.

ITF

Without a doubt, the biggest tennis organization besides the ATP (which is the pro circuit),  is the International Tennis Federation and it handles all the competition on an international scale both on the junior level, pro-am, and professional level. If you’re an international student athlete and you want to play the right tournaments, here’s where you listen up!

ITF rankings are a really important factor for college coaches to consider and being ranked in the top 300 will show strong candidacy for most college teams. When USTA tournaments are not easily accessible for you, the best way to upgrade your UTR score and prove your tennis level will be by playing ITF tournaments. Your ranking in the ITF can be improved similarly to the USTA, by playing tournaments and winning matches. ITF juniors are for the players who are aged 13-18. At age 12 years and 11 months, you’ll be qualified to register for an IPIN account and be able to sign up for tournaments of various levels. It’s not an easy process if it’s your first time registering,  but here are the detailed steps for registering for an IPIN account provided by the ITF: IPIN registration detailed guide.

A friendly reminder: be careful about which type of account you are applying for (most of the time you should start with juniors since Pros are for Futures and Challengers such as M15 and M25 where you can earn prize money and points for an ATP ranking)

As mentioned above, in order to be a stronger candidate, your ranking is extremely important, and it is created through a certain points system, similar in structure to the USTA points system. First of all, there are 8 different levels of tournaments:

- Grade A (including four Grand Slams & the Youth Olympic Games)

- Grade B (Regional Championships) 

- Grade C (International Team Competitions) 

- Grades 1-5

The number of points you can earn for each specific grade are clearly laid out above. When the ITF calculates its rankings, it only takes into account the best six singles results plus one quarter (25%) of the best six doubles results. The points are counted on a 52-week rollover system. Here’s a guideline into the ranking system explained: Rankings explained

After you understand how the ranking system works, finding the right tournaments to play is the next important thing to do. Usually, G4 and G5 are for those with little or no points to start with. You are likely to get into the qualifying draw without any ranking, but for some of the more competitive G3 tournaments, it will be harder to even get into the qualifying draw. Although highly dependent on geographic location, draw size and other factors of specific tournaments, a ranking in the top 1000 can bring you into most of the tournaments except the Junior Grand Slams which usually need a top 300 ranking for a more secure spot in the qualifying draw.

To craft a better tournament schedule, our recommendation is to go to the tournament calendar page and take a look at what tournaments will be around. The ITF will have at least half of the year’s tournaments up on their website so you can plan it out months beforehand. Don’t forget to register for them using your IPIN account when the tournaments open up. You should also check frequently on that page for your position, whether you are in the main or qualifying draw. Don’t be discouraged when you see your name on the waitlist! There are lots of changes happening constantly. Namely, people register for tournaments far in advance and many of them will withdraw from the tournament as the withdrawal deadline comes closer. Thus, you should pay attention to the withdrawal deadline which is 14:00 GMT, Tuesday thirteen (13) days prior to the Monday of the tournament week (for players in Main Draw & Qualifying). Keep in mind that any withdrawal request before this date can be made online. If you’ve passed the freeze deadline (14:00 GMT, Wednesday immediately prior to the tournament week), then you have to submit the withdrawal form, which can lead to some points being suspended.