USTA Director of Coaching Ola Malmqvist Retires; USTA Board Nominations for 2025-26; Three of Four USTA Pro Circuit Tournaments This Week in California

Former New York Times sports reporter Christopher Clarey, a leading tennis journalist, posted a tweet today announcing the retirement of USTA's Director of Coaching Ola Malmqvist. Malmqvist, who won an NCAA doubles title while at the University of Georgia in 1983 and coached Division I tennis at UNLV before joining the USTA, was named the USTA head of women's tennis in 2008. In 2018, Kathy Rinaldi took over for Malmqvist as head of women's tennis, while Malmqvist was named Director of Coaching, a position that Jose Higueras had held previously.

According to Clarey's tweet, all the recent controversy regarding the budget cuts at Player Development was a factor.

"He is departing in large part because he disagreed with budget cuts and reductions made to the USTA player development program, both at the pro and grassroots levels."

I have been encouraged by some recent USTA responses to this spring's Jose Higueras email that sparked the Player Development discussion, but this is not a good sign. I hope Malmqvist can continue to stay involved in the sport; perhaps, now that he will no longer be employed by the USTA, he will have more freedom to speak out on what can be done to keep American tennis on an upward trajectory.

The USTA has announced its slate of officers and board members for 2025-26. Brian Vahaly will be the president and chairman, with Christopher Lewis the first vice president.  CiCi Bellis has been nominated as a Director at Large in the Elite Athlete category. The full list of nominees can be found in this Tennis Industry United article.

California is hosting the three biggest tournaments on the USTA Pro Circuit this week, with the Tiburon ATP Challenger 75 and Redding W35 in Northern California and the W75 in Rancho Santa Fe in Southern California.

In Tiburon, the first round will be completed tonight; six Americans have already advanced to the second round, including two recent University of Texas graduates: qualifier Micah Braswell and Eliot Spizzirri. No. 2 seed Learner Tien(USC) and Charleston finalist Nishesh Basavareddy(Stanford) won today; Denis Kudla, the No. 8 seed, and wild card Colton Smith won their opening matches Monday, with Smith beating No. 5 seed Patrick Kypson(Texas A&M) 6-3, 6-2. 

Smith, a senior at Arizona, played a consolation semifinal match at the ITA All-American Championships in Tulsa Oklahoma Sunday and was right back on the court Monday in Tiburon, so I'm sure he enjoyed his day off today. Smith has made the second round of all three of the Challengers he's played: Lincoln in August, Las Vegas in September, and now here in Tiburon.

At the W35 in Redding, none of the eight players who qualified today are from the United States. Main draw cards were given to junior Alexis Nguyen, Berta Passola(Cal), Ayana Akli(Maryland, South Carolina) and Eryn Cayetano(Souther Cal). Maria Mateas(Duke) is the top seed.

Usue Arconada, the Templeton W75 finalist, received a special exemption into the main draw.  Texas A&M senior Mary Stoiana, who, like Colton Smith, played a consolation semifinal match in the ITA All-American Championships Sunday, but unlike Smith, she was not scheduled to play a match until Wednesday.

In contrast to Redding, seven of the eight qualifiers at the W75 in Rancho Santa Fe are Americans: Rasheeda McAdoo(Georgia Tech), Gabriella Price, Haley Giavara(Cal), Solymar Colling(San Diego), Lauren Davis, Carolyn Campana(Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, and Kailey Evans(San Diego). Evans, who played her All-American consolation quarterfinal on Saturday, had Sunday to travel before beginning qualifying on Monday.

The top seed at the W75 Rancho Santa Fe is University of Texas freshman Maya Joint of Australia, with Rebecca Marino of Canada the No. 2 seed. Wild card were awarded to Georgia's 2024 NCAA finalist Anastasiya Lopata of Ukraine, 15-year-old Annika Penickova, Ashley Kratzer and 15-year-old Julieta Pareja. Kratzer defeated Carson Branstine(Texas A&M) of Canada 6-4, 4-6, 7-5 today, while Pareja, who reached the final round of women's qualifying at the US Open, earned a third WTA Top 200 win today. Pareja, from nearby Carlsbad California, defeated No. 6 seed Elli Mandlik 2-6, 6-4, 6-1.

Akasha Urhobo and Berkeley W35 champion Iva Jovic are both in the main draw on their own rankings, and are unseeded.

The fourth USTA Pro Circuit event is here in Michigan, a new $15,000 men's tournament in Ann Arbor.

Five Americans advanced to the main draw with wins today: Josh Portnoy, Michigan State senior; Alex Cairo Michigan sophomore; 

William Mroz, Illinois junior; Matthew Thomson(Wake Forest) and 

Ryan Dickerson(Duke, Baylor).

The top seed in Ann Arbor is Felix Corwin(Minnesota). All four wild cards were given to current Michigan players: Bjorn Swenson, William Cooksey, Patorn Hanchaikul and Benjamin Kittay. Gavin Young of Michigan played his first round match today, beating No. 3 seed Tristan McCormick(Notre Dame, Georgia) 6-3, 7-5.

Cooper Woestendick, Jagger Leach and Adhithya Ganesan(Florida) all received entries via the ITF's Junior Reserved program. Woestendick and Leach lost today in the first round; Ganesan plays Wednesday.