News & Features

by Colette Lewis, 17 January 2025

Special from Zoo Tennis

When the United States Tennis Association announced an organizational restructuring last fall that would combine Player Development, Pro Circuit, Team Events, Collegiate and Junior Competition, it was accompanied by the news that General Manager of Player Development Martin Blackman would be leaving the organization after serving in that role since the spring of 2015.

Blackman, 54, had previously served as Senior Director of Talent Identification and Development at the USTA from 2009 to 2011, working closely with former USTA Director of Coaching Jose Higueras before leaving to start his own academy in Florida.

When Blackman returned to the USTA, replacing Patrick McEnroe as head of Player Development, he and Higueras continued to shape the Team USA concept they had introduced in 2009, building on that foundation for nearly a decade. When Blackman finished his tenure at the USTA last month, the United States was coming off a year with eight men and 18 women in the ATP and WTA Top 100s, two US Open singles finalists, and three of the four International Tennis Federation junior team titles.

I recently spoke to Blackman about his future, his proudest moments and biggest disappointments at the USTA, his reaction to the March email that roiled US tennis and the skills the new head of tennis at the USTA will need.

CL: What led to the creation of the Team USA concept in 2009?

MB: The first couple of conversations I had with Patrick (McEnroe) and Jose (Higueras) were always coming back to the same point: that the US is too big to have a centralized structure for player development. We have to figure out how we can partner with the private sector, with our sections. Fortunately we had this foundation, which was the philosophy that Jose brought to player development, his principals of teaching, training and coaching the game.

CL: What was the next step?

MB: We decided to do a listening tour. In the first half of 2009, we went to I believe 13 out of 15 of the continental sections for basically a two-day workshop with the same template everywhere. We asked them "how do you think player development is doing in this country" and the answer we got every time was "not well, we don't trust you, you don't treat us with respect. You invite our juniors to camps without communicating with us, make changes in their game and don't communicate with us, so it's not going well."

So we asked, if we made a commitment to fixing these things, changing our behavior, partnering with you, will you join us? And the answer was always yes.

And finally, we presented the philosophy, or I should say, Jose presented the philosophy, drawing from his experience as a great player and a great coach, and the humility with which he did it, it provided a connection that we always had.

We met with the junior development managers in the sections, so when we came back, we had the relationships with the sections and the private sector, and we said let's build a camp system, so we can regionalize the training for these young kids: sectional camps, regional camps, national camps for kids 11-14 and we always invited their private coach, starting the right way and showing them we're serious about this.

We let them know we were inviting their player and asked the coach if there were things they wanted us to reinforce. We gave them a stipend to come to the camp, did coaching education, and after the camp, asked them to critique the camp. From 2009 through the end of 2011, working side by side with those coaches, learning from them, identifying faculty coaches that would later lead camps, so it wasn't National dictating, by the time we got to the third year, it felt like we were all one big team.

The keys to the strength of that partnership were their eyes on the ground to help us with the invitations to the section camps, so we weren't missing kids anymore. We made it clear we don't just want the top-ranked kids, we want the kids that can't afford the private lessons, that can't afford to travel for points, they're multi-sport athletes, or maybe they're late maturers. And we know you know who they are.

Then, we get together and ask who the top 25% of the kids are, girls and boys. It's not going to be National deciding; it's going to be all of the coaches, and in a typical camp it was eight private sector coaches and two National. We'd invite those kids to a regional camp, doing the same thing. And it was never a closed loop, a kid who didn't get invited to any camps in 2009 could easily get invited to a camp in 2010.

When I left in 2011 to start my own academy and Kent Kinnear took over, it was already the Team USA movement. Kent took it to another level; he just did a phenomenal job in Talent ID. He was so good with the relationships, he was so good at creating feedback loops.

CL: What was your reaction to the letter Jose Higueras sent in March that criticized the USTA's recent approach to Player Development?

MB: I prefer not to comment on his letter—I think his letter speaks for itself—but what I will say is that Jose is a man of integrity, a leader with integrity and he is the best coach that I've ever worked with. I treasure every day I was able to work with him. The first time around, in the junior space, from 2008-2011, I would go to a workshop and see him talk to coaches and do drills and answer tough questions, and it was like being in college, like getting a masters, and all our coaches got the benefit of that.

