The Athletic Looks at Italian Tennis Player Development Template with New USTA General Manager Tracy Davies; 14-Year-Old Fagan Earns First USTA Pro Circuit Win at W50 in Indian Harbour Beach; Former Tennis Star Fralick Turns to Baseball

The Athletic's Matt Futterman looks at Italy, the latest national tennis federation drawing attention for their development strategy in this article. The number of Italian men who have broken through to the top of the game the past several years, and the success of Jannik Sinner at the very top of the sport, has generated a lot of conversations about their methods and pathway, including in the United States.

Futterman relates how Jose Higueras's email last spring prompted USTA CEO Lew Sherr to be “much more directly involved with our player development efforts and organization." That led to a reorganization, which saw the departure Player Development General Manager Martin Blackman last year and creation of a new position as General Manager of US Tennis. Longtime USTA executive Tracy Davies was recently announced as the choice for that new position, and Futterman talks with her about what they USTA can learn from the Italian model.

Brian Vahaly, the new Chairman and President of the USTA Board, has been seen as skeptical of the role of Player Development plays in the success of American tennis, but acknowledges that having American great players is an important facet of inspiring young players and growing the game. 

I've been around long enough to see France, Spain and even Canada touted as federations who have player development systems that the USTA should emulate. I don't believe that's practical as all countries are different, and have their own challenges to overcome and problems to solve. But if all the USTA takes from Italy is that an increase in the number of Pro Circuit tournaments would help, I'm all for implementing that, sooner rather than later. The United States has such an advantage with the college system in place here, and adding more Pro Circuit tournaments in regional calendar segments would be welcomed by juniors and college players alike.

Davies has a huge job ahead in taking over and coordinating so many different facets of American tennis, and while learning from other countries can be useful, there's plenty of wisdom and innovation right here that can help the USTA achieve its goals.

At the USTA Pro Circuit W50 in Indian Harbour Beach Florida, qualifiers Elizabeth Ionescu and Kristina Liutova and wild card Scarlett Fagan won their first round matches today. 

Fagan, 14, who is playing her first USTA Pro Circuit event, advanced when 37-year-old qualifier Tori Kinard retired trailing 7-5, 4-2. Kinard will face top seed Arina Rodionova of Australia in the second round Thursday.

Ionescu, who beat Verena Meliss of Italy 6-2, 6-2, will play No. 2 seed Hanna Chang Thursday; Liutova defeated Haley Giavara(Cal) 6-3, 4-6, 6-3 today and will play No. 4 seed Carol Zhao(Stanford) of Canada next.

Randy Walker of World Tennis was at Indian Harbour Beach for the first round of qualifying and wrote this article about the match he watched between Madison Brengle and Liutova. 

Back in 2022, I had heard about Chase Fralick, who was playing the Kalamazoo 16s, but was contemplating a career in baseball instead. Fralick's matches always had many coaches from top programs in attendance, and he played an extremely competitive match with Darwin Blanch, who went on to win the tournament, in the round of 16. 

But Fralick did indeed end his tennis career that summer, and is now a catcher on the Auburn baseball team.

For more on his journey from one sport to another, check out this article from the Montgomery Advertiser.