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By Richard Pagliaro | @Tennis_Now | Monday, October 21, 2024
Picture credit score: USTA
The USTA introduced a structural shake-up at present.
Martin Blackman has resigned his present submit as Common Supervisor of Participant Growth efficient at present.
Blackman, who succeeded Patrick McEnroe as USTA head of participant growth in April, 2015, has agreed to remain on as a particular advisor via the top of the yr to make sure a clean transition.
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“It has been an honor and a privilege to serve American tennis on this function for the final ten years and I’m grateful to the USTA for giving me that chance,” Blackman mentioned in a press release. “The work that our Participant Growth group has achieved, in partnership with the non-public sector and the USTA Sections, has been a labor of affection.
“I’m proud that we had been in a position to construct a pathway that has supported the resurgence of American tennis, the credit score for which works initially to our wonderful gamers, and the groups surrounding them, whose dedication and work ethic have pushed this development and success. The chance now exists to align our wonderful development on the grassroots stage with our success on the prime of the skilled recreation and increase the pathway for juniors of all ranges, and to amplify that development and growth with the USTA’s elevated emphasis on teaching.
“I want the USTA, my wonderful Participant Growth group and all of my colleagues within the non-public sector and Sections one of the best as they develop and promote the game that all of us love.”
Blackman’s departure comes after the USTA opted to make “organizational adjustments” and creates a gap for a brand new chief.
The Tennis Affiliation mentioned this reorganization is designed to “higher help gamers in any respect ranges of their aggressive pathway with Participant Growth, Professional Circuit, Staff Occasions, Collegiate and Junior Competitors groups now mixed right into a single cohesive division.
“The intent is to enhance inside collaboration and allow the USTA to strategically direct sources the place they’re wanted most for the good thing about essentially the most aggressive junior {and professional} gamers.”
The USTA can be creating a brand new, extra expansive place to guide the newly remodeled division. A seek for this chief will start quickly.
Kent Kinnear and Kathy Rinaldi will proceed to guide males’s and girls’s tennis, respectively, beneath the management of this new place, the USTA introduced. Bob Bryan is U.S. Davis Cup captain and Lindsay Davenport heads the U.S. Billie Jean King Cup squad. Staff USA will play for each the Davis Cup and Billie Jean King Cup championships subsequent month in Malaga, Spain.
Together with structural adjustments, the USTA’s just lately introduced Participant Growth Advisory Council — a powerhouse group of present and former gamers, mother and father, coaches, USTA Part leaders, and event operators — will assist information the group’s path ahead.
“The group stays within the early phases of its work and is anticipated to supply suggestions for the way the USTA can additional improve its help for high-performance American gamers later this yr,” the USTA introduced.