Then coming back in this role, in mid-2015, we were able to talk a little bit more as peers. He sees things really clearly and powerfully from a tennis perspective and he is able to simplify, but not be simplistic. Here's what has to get done; here's the work, here's how you build a player. I looked at things more from a system and a resource perspective, and think that combination, being able to meet in the middle, really helped us to get things right. I feel really blessed to have learned from and worked with and been mentored by Jose, and I have nothing but respect for him.

CL: What are the accomplishments you're most proud of during your tenure at USTA?

MB: No. 1 is that we changed the culture. When we were at those workshops in early 2009, and we heard what those private coaches had to say, it hurt. I didn't like hearing that, even though it was before me, it still really hurt, because those were coaches I really respected. I know how hard they work and I know how deep the trust and the bonds are between them and their players and families. I'm really proud that we fixed that in a real, meaningful way.

No. 2 is I'm really proud of the structure that we put together. When you're a governing body, especially like the USTA—we are so well funded and we are so powerful—it's easy to think you know everything and can centralize everything. However it happened, we had enough humility to understand, one, we couldn't do it, the country was too big; two, we didn't know everything and needed to learn a lot from the private sector; three, when you don't care who gets the credit, you can do amazing things.

No. 3 is adding a principle to the foundation, the philosophy. We had to call out that we're in the business of human development first, character first. Ten out of 10 times, I'd rather see an 18-year-old become a great human being that maximizes their potential regardless of their tennis. Now do I want to see them win the Open? Of course I do, every single year. So we added that principle, what we called person first, putting their character, their happiness, their emotional wellness first.

CL: What are the biggest disappointments?

MB: I will only talk about what we call the controllables, I won't talk about anything external. I would say there are things I wish we had focused more on at different times. But I think making mistakes is just part of getting better. Make sure the mistakes are small and you're failing forward. We made a ton of mistakes, and that's me looking in the mirror, but I think we always had a growth mindset and what made it a lot easier as an organization and a culture is that I always tried to solicit critiques. I want to know what you think I can do better, ask that question before you tell me.

CL: Do you have an example of a critique that you received in that fashion?

MB: I'll give you two.

The first is a little out of the box, but it speaks to the importance of having relationships with your stakeholders.

One of the things we implemented some years ago is a check-in call with all the management companies: IMG, Octagon, Topnotch, GSE, Team 8, just to be like, hey, here's where we are, there are a couple of changes in the structure, a couple of different point people and we want to hear from you if there is more we can do for American players you represent. So we had one of those calls, I think it was about seven years ago, in 2017, with IMG. I asked them, what is something that's missing, that we're not doing? And Jill Smoller said, you guys need to do more with emotional wellness and mental health. I said, ok, tell me why. And she said, I go to these tournaments, I know a lot of the women and guys on the tour and the pressure, the struggle, the imbalance of social media, is out of control.

So I went back and spoke to team leaders, particularly our director of mental performance Dr. Larry Lauer, and I asked him to work with some professionals, a multi-disciplinary group, and come back with a proposal for a mental health and emotional wellness initiative.

The second one has happened multiple times in different ways. But it's feedback after the camps. It's the little things, like, they didn't play enough sets, you didn't do any athletic development, or it was too much drilling, no games, no fun. But after those camps, knowing that we could make it better in a couple of weeks, with the next camp, that was really exciting.

CL: What are your thoughts on the USTA's announcement that they are implementing a new structure combining Player Development, Pro Circuit, Team Events, Collegiate and Junior Competition?

MB: I don't know enough about the strategy to really comment on it. I hope it's successful, because they have a very strong foundation to build on, the last three years of success. I'm always rooting for the USTA, always rooting for Player Development and American tennis.

CL: What's the skill set the leader of that initiative should have?

