What level of tennis do you play?
Brazil runs three parallel ways of saying the same thing: the CBT class ladder, the letters used by club circuits, and the foreign ratings (NTRP and UTR) that show up in almost every English-language tennis article. This page lines them up so you can find a hitting partner at your level and make sense of what you read.
Where you fit
Still learning. The ball comes back sometimes; you mostly play with a coach.
- CBT
- —
- Club
- —
- Foreign rating
- NTRP 1.5–2.5 · UTR up to ~2
Social player. Keeps a short rally going. The overhead serve is still a gamble.
- CBT
- Beginner
- Club
- D
- Foreign rating
- NTRP 2.5–3.0 · UTR ~2 to 3.5
Holds a match. Ten crosscourt balls without missing, and a full set without falling apart.
- CBT
- 5th class
- Club
- C
- Foreign rating
- NTRP 3.0–3.5 · UTR ~3.5 to 5
Chooses the shot. Places the ball, and the second serve lands with spin.
- CBT
- 4th class
- Club
- B
- Foreign rating
- NTRP 3.5–4.0 · UTR ~5 to 6.5
Has a plan and sticks to it. Plays tournaments, reads the opponent, handles pressure.
- CBT
- 3rd class
- Club
- A
- Foreign rating
- NTRP 4.0–4.5 · UTR ~6.5 to 8.5
Genuinely competitive. Plays the top classes of the state circuit.
- CBT
- 2nd and 1st class
- Club
- PRO
- Foreign rating
- NTRP 4.5+ · UTR ~8.5+
How you move up
Under the National Class Regulation, the top finishers of each class go up: 32 from beginner to 5th, 32 from 5th to 4th, 32 from 4th to 3rd, 24 from 3rd to 2nd and 16 from 2nd to 1st. The higher you go, the narrower the funnel.
Two CBT rules almost nobody knows
- You cannot move down a class by choice.Once you have played a class, you may only enter it or up to two above it. Never below.
- CBT may promote or demote on technical grounds at any time.Regardless of the points you piled up during the season.
How we got to the foreign ranges
There is no official conversion between NTRP and UTR: USTA and Universal Tennis use different maths. What exists are regressions over players holding both ratings — NTRP ≈ 0.30 × UTR + 2.00 for men and NTRP ≈ 0.38 × UTR + 1.92 for women. The ranges above start from those regressions and from the CBT ladder, so treat them as orientation, not measurement.
Spotted an error?
If you coach or run a circuit, the match between CBT class and club letter is the part that varies most in practice. Write to us and we will fix it with credit.
Next step
Once you know your level, the useful move is getting racket and strings right: