How the USTA Foundation is Diversifying Tennis
Arthur Ashe’s dream of expanded access to tennis and education for underprivileged youth is stronger than ever.
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Happy almost end of National Tennis Month! (You didn’t know? Congrats, now you do.)
When you think of diverse sports, tennis probably isn’t the first that comes to mind. Despite the Williams sisters, and Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson before them, tennis has long been synonymous with country clubs.
But while the stigma of rich white tennis players in fancy tennis outfits ruling the sport rages on, the USTA Foundation has been working diligently behind the scenes to make tennis accessible to kids of all races and income levels. The NJTL (National Junior Tennis and Learning) network, co-founded by Ashe and (Puerto Rican sensation) Charlie Pasarell in 1969, makes tennis available for kids all across the country devoid of traditional access. Carrying the torch left by Ashe and Pasarell, the NJTL continues to evolve in its reach and profound impact on its members, both on and off the court.
While much of the focus is on education and building community, the NJTL network has produced some pretty spectacular tennis players as well including two-time US Open semifinalist Frances Tiafoe.
I recently had a chance to speak with USTA Foundation CEO Ginny Ehrlich all about how NJTL is preparing young athletes for success. In our convo, Ehrlich chats about what is unique about their program vis a vis other sports’ charitable arms, the life skills tennis brings, and her plan to make tennis the first sport that cracks the 70% dropout rate among youth athletes by age 13.
(This interview has been lightly edited for clarity.)
Melissa Jacobs: Hi Ginny. Can you explain a bit about the origins of NJTL and what happens in an NJTL facility?
Ginny Ehrlich: Arthur [Ashe] and Charlie [Pasarell] came from the kind of communities in which they didn't have traditional access to tennis. They really wanted young people, no matter who they were or where they lived, to have access to the life skills tennis offers, as well as education and a sense of opportunity.
The USTA Foundation has been kind of the protector, overseer, and host of the NJTL network, which now includes 260-plus community-based organizations across the United States. What these NJTL chapters have in common is that they provide no, or low cost, tennis, academic support, tutoring, homework, and life skills development. Each one, though, can look very different in the way in which that's manifested. It’s why we work with community-based organizations with strong histories, because they understand how to make the model work within the context in which these kids are living.
MJ: What is the geographic and demographic reach?
GE: There is a higher concentration in urban areas. By and large, we have all of the general key metropolitan areas covered with our NJTL chapters.
In 2024, we reached 168,215 young people from across the country who engaged in our tennis and education programming. In the case of some NJTLs, they only do our work. In the case of some others, like where I started to play, in Portland, Oregon, the primary mission and purpose of that facility is tennis and education along with the NJTL work, However, as a revenue generator, they rent courts out. They offer programming for the community adults during hours in which the kids aren't there for their NJTL-related programming. So each NJTL chapter is different in terms of how they operate with those kind of components. You could almost describe it as a franchise model.
MJ: So for the NJTLs that are basically no or low cost tennis, is that funded through the USTA Foundation?
GE: Once an organization is chartered as an NJTL, they are eligible for a variety of different grant opportunities that we offer. We also provide individual playing grants for our older youth.
Many of our older youth are part of what we call the Excellence Team, meaning that we're helping to support their high performance training so that they can potentially be eligible for college tennis. That program is for kids with a lot of potential but who need funding and support to get good training and to attend the right competitions to be seen by recruiters. So we provide player grants to them to support that process, and then we also provide college scholarships.
MJ: Oh, wow. For the players in the Excellence program, or just any college tennis prospects, are there very specific tentpole tournaments and showcases they basically have to attend to have a real shot?
GE: Generally, yes. I say it generally because, of course, we know that the Williams sisters didn't attend any of them, and went right onto the professional tour. But the more traditional route is to attend key kinds of tournaments at the junior level that are first regional and then national. Those results are where college recruiters are looking at nationally ranked players.
To your point, though, last year, 91% of our high school seniors in the Excellence Team program went to college. This is obviously extraordinarily high, given that over 75% of our young people are coming from under-resourced households. We're really proud of that number. It’s disproportionately high, even for more affluent youth. Not all of them are playing DI, DII or DIII. Some of them play club tennis. Our goal is for these young people who are under-resourced to have the same opportunity. When you look at a public tennis court outdoors, you see a fence and a door, and what we want them to see is the door. And we use that as a metaphor, not only for tennis, but really life.
