Hannah Zeimetz recently perused the Universal Tennis Ratings website to see where girls tennis players from throughout the country stand. The Waterville junior was fascinated.

“The top high school girls in the U.S. were at like a 10, and I’m like, ‘Oh,” said Zeimetz, who added that her rating is in the 2s.

UTR is a global rating system that rates a player’s skill between 1.00 to 16.50, based on a weighted average of up to 30 recent matches. For each match, UTR calculates a match rating and a match weight for each player. The Association of Tennis Professionals, Women’s Tennis Association and the NCAA use UTR as a supplemental tool to aid tournament entries and player ratings.

The Maine Principals’ Association began using UTR last season to seed the state singles and doubles tournaments. Players and coaches said there are many positives of UTR, but some emphasize that it doesn’t tell the whole story of a player’s ability.

Thornton Academy girls tennis coach William Weeks said his players enjoy using UTR to search and compare themselves to higher-ranked players — including some of the highest-ranked players in the world.

“It was fun to open it up and see Coco Gauff is a certain ranking, and we’re on the same website as Coco Gauff and Jannik Sinner,” Weeks said. “So, I think that’s fun, as well, getting to compare ourselves a little bit to the professionals.”

Sinner (16.30), Carlos Alcaraz (16.23), and Daniil Medvedev (16.05) are the top three men in the world according to UTR. Aryna Sabalenka (13.33), Elena Rybakina (13.27) and Jessica Pegula (13.07) are the top three women.

The Yarmouth girls use UTR to follow Sofia Mavor, who won the state singles championship while playing for the Clippers in 2021 and 2024. Now a sophomore at the Air Force Academy, Mavor holds a UTR in the 8s.

“It’s very interesting to look at, especially knowing people who play tennis,” Yarmouth senior Adea Cobaj said. “Being able to see where they are, I think, is very helpful.”

In Maine, most high school girls tennis players rate between 1 and 7. Lexi Stockwell of Kennebunkport and Sofia Kirtchev of Falmouth are the top two Maine juniors, but neither is playing high school tennis spring, leaving Gorham’s Jasmine Radjabova as the No. 1-ranked high school player. Reigning state champion Matt Morneault of Falmouth is No. 1 among Maine junior boys.

Waterville’s Sadie St. Peter has observed common traits among higher-ranked players in the state.

“They’re definitely a strong hitter … I feel like higher UTR (players) tend to be more consistent,” St. Peter said. “They just tend to win more.”

Waterville’s Piper Hamilton uses UTR before matches to see who her opponent has played. She said she can build a strategy for the match if there are common opponents.

IT ISN’T PERFECT

Brunswick girls coach Josh Levy points out that UTR doesn’t measure a player’s intangibles.

“Obviously, their grit, their determination, their fortitude, can’t always be predetermined by a number,” Levy said.

UTR can also be skewed by injuries. For example, Cony junior Kira Gregor missed the entire 2025 season because of an ACL injury, causing her rating to drop.

“So all of your matches don’t count for your score anymore after a year,” Gregor said. “So essentially, mine went all the way back down. I’m starting to build it up again now that I’m able to play again. Obviously, it’s a little mentally challenging to have to rebuild something that you weren’t able to do for a year, but it’s exciting now to get to do that again.”

Gregor said the highest rating she’d reached was a 7. At the time of the injury, she was in the 6 range. Currently, she’s a 5.7.

Similarly, Hamilton missed most of the 2025 season because of a left ankle sprain, but said her UTR wasn’t affected. She was a 2.7-2.8 during the injury and is now at 2.99.

Waterville girls tennis coach and MPA coaches liaison Devin Lachapelle, who was instrumental in making UTR mandatory for Maine high school teams, said that while the system isn’t perfect, it offers an objective way to rank players.

Some coaches point out that the system only works if scores are entered quickly, starting in the preseason when coaches must input their ladder matches into UTR. Each team has its own dedicated page. This allows teams to know their opponents’ No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3 singles players and both double teams.

“I mean, some of the coaches didn’t feel like their kids would qualify (for the state tournament), so they wouldn’t put the score in one way or the other,” Maranacook girls coach Louis Gingras said.

The MPA bulletin for this season specifies that all scores must be entered into UTR by certain dates to support seeding for regional qualifiers and state tournaments.

Coaches seem to be catching on. Lachapelle said there were many questions about UTR during last year’s preseason coaches meeting. This year, there were only four or five.

Levy added that this year should be easier for coaches.

“It should be much smoother sailing with, I don’t know, 75, 80, 85% of the kids who are going to be playing this year already in UTR because they were in it last year,” Levy said.