MB: I think that person needs to have the unique ability to go from 30,000 feet to three feet. Really toggle. Obviously, they are overseeing a big division, so they have to be strategic in that respect, but the attention to detail, especially regarding what happens in actual development, what happens on the tennis court, what happens in the gym, what happens at coaching ed workshops, that cannot slip in any way.

So for that person, whoever it is, I'm sure they're going to find a great person. My advice to them would be to listen for the first three months. Just listen. Maybe do a tour like Jose and I did back in 2009, really try to understand all the strategies that have led to the success that we've had. And with the new division and the new ability you have, with different resources and so on, try to solve for how you aggregate that division and all those resources to make sure you have continuity with the things that were successful.

CL: Do you see college tennis continuing to expand as a developmental pathway?

MB: The last piece of Team USA structure in 2017, 2018 and 2019 was dedicating three national coaches to the collegiate space. And I'm really proud of that. Even then, people were like, oh, they're really not that good; the great players aren't coming out. And we said, we can't say that. If we don't invest in it, we can't sit back and say we're not getting the best. We're seeing top talent going to these schools and we're not doing enough, so that was big.

With players like Mackie(McDonald), Danielle Collins, Irina Falconi, Jenny Brady, when they started to pop coming right out of college, break in in their second or third year, that was a really powerful demonstration effect and I think that kind of completed the circle of having all three spaces, junior, pro and college, covered.

My fear for college tennis moving forward is that we've got to find a way to monetize the commercial appeal of college tennis. You've got this Power 4 issue, with that $2.7 billion settlement, you've got a framework being put together that could mean every Power 4 school has to pay $20 million a year per school to their student athletes, and then you've got an arms race with NIL (Name, Image, and Likeness) collectives. I don't want to see one tennis program go, so if I'm giving in that space, I want to see the players that I'm supporting a little bit more. I want them to be on streaming, I want fans in the seats, I want to see them on the conference TV channel.

So that's an area that if we're proactive in really getting the production of highlighting college tennis and those matches, whether it's spectatorship, viewership, distribution, TV, streaming, then I think we can really protect them against what's coming. It's going to get messy the next three to five years, and I hope this isn't the case, but if athletic departments start looking to make cuts in non-revenue Olympic sports, I don't want tennis to be on the chopping block.

But from a developmental perspective, it's great to see so many of our best juniors taking advantage of it, Learner Tien, Fiona Crawley, Peyton Stearns, Nishesh Basavareddy, it's great to see.

CL: What are your thoughts on the recent NCAA announcement that the Division I championships will be held in Lake Nona for a 10-year stretch in 2028-2037?

MB: Bringing it here to Orlando, if we can get two, three thousand fans in the stands and another 20,000 watching on TV, we can really show people how special college tennis is. Once you watch it you're hooked.

CL: What's next for you?

MB: I finished up with the USTA on December 31, really amicably. Now I'm going to be working on two paths. Tennis is my heart, my life. I'm always going to be working in tennis, and I'm always going to be available to support American players and programs.

My wife won't want to hear me say this, but for the most part, I'll do that for free. I'll be coaching, I'll be doing some consulting, with academies, federations and also be consulting on some projects where tennis is a central part of the development.

And there's a proliferation of companies starting up in this intersection of sports tech and performance, whether it's venture or private equity, and so I've been asked to help advise with some of that as well. That's fun, because I get to learn new things. But I'll be focused squarely in the tennis ecosystem, you can count on that.

Previous Q&As with Blackman:

2016: https://www.tennisrecruiting.net/article.asp?id=2429

2017: https://www.tennisrecruiting.net/article.asp?id=2657

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About Colette Lewis

Colette Lewis has covered topflight U.S. and international junior events as a freelance journalist for over a decade. Her work has appeared in Tennis magazine, the Tennis Championships magazine and the US Open program. Lewis is active on Twitter, and she writes a weekly column right here at TennisRecruiting.net. She was named Junior Tennis Champion for 2016 by Tennis Industry Magazine.

Lewis, based out of Kalamazoo, Michigan, has seen every National Championship final played since 1977, and her work on the tournament's ustaboys.com website led her to establish ZooTennis, where she comments on junior and college tennis daily.