Fiend at Court Unplugged
Prior to listening to the podcast interview that inspired the post “Donald Dell Fires Shots Across the USTA Bow,” I had never heard of Donald Dell. Alternatively, maybe I had and just didn’t remember. The only reason Dell appeared as a primary topic on this site was courtesy of an interview he gave on Jon Wertheim’s podcast. Dell was critical of how the USTA promotes and develops tennis in the United States. His ideas and opinions resonated with me.
In the interim I am astonished at how frequently his name pops up as I continue to read tennis history books as a part of the research required to produce the content on this site. For example, Dell was mentioned by Gladys Heldman in her International Tennis Hall of Fame induction interview. It is clear from her comments that he was an integral part of marketing and promoting some early WTA tour events.
Dell was also all over the place in “Days of Grace by Arthur Ashe.” In retrospect, that isn’t a surprise since he was Ashe’s financial advisor and attorney. Dell is recognized as being the first professional tennis agents and founded his own sports marketing firm that caters to both tennis and non-tennis clients. He is famous for getting a pretty big shoe contract for some random basketball player named Michael Jordon prior to his rookie year in the NBA.
Dell’s tennis cred runs deep. He was co-founder of the ATP tour along with Jack Kramer and served for many years as the legal counsel for that organization. Dell twice played on the US Davis Cup team and captained the team to the championship twice. He has served on the Davis Cup selection committee and numerous other USTA boards and committees.
It is astonishing how frequently Dell turns up in my reading now that I am sensitized to notice and remember his name. Many of those mentions are in passing, such as a list enumerating people who were present at crucial times. Dell seems to have always been in proximity when the discussions and decisions were made that established the early foundation of professional tennis.
Dell literally wrote the book on sports marketing. Well, two books, actually. Since they are not focused on tennis they are relatively low on my priority list. At the same time, I am fascinated by the business of tennis and sports marketing so they will get read at some point.
As I continue to reflect on the posts that were made on this site last year and revisit some of those topics, Donald Dell jumps out as an example of a person who was unknown to me at the time who I now recognize as an integral part of professional tennis development. Dell is quite likely the most important promoter of tennis ever. I am guessing that most of us have never heard of him.
- WTA Insider Podcast, Original 9: Gladys Heldman, released 9/9/2020.
- Donald Dell, International Tennis Hall of Fame profile.
