Emma Raducanu's return stutters but alternative tennis rankings show different picture

Emma Raducanu has had a stuttering season of sorts with both real highs in the form of the clay court season to start with as she really showed out at the Porsche Tennis Grand Prix and Billie Jean King Cup. But she headed to the Madrid Open and lost early to Maria Lourdes Carle. This progression though is shown in the alternative tennis rankings.

Her live ranking currently stands at No.211, but she doesn't defend any points from here so it is fairly irrelevant in the context of her future progression as with a few wins, it is only progress. The UTR Rankings as endorsed by Novak Djokovic is a global rating system that promotes fair and competitive play and also is based on a rolling cycle of match results over the yearly rankings. A player's UTR is based off up to 30 of their most recent match ratings with only matches in the last 12 months counting.

The first factor is the difference between opponents and the competitive nature of the tie decided by a percentage of total games won. The algorithm as a result garners a certain percentage of total games won. The player who outplays the algorithm and their expectation will go up. It is more reflective on current from and Raducanu sits just outside of the top 10 in 12th place based off her recent wins.

Iga Swiatek is top ahead of Elena Rybakina and Aryna Sabalenka as expected with Victoria Azarenka who is within the top 30 of the rankings for instance in fourth spot after an encouraging run in the Sunshine Double. It is also a good tool for players who perhaps are on their way back up but their points don't currently reflect it. So a good tool for predicting matches based off recent form. it seems that Raducanu despite her lowly spot is certainly an anomaly.