Universal Tennis RatingⓇ founders sell their interests in Universal Tennis, LLC to Iconica Partners

Steve Clark (Norfolk, VA), Darryl Cummings (Virginia Beach, VA) and Dave Howell (Virginia Beach, VA), founders of Universal Tennis, LLC, have sold their interests in the company to Iconica Partners, which includes, among others, Mark Hurd (CEO of Oracle), Ken Solomon (President of Tennis Channel), Mark Leschly (Managing Partner of Rho Capital), and Major League Baseball, LA Dodgers Investment group.

Universal Tennis,LLC is the company behind the Universal Tennis Rating, or “UTR”, a revolutionary player rating system that provides a single, unifying language and standard for tennis players across ages, geographies and genders. As the leading algorithm-based system for competitive tennis players, UTR has already experienced rapid grassroots adoption across college and junior levels worldwide.  A tennis player’s UTR is a number, between 1.00 and 16.50, that accurately and objectively indicates that player’s level of play. The company’s vision is to unify tennis for everyone by bringing cutting edge analytics and community based technology to tennis players worldwide, independent of level. UTR uniquely allows anyone to measure, identify and track their level of play relative to other players, while also providing tools for coaches and organizers to run UTR Powered Events that are level based rather than age or gender driven. Today the UTR system is powered by over 6 million match results, across 600 thousand players in nearly 200 countries. To learn more about UTR, please visit www.MyUTR.com.

About the founders:

Steve Clark: Former COO, Intellectual Property Manager and Lead Ratings Specialist for Universal Tennis had primary responsibility for design and development of the company’s underlying UTR singles and doubles tennis ratings algorithms. Steve, whose formal education includes studies in aerospace and mechanical engineering, is licensed to practice professional engineering by the Commonwealth of Virginia as well as patent law before the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office. He has over 25 years of corporate management experience, in both start-ups and established companies, and has been intimately involved in virtually every phase of new product development, protection, licensing and commercialization. Steve has designed, and in many cases been directly involved in the manufacture of, equipment and systems in a remarkably wide range of disciplines: from wind tunnel ground-effect systems, to medical appliances, to piezoelectric sensors and actuators, to oil-water separator equipment, to 3-D printers, to rocket propellant loading machinery, to thermally- and magnetically-actuated electric circuit breakers, to jet aircraft test landing equipment, to electronic temperature controllers, to magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasonic imaging equipment… and much more. He has also provided court-qualified expert testimony, in state and federal court proceedings, in the fields of physics and electrical, mechanical and civil engineering on numerous occasions.

Darryl Cummings: Demonstrated national success as a collegiate coach for 23 years with men’s and women’s teams in the national NCAA Division I rankings and individuals earning high NCAA Division rankings in singles and doubles along with being named conference “Coach of the Year” multiple times. Darryl has coached all three Universities in his hometown of Norfolk, VA: Old Dominion University (NCAA DI) 1992-2011; Virginia Wesleyan University (NCAA DIII) 1989, 2013-2015; Norfolk State University (NCAA DI) 2016-present. With a 563-353 record, Darryl is ranked 3rd among all coaches with the most wins at Old Dominion University. In addition, Darryl is the owner of Cape Henry Racquet Club in Virginia Beach. Formal education includes business administration, philosophy in religious studies and sports management. Darryl is certified by the USPTA and PTR. For more information about Darryl’s background go to CummingsAthletics.com.

Dave Howell: Former President and Managing Director of Universal Tennis, LLC was the creative force behind Universal Tennis Ratings (UTR). Under Dave’s leadership UTR was conceived, developed and commercialized, and achieved word-wide recognition throughout the tennis industry. Dave, a former college tennis player, is a certified teaching pro (USPTA and PTR) with nearly 40 years of experience. In addition to being expertly skilled in the mechanics of tennis shot production, as well as tennis tactics and strategy, Dave has years of experience in charting match play and in competition analytics, and has created match-charting and analytic systems that have been successfully employed at the highest levels of tennis.