USTA's National Campus can help develop tennis' top young players
United States Tennis Association President and CEO Katrina Adams said “it’d be hard to one-up” the 64-acre, 100-court National Campus, a facility that held its ceremonial “first serve” on Thursday.
While the venue can be utilized by the public, will serve as host to several tournaments and be home to a college tennis team, the success of the project built along Lake Nona in Orlando will be judged largely by how it does one thing: develop young players into international contenders.
“I think this December before this facility opened, we had a really nice group of both male and female young pros train here and working together,” Davis Cup captain and four-time major winner Jim Courier told USA TODAY Sports. “When you have a big cluster of players who are training and pushing each other, we can really get a big benefit out of that. There’s a really healthy competitiveness that can flow from a facility like this from our top juniors and top professionals.”
While much of the focus on the nation’s struggles on the international tennis stage have focused on the men, the women’s game has stagnated as well minus Venus and Serena Williams. Andy Roddick was the last American men’s major winner, a title secured at the 2003 U.S. Open. Jennifer Capriati (Australian Open in 2002) was the last American female player to win a title not named “Williams.”
John Isner (No. 19) is the top U.S. male in the ATP rankings. The U.S. has two top-10 players in the WTA rankings: Serena Williams (No .2) and 21-year-old Madison Keys (No. 8).
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“We are already bearing fruit, man,” said Adams, a former pro who is also the chair of the USTA. “Keys is in the top 10. We’ve got 16 players in the top 100 in the women’s side and on the men’s side we have 12 or 13. That’s the most we’ve had in a couple decades. These guys are coming. It takes time. It doesn’t happen overnight.”
Courier said driving players to reach the National Campus as a prospect remains vital to the health of U.S. tennis.
“The best thing that could happen for the sport in America is to have more success in the top levels,” Courier said. “We have been so blessed with Serena and her greatness — and Venus as well — that we’ve been spoiled. We are certainly looking for the next Andy Roddick, who can win a major on the men’s side. We need those people who can really capture family’s imaginations and help children become interested in pursuing (tennis).”
USTA has made an effort in recent years to work collaboratively with the private tennis academies in Florida and elsewhere, lessening the chance the new tennis center will be seen as a rival.
“One thing American tennis has really gotten great about is the inclusion of American players and their coaches,” tennis legend Chris Evert, who is partnered with IMG at a tennis academy in Boca Raton, Fla., told USA TODAY Sports. “They will bring the players in with their individual coach. This is an added resource where they can compete against other top players and use the state-of-the-art facilities. This is an addition to players' training and development.”