USTA Launches Comprehensive Coaching Program to Protect Players
The United States Tennis Association (USTA) announced on Wednesday the launch of its first comprehensive coaching program, a significant step in protecting players. This program comes a little over a year after an external review of the USTA’s safeguarding system, which offered recommendations to improve player safety and prevent abuse, including sexual harassment.Craig Morris, in a video interview from Florida, explained that the USTA will ensure that all certified coaches are Safe Play approved, which includes criminal background checks and the ability to identify, respond to, and prevent inappropriate behavior. The USTA estimates that there are currently between 25,000 and 30,000 coaches in the United States, and the organization seeks to increase this number to between 75,000 and 100,000. This program covers everything from parents teaching their children to professional coaches who will work with athletes at the US Open, the USTA’s most important event, which begins on August 24. This effort is linked to the USTA’s goal of having 35 million people playing tennis in the United States by 2035.At the end of the day, we have to create safe environments for all our players.
Craig Morris, CEO of the new USTA Coaching initiative
Morris added that this initiative is fundamental for tennis in the United States. “For the protection of this sport, the USTA has to invest in the protection of the sport’s delivery system. And for the first time in our history, we are going to do that.” In June 2024, a 62-page report presented to the USTA board of directors included 19 specific recommendations to “increase player safety”. The report was made public less than two months after a female tennis player was awarded $9 million in damages by a jury in a Florida federal court. The player accused the USTA of failing to protect her from a coach who, she said, sexually abused her at one of its training centers when she was a teenager. The USTA has also been sued in four other cases related to the sexual abuse of tennis players in the last two decades.The USTA has never been in the coaching business. We are probably the last major tennis federation in the world that doesn’t do it. And it’s our responsibility… This is recruitment, marketing, benefits, services, education, certification. How will the future generation of coaches be? We have to start making high school and college students see this as a career.
Craig Morris, CEO of the new USTA Coaching initiative
