If you are serious about playing pickleball and winning, you should know your playing skill level. You may be wondering, "What's my pickleball player rating? What are the factors that contribute to it? Can I rate myself? More importantly, what are DUPR, UTPR, and WPR? This post explains their differences, so keep on reading.
What are Pickleball Player Ratings?
Pickleball player ratings are numbers that symbolize a player's skill level based on your knowledge of the sport and how good they are. These numbers are from 1.0 to 5.5 and even higher, with the lowest number being new to the sport and the highest number being a master of the sport. Like in other sports, you can land as a beginner, intermediate, or advanced player.
What is the Purpose of Pickleball Playing Ratings?
The primary purpose of pickleball ratings is to identify which game level you can join and help you choose a partner in doubles. Therefore, this is to ensure fair competition among players. Imagine playing against an opponent with a much lower or higher skill level than yours. It's very frustrating. The other purpose is to keep records of players' statistics, such as the number of wins and losses.
DUPR vs UTPR vs WPR? What's the Difference?
If you're a pickleball player who wants to join tournaments, you should know the meaning of UTPR, DUPR, and WPR. Having different rating systems can be confusing. In fact, a lot of players have been demanding unification for years. Nonetheless, the main difference between DUPR, UTPR, and WPR is the formula used for each player rating system. Another major difference is where they come from.
What is DUPR Rating in Pickleball?
In pickleball, DUPR stands for Dynamic Universal Pickleball Rating, a rating system developed in 2021 by Steve Kuhn, the founder of Major League Pickleball (MLP). Dubbed as pickleball's most accurate global rating system, the DUPR rating is widely accepted as the pickleball rating authority due to its uniformity of measurement. In fact, many players prefer the DUPR rating system over the UTPR rating system.
How Does DUPR Rating Work?
The principle behind the DUPR rating is a no-brainer. It uses a 2.000-8.000 rating scale based on the result of a pickleball match, whether it is sanctioned or not. The ratings from singles DUPR and doubles DUPR can be the same or different. In short, it measures a player's performance in each game - the rating difference between the opponent, who won (or lost) the game, and the type of game played, whether it is a recreational game or tournament.
The DUPR rating of a pickleball player is computed regardless of age, gender, location, and skill. Therefore, the DUPR rating is considered an "entry-level" rating, and you can rate yourself. And because it mainly depends on each game played, your DUPR rating can go up or down depending on your performance. For complete details, check out our DUPR Ratings Comprehensive Guide.
What is UTPR Rating in Pickleball?
In pickleball, UTPR stands for USA Pickleball Tournament Player Rating, a rating system sanctioned by the USA Pickleball (USAP), the country's official governing body of pickleball. Unlike the DUPR rating, the UTPR rating of a pickleball player depends on your performance only in a sanctioned tournament. If you haven't played in a tournament, you can rate yourself initially, but you should first join USA Pickleball.
How Does UTPR Rating Work?
Unlike the DUPR, the UTPR rating is more applicable to advanced pickleball players and is based on the results of the sanctioned tournaments you played over the past three years. Aside from that, it is also based on the rating of your partner and opponent. Therefore, your UTPR rating might decrease even if you win a match. Also, receiving a medal does not give an additional boost to your ratings.
The UTPR ratings are rounded-down 2-digit and a more detailed 4-digit value. They are computed separately for men's singles, men's doubles, women's singles, women's doubles, and mixed doubles. Therefore, unlike the DUPR ratings, they depend on the type of tournament you play. For complete details, read our UTPR Ratings Comprehensive Guide.
What is the WPR Rating in Pickleball?
In pickleball, WPR stands for World Pickleball Ratings, a pickleball player rating system introduced in 2021 by the Pickleball Tournaments. WPR ratings are similar to UTPR ratings in the sense that they are both acquired by joining tournaments. But in November 2022, Pickleball.com announced that it will start using DUPR ratings, meaning that its subsidiaries (PPA Tour, PickleballTournaments.com, and PickleballBrackets.com) will adopt it.
How Does WPR Rating Work?
