USA Today: USTA invites critics to join debate

After facing months of backlash, the U.S. Tennis Association has started a series of seven town hall meetings over the next three months to debate recently made changes to its junior competition calendar, reports USA Today. The disputed changes, which were put on pause as of late October, are designed to make junior tennis more affordable to an increasingly diverse player base at the regional level, and also create an environment that fosters more intense competition at the national level. The national championships take place in Kalamazoo. Critics argue the changes are in conflict with the USTA’s mission of growing the game.

Excerpt: Said Kurt Kamperman, the USTA’s Chief Executive of Community Tennis, in a phone interview, “We only have 88,000 players in our tournament structure right now. France has 500,000 and they have one-fifth of our population. We feel like we need to do better.”

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Source: USA Today