McEnroe Named as General Manager of Elite Player Development for the USTA

The job that Craig Tiley turned down has gone to Patrick McEnroe, who was thought to have taken himself out of the running due to family commitments and his desire to continue to live in New York. Charlie Bricker of the Sun-Sentinel spells out the pros and cons of the position, and asks whether this will be any different than in years past, where talented coaches and administrators have had limited success in negotiating the USTA bureaucracy. But one exceptionally encouraging part of the new regime is the willingness to work with other academies around the country to develop talent. Bricker says:
There are those who will ask a very good philosophical question. Why do have a junior development program of any kind when our best players were developed by private coaches or in private academies?

Kantarian understands that and he's going to forge a major connection between the USTA camp in Boca and the various major academies around the United States.

He doesn't care whether our developing juniors want to train with the USTA or at Bollettieri's in Bradenton. Or with Nick Saviano in Sunrise or at Saddlebrook. The USTA will support them financially and with coaching. That option will be open to them.

In fact, Kantarian has spent an extraordinary amount of time speaking with Nick Bollettieri over the last few weeks. Yes, Bollettieri has a lot of foreign kids training at his place. But Nick is an American and he wants to see U.S. tennis succeed.

Fingers are crossed. This could be the event a lot of American tennis fans have waited for, the joining of private and public resources as never before to get U.S. tennis back to where it once was.

If you have a junior academy in the U.S. that produces world-class juniors, your first call next month should be to Patrick McEnroe, asking how the USTA can assist you in continuing the work you are already doing.

But if the "Pro Track" referred to this article somehow subverts the role that college can play in development, as witnessed by John Isner, Kevin Anderson and others, the USTA is missing a significant resource in attaining their goal.