Fighting for the Future of American Tennis

Written by: Staff on 7th December 2012

Fighting for the Future of American Tennis |

A steady line of tennis professionals trickles into the Riviera Country Club’s Grand Ballroom. Before them, on a perfectly-sized 36’x18’ wooden dance floor, rests a U10 tennis net.

At the registration table, host U.J. Neri sets up shop, dispersing a booklet on U10 tennis and handing out nametags. Outside, skies the color of wet pavement drizzle out the damp. The pros take up chairs surrounding the court, face the raised dais, and await the arrival of the day’s panelists. In a nearby chair, moderator Craig Cignarelli bounces an anxious foot across his knee and attempts to stifle the microphone’s sludgy hum.

Moments later, USTA Director of Youth Play and Competition, Craig Jones, professional coach, Wayne Bryan, industry entrepreneur and father to two top national players, Steve Bellamy, and the Riviera’s own tennis director, Andrew Minnelli enter the room and take their seats on stage. Seventy-five pros, and an assortment of other tennis folk, draw silent in anticipation of what promises to be a contentious debate.

On a Sunday afternoon in early December, this was the scene. For the next ninety minutes, Cignarelli prompted the participants, tossing open-ended questions to allow the panelists complete freedom to express their opinions. And express they did. Craig Jones adamantly defended the USTA’s decision NOT to sanction 10U events that use a yellow ball. “This is an ITF rule in two hundred countries and we are following their [protocol]” said Jones. Minnelli spoke to his experience with U10 tennis and confirmed Jones’ argument that the smaller courts, low compression balls, and appropriately-sized rackets are growing participation. The USTA is approaching the game from the bottom up rather than the top down, working to grow the number of players in the sport, and hoping to recruit some before they head off to soccer or baseball. “If the top tournament players don’t like this move, they can always play up the 12’s division, but we need to have more kids playing the game and we can do that by giving them an easier path to successful play,” Jones remarked. A few pros in the audience nodded in agreement. “The mandate is here to stay,” he finished.

And then the microphone passed to Wayne Bryan.

Almost a year ago, Bryan voiced his disagreement with the U10 Mandate in an e-mail that has now found its way into tennis coaches’ e-mailboxes all over the world. With crossed arms and visual disgust, he condemned the mandate, stating, “This will be overturned.” To be fair, Bryan is a supporter of the smaller court format, and believes it will help grow the game. However, he is adamantly opposed to “a bunch of folks from White Plains coming into a area where three-fourths of the US Davis Cup team was developed and telling us how to run things.” Bryan reviewed the arguments against the mandate – the stifling of kids and coaches who want to compete with the yellow ball, the importance of the 10’s as Jump Street, the lack of research to prove the effectiveness of the mini-tennis format – and then concluded with a passionate three-minute monologue advocating American tennis and praising the U.S, coaching community. Then, Bryan handed the microphone to Steve Bellamy.

Bellamy’s son, Roscoe, is #1 in the U.S. in singles and just won the U12 Eddie Herr International doubles tournament and his son Robbie will play for Peter Smith at USC next year. Bellamy had this to say, “Where I am vehemently against the changes in junior comp, I am a staunch supporter of kids playing on a graduated length tennis environment. Yes, there are going to be kids who are disenfranchised by the mandate, but I don’t think those kids will quit tennis. The junior comp changes are going to push 10’s of 1000’s of kids out of tennis and more US players off of college teams. I agree with the USTA that the 1% shouldn’t drive the 99%, but I do hope that the 1% can be given some vehicle to compete other than “play up” as those are most likely the kids who are going to be playing tennis for the long haul, and in my mind are our best customers.”

An unassailable entrepreneur – Bellamy founded the Tennis Channel – Steve recently created an elementary school league where local kids compete against each other for their school. The program brought about 100 new kids into tennis in a month’s time.

As the afternoon progressed, local pros posed tough questions to the panelists. While tact ruled the day, on occasion, things did boil up. At one point, one panel member asked the audience, “How many of you in this room think that 10’s should never be allowed to play with yellow balls?” Out of seventy-five professionals, only one hand went up. When asked, afterwards, why they weren’t speaking out against the mandate, several pros gave the same response, “They (the USTA) have the power and there’s nothing we can do except start our own yellow ball circuit.”

What remains is a contentious relationship between tennis’ governing body and the private coaching community. One attendee commented, “the major problem of late is that the USTA is changing everything and nothing is coordinated or transparent. Player Development has the industry angry, the mandate has the industry beside itself, the 2010 junior changes still have the industry scratching its head and the 2014 changes basically pushed us all over the edge. They are just doing too much and they certainly have decided that they are smarter than everyone and can make all the changes themselves without any input.” While nothing was resolved on this rainy day, the coaches felt the gathering was a stepping-stone toward greater communication between the two parties. “We need a hundred more of these forums,” stated one guest, “because gathering pros together to discuss the future of American tennis is the best way we can get back to the pinnacle of the game.”

Based on the positive feedback, USPTA District President Chuck Melkent and Cignarelli hope to organize more events in the near future.