The USTA has announced Monday that Martin Blackman will take over for Patrick McEnroe as its new head of Player Development.
Per an email from the USTA, Blackman will oversee both the USTA’s Player Development staff and Training Centers—including its Regional Training Center network and the Player Development facilities at the soon-to-be created USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Fla.
Blackman, who founded Blackman Tennis Academy, in Boca Raton, Fla., has previously worked for the USTA, functioning as the Director of the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md., where he helped the Center double both its junior program enrollment and its full-time staff, as well as serving as the USTA’s Senior Director of Talent Identification and Development, a role that saw him oversee the implementation of the Regional Training Center program, serve as a co-leader of the Coaching Education Department and be USTA Player Development’s leader for Diversity and Inclusion.
Blackman takes over a Player Development regime that was criticized heavily by many for its inability to produce American champions. Private sector coaches complained of alienation and accused the USTA of taking a “my way or the highway” approach where poaching top players and refusing to cooperate with their coaches was not uncommon.
“I think one of the things you learn when you're in the private sector and on the court a lot is the emotional investment that it takes to develop a good player,” Blackman said in a press conference today. “It's not just feeding balls, not just doing private lessons, not just going to tournaments. There's a huge emotional investment that the coach makes in the player and in the family. So knowing that, when a transition is happening, we in player development have to be very sensitive in respecting that relationship between the player and their primary coach and their parents.”
Blackman spoke of the challenge of luring better athletes into the sport, from more diverse programs, as well as the importance of relying on mentorship of former champions for inspiration.
“It's going to be a joint effort to broaden the base and reach out to communities that maybe we haven't as much or that maybe perceived a lot of barriers when it comes to playing tennis,” he said. “We need to make sure we change the perception and remove the barriers as much as we can.”
“The USTA is lucky to have secured an individual with as well-rounded a background as Martin Blackman,” said USTA Chairman, President and CEO Katrina Adams, in a statement. “I have known Martin for many years and I am confident that he is the right person at the right time to continue to lead USTA Player Development in the right direction moving forward.”