A parent/coach of a prominent American junior tennis players expressed some alarming complaints about how the USTA operates business for junior tennis tournaments in Florida…
“Fifty years ago it was because of the love of the game somebody would do a job to run junior tournaments. Now it is for love of the wallet or some kind of power…”
“Organizers of local tournaments the same……making thousands of dollars a weekend and not giving anything back. Just showing they have power and bullying people around. Doing anything to squeeze every dollar out of their events… canceling play for the day at 6 am due to rain so they don’t have to pay for court rental and officials that day and squeeze all the matches the next day by playing short sets, no ad scoring and all that crap.”
“I have so many stories now. Referees bullying parents and coaches, bending and inventing rules as they wish. Organizers commiting fraud on credit cards by raising the entry fee overnight after you agree to be charged etc etc etc.”
“USTA awarding more and more tournaments to the scumbags and leaving the organizers who still do it with passion with nothing, not understanding why they are getting less and less.”
“Referees bullying people by telling them where they can watch matches and where not. Even if it is always outside from the court fences. I saw a ref giving someone problems because he was standing at the entrance of a court and his shoe was touching the court by one milimeter, saying he cannot be ‘on’ the court.”
“And people are really frightened because they threaten to default the child if they talk back to them.”
Question: Bullying can be effective?
“USTA staff in the office advising not to file grievance forms to avoid filers from being sued by organizers.”
“High entry fees and service is crap.”
“And then the USTA is surprised when some parents snap and go crazy attacking officials.”
Question: You’ve seen attacks?
No… only heard about them. I saw a fight in Czech Republic last summer between the German/Turkish father of a cheating 16-year-old and the coach of the opponent. They were wrestling on the ground between 12-13 year old girls who happened to stand right there when it started.”
“The fight was interrupted quick by a detective who’s daughter was playing also.”
The person making these anonymous complaints is a former professional player who has won ATP titles.
In defense of the USTA, it does want to do everything in it’s power to prevent the kind of conflicts like these that happened in the 1990s in the Sunshine State…
- At a sectional qualifying tournament, a highly-touted junior player won the title but was disqualified because his parents got into a fistfight with the parents of his opponent during the final.
- At a FTA Designated tournament, a father punched his son, fracturing his nose, because the kid lost a match his father thought he should have won.
- A Tampa Bay-area tennis coach was accused of beating up one of his teenage students because the kid lost a match.
Another tennis parent in Florida also expressed criticism of the USTA’s business plans and methonds…
“Why does the USTA exist? It doesn’t do anything productive. There’s a better way to manage things. Build regional centres that are hubs for tennis (instead of one big one in Orlando). Let states/regions figure out tournaments, etc. No need for one centralized place. The only thing the USTA needs to do is keep track of records and points.”
“I won’t share my own horror story about dealing with the USTA, but suffice it to say my kid couldn’t play in two tournaments a month apart, because their “system” wouldn’t let her. (Reasons not important — I got it fixed after I suggested I might record my phone calls with them and place them on Facebook.)”
“What the USTA is engaging is is called “empire building” in firms. But firms live in markets that discipline them in case of bad performance. Who’ll do that to the USTA? The USTA doesn’t have a programme that has produced any players. It bungles player development and always runs after the shiny baubles. How does the USTA measure performance? I think if the USTA would be honest about what constitutes good performance, and what their goals are, we would have a better idea of how well it actually does. As it stands, these guys collect a lot of money, and fritter it away.”
Like a striving tennis player, stuck in a slump of disappointing results, the time may have arrived for the USTA to take pause and refine, improve and correct some of the methods it currently employs which are not drawing rave reviews from the customer base.
A final thought: Reilly Opelka, currently the highest ranked American tennis player at no. 17 was recently asked by Inside Tennis magazine: What is the best decision you’ve made?
Opelka answered: “To leave Orlando (USTA national training center) and start doing things independently. Working with Jay Berger, paying more of my own bills. I was spending my own money. So you want to make the most of it. You don’t want to take shortcuts. You become a professional a lot quicker.”
Florida · Junior Tennis · USTA
Vijay · February 21, 2022 at 8:15 pm
Why does the USTA exist? It doesn’t do anything productive. There’s a better way to manage things. Build regional centres that are hubs for tennis (instead of one big one in Orlando). Let states/regions figure out tournaments, etc. No need for one centralised place. The only thing the USTA needs to do is keep track of records and points.
I won’t share my own horror story about dealing with the USTA, but suffice it to say my kid couldn’t play in two tournaments a month apart, because their “system” wouldn’t let her. (Reasons not important — I got it fixed after I suggested I might record my phone calls with them and place them on Facebook.)
What the USTA is engaging is is called “empire building” in firms. But firms live in markets that discipline them in case of bad performance. Who’ll do that to the USTA? The USTA doesn’t have a programme that has produced any players. It bungles player development and always runs after the shiny baubles. How does the USTA measure performance? I think if the USTA would be honest about what constitutes good performance, and what their goals are, we would have a better idea of how well it actually does. As it stands, these guys collect a lot of money, and fritter it away.
Scoop Malinowski · February 22, 2022 at 9:09 am
Vijay, you just add to the tidal wave of criticism of the usta. Patrick McEnroe, Wayne Bryan, Tim Mayotte, countless parents, the criticism just never stops. Also in that infamous Reilly Opelka interview blasting the tennis media as the “worst and awful” he said the best decision of his career was leaving usta and hiring a private coach in Jay Berger. I will share these quotes later.