How the ladder & rating works

How we blend your ratings

Your Let's Hit Rating is a blend of two things: a starting point and your Let's Hit results.

• Your starting point is your Tennis Record dynamic rating (if you've linked your profile) or your self-selected USTA level (if you haven't). It anchors the number.
• Your Let's Hit results are the confirmed matches you play here. They nudge the number up or down after each match.

We weight the two based on how much we know. If your Tennis Record profile shows a 4.6 dynamic rating from 20 singles matches this year, and you've played 5 Let's Hit matches averaging around 4.4, your Let's Hit Rating is a blend: about 60% weight on your Tennis Record number (because there's a lot of USTA singles data backing it) and 40% weight on your Let's Hit results (which will grow as you play more). Play 20 Let's Hit matches and the balance flips — your Let's Hit history dominates.

Your weight on Tennis Record also fades as the data gets older. If you haven't played a countable USTA match in a couple of months, your Let's Hit results start carrying more of the ranking. A fresh USTA season pulls it back the other way.

Reporting a result

After a confirmed match's scheduled time window passes, both players get an email asking "did you play?". If you did, either player can Report result — pick the winner and (optionally) enter a score like 6-4, 6-2.

The other player then has 48 hours to:

• Confirm — the result is finalized and both Let's Hit ratings shift.
• Edit — they enter a corrected version. That restarts the 48-hour clock, and the original reporter now has to confirm the new version.
• Dispute — an admin reviews and settles it. No rating changes happen until the admin resolves or voids the result.

If nobody takes action within 48 hours, the reported result auto-confirms.

How each confirmed match moves your rating

Each confirmed match nudges your Let's Hit results up or down using an ELO-style formula. In plain English:

• Beating someone rated higher than you moves your rating up more than beating someone at your level.
• Losing to someone rated lower than you costs you more than losing to someone at your level.
• The max single-match shift is around 0.10 rating points. Nothing catastrophic — but 10 confirmed matches can move things a full point over time.
• Ratings are clamped between 2.0 and 6.5.

Ties on the ladder break to the higher UTR (if provided), then to the player with more matches on Let's Hit.

Why some wins matter more

A dominant win moves ratings noticeably more than a nail-biter. If you beat a 4.0 player 6-0, 6-0, your rating shifts more than if you beat the same player 7-6, 7-6 — because a dominant scoreline is stronger evidence you're at a higher level than they are. Similarly, close losses cost you fewer rating points than getting swept.

That's why the report-result form asks for the set-by-set score, not just who won. You can skip the score if you don't remember it — the rating still updates, but without the margin-of-victory nudge.

Retirements (a player quitting mid-match) always go to the other player, no matter the score at the time. The retiree is the loser even if they were winning. Rating shifts for retirements skip the margin-of-victory bonus.

What "voided" means

An admin can void a disputed result. Voiding doesn't decide a winner — it just erases the result entirely, and any rating shift that was already applied is undone. Voided matches don't count toward your W/L record.

Self-rated USTA

If your profile shows USTA 4.0S with a capital S, that's a self-rated USTA (you picked it, it's not an officially issued rating — the "S" is the standard USTA indicator for self-rated players). It's shown everywhere as-is so other players know. Self-rated USTA is treated the same as an officially issued level — it's just flagged for transparency.