The USTA Adult Competition Committee

Fiend at Court Unplugged

Most people who compete within the USTA system are blissfully unaware of the sheer magnitude of the USTA and the complex bureaucracy required to operate the organization. While the USTA has a number of full time paid staff positions, the organization is chiefly powered through committees largely of volunteers. Throughout the recent challenges with the new USTA tournament structure and digital platform, it has become apparent to me that a lot of USTA members don’t have even a passing familiarity with the USTA organizational hierarchy and where to lodge their… let’s call it feedback.

The USTA Constitution and By-Laws establish the standards on how the organization is run. As a non-profit with revenues of $226 million dollars and assets of over $1 billion, it is a necessity. The USTA By-Laws sets out a system of oversight, checks, and balances to ensure good stewardship of the assets at its disposal. More importantly, the structure is to ensure that the organization stays on point toward the mission of the USTA.

To promote the development of tennis as a means of healthful recreation and physical fitness;

To establish and maintain rules of play and high standards of amateurism and good sportsmanship;

To foster national and international amateur tennis tournaments and competitions;

To encourage, sanction and conduct tennis tournaments and competitions open to athletes without regard to race, creed, color or national origin and under the best conditions possible so as to effectively promote the game of tennis with the general public;

To generally encourage through tennis the development of health, character and responsible citizenship; and

To carry on other similar activities permitted to be carried on by such a not-for-profit corporation.

Purpose of the USTA established in the Constitution and By-Laws [1]

In order to carry out those responsibilities, the USTA has established four types of committees:

• Board Committees: Audit, Budget, Investment, Major Construction, and Strategic/Creative Planning
• Direct Report Committees: Advisory Group on Committees & Evaluations, Diversity & Inclusion, and International
• Council Committees: Adult Tennis, Delivery System, Player Development, Professional Tennis, Rules, Volunteer Development, Youth Tennis.
• Special Assignment Committees: Grand Slam Board, US Open Volunteers, USTA Representatives to the United States Olympic Committee, Adult Implementation Group, High School Task Force, Hispanic Engagement Advisory Group, Senior International Team Selection Group, Sportsmanship Task Force

Competition in Adult and Family tournament events is under the purview of the Adult Competition Committee which is under the Adult Tennis Council Committee. There are two other committees which fall under the purview of the Adult Tennis Council Committee: League and Tennis on Campus. The charter of the Adult Competition Committee is as follows:

To assist and support the USTA national staff, the USTA network, and the tennis industry in promoting and providing recreational and competitive tournament play opportunities for players age 18 and over and for parent/ child events.

Excerpt from USTA Committees document [4]

The the Adult Competition Committee has an Adult and Family Regulations Subcommittee that makes recommendations in the tournament and family ranking and sanctioning regulations document.

Adult and Family National Ranking Committee. The USTA Adult Competition Committee shall have a subcommittee charged with overseeing national rankings.

USTA ADULT AND FAMILY TOURNAMENT, RANKING & SANCTIONING REGULATIONS, IX.I[3]

There is a degree of formality to the rules and regulations that make it hard to adjust them on the fly. It is also why I think that it is very important for the ACC to issue communication to the tournament playing constituency explaining the decisions that are being made or deferred for both 2021 and 2022.

These USTA ADULT AND FAMILY TOURNAMENT, RANKING, AND SANCTIONING REGULATIONS may be amended by the USTA Adult Competition Committee upon the recommendation of an Adult and Family Regulations Subcommittee. The Adult and Family Regulations Subcommittee is comprised of members appointed by the Chair of the USTA Adult Competition Committee. Proposed amendments are subject to review and comment by the Office of General Counsel and Chair of the Constitution and Rules Committee prior to adoption. Each amendment will be in writing and forwarded to the USTA Adult Competition Committee and the Executive Directors of each Sectional Association at least 21 days before any meeting of the USTA Adult Competition Committee at which the amendment will be considered. Unless otherwise specified, amendments will become effective on January 1 following the year of adoption.

USTA ADULT AND FAMILY TOURNAMENT, RANKING & SANCTIONING REGULATIONS, I.D [3]

Interestingly enough, there are player responsibilities outlined in the same document regarding review and prompt submission of corrections to published rankings lists as follows:

H. Responsibilities of Adult and Family Players Seeking National Ranking. Players are responsible for regularly reviewing their player records and promptly submitting corrections to their player records to the USTA Adult Tennis Department. All corrections must be submitted no later than January 15.

USTA ADULT AND FAMILY TOURNAMENT, RANKING & SANCTIONING REGULATIONS, IX.H[3]

That means that issues and complaints are supposed to be submitted directly to the Adult Tennis Department. Contact information in that same document is provided as an email address: adulttournaments@usta.com. In other words, players are not supposed to go through their section office nor the Customer Care portal on the USTA website as some have been doing.

Presumably communication to that address is routed through the USTA staffer who is assigned to the ACC who will then route those requests through the Adult Competition Committee via the Adult and Family Regulations Subcommittee. I have a question into the USTA to confirm how corrections submitted to the adulttournaments@usta.com email address are processed.

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1. USTA Corporate Governance Constitution, Bylaws, and Diversity and Inclusion Statement, undated document currently hosted at USTA.com)
2. United States Tennis Association Incorporated and Affiliates Consolidated Financial Statements, Years Ended December 31, 2020 and 2019.
3. USTA ADULT AND FAMILY TOURNAMENT, RANKING & SANCTIONING REGULATIONS, USTA Hosted Document, Adopted May 14, 2020 and Amended December 2020.
4. USTA COMMITTEES, undated (but forensically appearing to be 3/23/15), viewed 11/19/2021.