Desk level

A Desk level is The Tennis Desk's estimate of how a player is playing now, on the NTRP scale to two decimals. It is not an NTRP rating.

The Desk works out every level again each day.

What a Desk level is built from

Desk levels are built from recorded match results. Your level moves after each rated line, which is a line with both sides named, a winner recorded and nobody defaulted.

The date beside a level is the daily update it comes from.

How a rated line moves your level

Your level moves by how far the result and the score landed from what was expected. So a narrow win can lower it if you were expected to win big. Beating a much weaker player 7-5, 7-5 can do that. And a close loss to a much stronger player can raise it.

• The score is your share of the games in each set.
• A match tiebreak decides who wins the line, but it doesn't count toward the score.
• A level more than a little outside the range your NTRP rating covers is nudged back toward it.

When USTA moves your NTRP rating

When USTA moves you up or down, your level jumps toward the middle of your new range at your first match under the new rating. Say you're at 3.40 when USTA moves you up to 4.0. At your first 4.0 match, you jump to about 3.66, near the range's middle of 3.75. The jump isn't a match, so it doesn't show on your chart or count toward up or down.

The exact rule

A move up takes a level below the middle about 75% of the way there, and a move down takes a level above it about 50% of the way. No jump is bigger than 0.50, and a level already past the middle doesn't move.

Only a new number counts, so a new letter on the same rating, such as 4.0s to 4.0C, doesn't move your level. USTA can also move you up in the middle of a season, and your roster then shows a D rating. Your level jumps for that change at your first match of the next season, once the roster shows the new number.

How a Desk level compares with your NTRP rating

Read your level against the range of Desk levels your NTRP rating covers. A 4.0 rating covers levels above 3.50 and up to 4.00, so a 4.0 player at 3.68 is in range and one at 4.11 is above it.

A level outside it can mean you're playing above or below that rating, or only that the estimate is off. Your league goes by your NTRP rating, not your Desk level.

Some matches count toward your Desk level and not your NTRP rating, or the other way round.

What up or down after a level means

The word up or down says which way a level has moved this year. You see it only after a move of at least 0.30, because a smaller move is often chance.

How to read the chart beside a level

The chart shows a level after each rated line in one year, oldest first, over a shaded strip for the range the player's NTRP rating covers. On a match page, a dot marks that match.