TennisInformation.com lists use a head-to-head system while the USTA lists use a points system.

In a head-to-head system, your ranking is based solely on the quality of your opponents, regardless of which tournament or what round you played them.

In a points system, each tournament is assigned a point value, and points are earned for each round you reach in a tournament, regardless of the quality of your opponent.

Points systems have many good qualities. They are easy to understand and are fair when all players have equal access to all tournaments.

However, points systems can have problems when adopted on a nation-wide scale:

• Players are penalized if they do not travel great distances to play in high-profile tournaments. The lion's share of points are awarded in the bigger tournaments.
   
• State and local tournaments can suffer. A player that wins a strong state tournament with top national players may not earn many points in a points system. Well-run tournaments that have a great deal of tradition can lose much of their prestige.
   
• The "luck of the draw" is far more significant in a points system where a single win in a top tournament counts for so much. A player who has an "easy" draw and picks up a win in the first round can earn far more points than a player who loses early to the top seed and then wins several consolation matches.

Our company is the worldwide leader in tennis ranking systems. The USTA and its sections and districts have used our ranking products to produce their official ranking, standing, and selection lists for more than five years. Since 1998 we have produced more than 30,000 USTA lists.

Our ranking system supports a variety of points systems as well as several head-to-head systems, including STAR, Safire, and WinRank.

Our rankings offer tournament directors a suggested seeding order. However, final seedings are the responsibility of the local tournament committee.

We solicited advice and input from several college coaches, and we have received enthusiastic feedback so far. Check back soon to see quotes from coaches.

The Boys' and Girls' 18s lists are College Recruiting Lists, while the 12s, 14s, and 16s lists are Standings Lists. However, all lists use the same ranking system.

The TennisInformation.com Recruiting and Standings Lists will include tournament results from the national circuit in the U.S. plus other prestigious local events. Tournaments sanctioned for the TennisInformation.com lists are differentiated on our tournament pages with a special logo ().

Simply put, the two things you can do to improve your ranking are to play tournaments often and play the best opposition available. Wins above your ranking help you considerably, as do more recent wins.

All corrections or additions to player records for TennisInformation.com rankings should be e-mailed to Julie Wrege.

There are three reasons such a change might happen:

1. All players’ records are evaluated for each list publication. Although you may not have competed, other players did, and all this data is now a part of the overall ranking data. Consequently, players whom you have played moved up or down, and you may have also.
    
2. Only data from the past 12 months counts. Every player - including you - had a week of old data drop off your player record.
    
3. An emphasis is now put on recent wins. Each week some wins may drop off your record or be counted less than in the previous calculation.

TennisInformation.com Recruiting and Standings Lists try to determine the players who are "playing the best" at the time the lists are generated. Towards that end, more recent wins always count more than older wins.