The Tennis Tea Party and Ten and Under Tennis

The USTA thinks Ten And Under Tennis is the answer to increasing participation in junior tennis. It’s no secret American tennis has a problem–and has for years. A drought atop the world rankings, dwindling participation at the junior entry level. Our sport is retracting. The numbers don’t lie. Participation in the lower age group tournaments has been dropping steadily for years now. Entry numbers, particularly in the ten and under divisions, are drastically down. Is the lack of a marquee box office player killing the interest of potential young players? Are the dwindling numbers of younger players shrinking the pool of potential pro talent to the point that we don’t have the same stable of athletes to draw from any longer? Good questions. As to possible answers, a rift has emerged in our sport between the centralized authority of the USTA and certain segments of the private sector, including media figures who assert they speak for the tennis community and know better. This faction took their grievances about the decline in US tennis public two years ago. What has transpired has been a multi-front assault on the USTA. The USTA has devised a new learning system named TAUT (Ten and…