WPR ratings are computed using the Glicko-2 rating system, the same system used in chess tournaments. Being an improved version of Glicko-1 and a replacement for the old Elo rating system, the WPR rating system uses a 4-digit rating for singles, doubles, and mixed doubles, depending on the player's performance in tournaments. Then, a 2-digit rating is computed at the end of each calendar quarter.
Unlike the DUPR rating system, WPR ratings reduce sandbagging by eliminating self-rating for tournaments. Instead, a player's initial rating is based on the actual results from their first tournament. But like in the UTPR, you must first join a sanctioned tournament. Therefore, you should create an account at PickleballTournaments.com. If you want to know more about WPR, read our WPR Pickleball Rating Guide.
Final Thoughts
Pickleball ratings can help players know their strengths and weaknesses and, therefore, are very useful. No rating system is perfect, and it can sometimes lead to uneven matches. Players are allowed to make an appeal and request for a rating adjustment. But while we look forward to a more unified system, the best thing to do for now is to keep practicing and playing consistently.
Article is not accurate. DUPR is probably not the best or most accurate. It is very easy to sandbag , manipulate your rating.
Many players in recreation leagues actually “”adjust”” their scores / results in order to maintain a certain rating.
Happens a lot more than DUPR will admit.
Some players even record scores from matches “”played”” in their living room.
UTPR not always fair or accurate. Simple example — as a 5.0 player with a 5.0 partner I won Gold in a National Tournament ; won Silver at USA National Indoor Tournament — both against 5.0s in finals . Those were the only two tournaments I played in that quarter. My rating DROPPED from 5.210 to 4.995.
Hard to figure that one out !
I know instructors that are certified raters that “”look out”” for their students — yep adults having adults cheat the ratings system in order to play certain levels and tournaments.
Humans with egos and no character — happens in most , if not all sports.
Pickleball rating systems are young. They will get better but probably will not until the leaders of the systems and the leaders of the different tours / tournaments drop their personal agendas and work together!
I know you're coming from, and I'm also hearing similar complaints. Thanks for sharing your thoughts.
But if you noticed, I said it was "dubbed as pickleball's most accurate..." and it doesn't necessarily mean it's true, nor do I believe it. I only described all the ratings so newbies can have an idea. I plan to write a separate post to compare them based on accuracy, and pros and cons.
Nice summary explanation by the Author. Still very confusing. There are "the pros on the Carvana PPA Tour ticket" and there are "Pros in the MLP" Are they the same? Then there are "Senior Pros" like Weinbach, Fuhrman, MacGregor, Dawson, etc. Now add the additional dynamic of age brackets. No matter which rating system you use - Is a 5.0 in age bracket 19+ the same and as skilled as a 5.0 in the 70+ age bracket? Seems to me a 5.0 should be a 5.0 no matter what age bracket. But I would argue a youngster "rated" 5.0 would beat and elder "rated" 5.0 every time. Not sure it clears things up quite yet. It'll get there, but it'll take awhile. And by then everyone will be moving over to play "Padel"..... haha! The only sure thing at the moment is anyone at any age can join the fun playing pickleball!
Angel
I live in The Villages FL , home to almost 300 pickleball courts and literally thousands of players. A lot of tournament players here. Over a hundred 4.5 and 5.0 players as well as several pros.
In the past ten years probably more National Tournament medals have been won by Villages players than any other city in the USA.
I , we , have absolutely no idea who you quote in saying DUPR is “”dubbed as most accurate “” rating system or where you get that from. Who makes that claim?
Almost all of the top players / tournament players in The Villages have no respect for DUPR ratings.
After I wrote that it is not the most accurate, very easily manipulated, you write in response to me that you didn’t believe it is the most accurate .
Why print something you think is false??
It is well know that many DUPR ratings are “”created”” from fake matches / living room matches / bar room matches.
Yes, happens here in the Villages also.
It seems to me that DUPR is more of a “ranking” system, rather than a player “rating” based on their skill and strategic knowledge of the game. Player groups or leagues play DUPR matches and then are ranked based on their games - everyone wants to be the top dog. They all get their ranking and assume that’s their skill level, but find out it means nothing when they play outside of their dupr league.