MJ: That’s all so great. Now that we’re getting more abstract, Ginny, can you describe what is special about tennis, especially for youth?
GE: I think tennis offers young people so many opportunities on the court to teach skills for life. There are so many points over and over and over again. Every single point, there's a mindset change. There's a sense of having to start over and be resilient and kind of fail forward, fail fast.
Last year in his Dartmouth speech, Roger Federer is famous for saying he won fewer than 50% of the points he played during his professional career. But obviously he's one of the most successful. male tennis players ever, right? So I think that's something that's really kind of a differentiator for tennis. It's an ongoing process of fail forward, fail fast, and learning in real time.
I think the ritual of tennis and how we need, as tennis players, to show good judgment and character, is something that is true across all sports, but special in tennis. In the vast majority of cases, especially at the junior level, people are making their own line calls. So that's a whole opportunity for thinking about integrity and competing in a healthy way. I think those are some unique things in terms of grit and having to make quick decisions, quick adjustments, and really providing the same regard to an opponent without a referee in place.
MJ: I didn't know that about not having the referee in place. What age and level does that start to become the norm?
GE: In most junior tournaments there are no line judges or referees. I think in college, it's a combination, depending on kind of tournament it is. So really, I don't think what you see when you watch the U.S. Open really comes into play on a regular basis until the professional tours.
MJ: Ginny, you already mentioned the Williams sisters. Especially knowing that they hail from Compton, how has their success helped popularize tennis in some of the under-resourced communities that you guys are in?
GE: There's definitely the notion that, you know, tennis is a country club sport. That being said, if you look across the U.S., players in the top 50, both on the men’s and women's side right now, a majority of them are people of color. I think the Williams sisters are such a force in terms of their story and the way in which they operated on the tour. They rang the bell around these issues, and carried on the legacy of Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson. They did it in a time where there was more media and more general exposure to tennis. I think it's definitely why we've seen that trend in terms of the diversification of the sport, whether it be at the recreational level as well as the professional level.
MJ: What are some of the most promising outcomes you’ve seen with NJTL as the network continues to evolve?
GE: In terms of outcomes, the high school graduation rate across all of our youth, not just the high performance tennis players, was in the upper 90 percentile, I believe. That's a huge win. Tennis is only going to get most of us so far, so that kind of achievement rate is something that we're really proud of, especially relative to some of the rates that might exist for kids similarly situated economically. Now we’re really focused on retention since we see the results of being in engaged in a sport. I want to be the first sport that cracks that 70% dropout rate by the age of 13. Like, how do we do that? How do we keep young people in the game, regardless of whether they're playing mini tennis or college prep tennis? If we keep them in the game, we're keeping them in these communities that have been their safe havens when they were younger. We're keeping them with adult mentors which is so important during the teen years.
Our approach to really retaining those 13 year-olds, is focused on providing work and college pathways for kids of all skill levels. We operate career opportunity programs where we bring juniors and seniors to the U.S. Open for a week, and then to DC for a few days. We take them to law firms, private equity firms and tech firms, to learn about different fields. They do mock interviews and speed networking, things that give them those skill sets that are going to help them as they get older. Many of our chapters employ our older youth as coaches or tutors for the younger kids. At the national level, we offer online SAT and ACT test prep to our network of young people at no cost. That's something that might be out of reach for many of the families.
MJ: Wow, that's fantastic. As you know, the USTA is not the only professional sports body with a focus on outreach for underprivileged kids. But is there anything out there that that's even close to as comprehensive as NJTL?
GE: It's a good question. I think what sets us apart is the fact that our age group is 5-to-25. When we provide young people college scholarships, we also try to support them throughout their college years so that they stay in college. First generation college goers are three times less likely to complete college. And we want to really make sure they have skills, mentorship and the things that are going to keep them there in that timeframe.
Thanks to Ginny Ehrlich for the time. Learn more about the NJTL network here.