New Opportunities on the Horizon for Minority Tennis Players

Tennis has historically been a progressive sport in several ways.  It is a leader in gender equality, offering equal pay for men and women at grand slam tournaments, but continues to prevail as a predominantly white sport.  Although four out of the five highest ranking American women (Serena Williams, Madison Keys, Venus Williams, and Sloane Stephens) are African-American, we rarely see this fact being acknowledged.  This is punctuated by the lack of media coverage of Keys and Stephens.  The Men’s side is even worse, with only one African American player, Donald Young, currently breaking the top two-hundred men’s players and only two black men ever winning a grand slam title.  Despite the impact that the Williams sisters have had on African American recognition and diversity in tennis, we are still not seeing a large increase in minority participation.  This is largely due to the high costs of the sport, but there are other forces at play in this as well.

Martin Blackman, the U.S.T.A’s current head of player development, has spoken out on how the U.S.T.A is trying to increase opportunities for minorities in tennis.  To aid in this effort, the U.S.T.A. identifies promising players and provide the resources to fast-track their development through placement on “excellence teams.”  This strategy has seen some backlash due to suspicions of the system continuing to favor white players.  Blackman negates this notion and explains that the U.S.T.A. “want[s] to see the best American Players doing as well as they can” and “the only way we can do that is to deepen and widen the talent pool” through “reach[ing] out to more nontraditional tennis families, especially in minority communities” (Blackman).        

With the recent placement of Katrina Adams as the first African American president of the U.S.T.A., tennis is sure to see a shift in diversity the near future.  The Williams sisters are a great example of the untapped potential of kids with atypical tennis backgrounds (i.e. children from low income families) and how making efforts to support them can result in athletes that raise the bar for their peers across the globe.  Blackman, in his role, hopes to create new ways for the U.S.T.A. to invest in the development of young tennis players across the nation, regardless of economic background, so that more minority athletes will gain access to opportunities in the sport.

Rhoden, W. (2015). Beyond 2 Black Champions, a Void for the U.S.T.A.. Nytimes.com. Retrieved 2 May 2016, from http://www.nytimes.com/2015/09/07/sports/tennis/beyond-serena-and-venus-williams-a-void-for-the-usta.html