USTA Player Development Names Martin Blackman Senior Director for Talent Identification and Development
December 23, 2008
*WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., December 23, 2008 — *The USTA announced today that Martin Blackman has been hired as Senior Director for Talent Identification and Development for USTA Player Development. Blackman will be based at the USTA Training Facility in Boca Raton, Fla., and will report to Tom Jacobs, Managing Director, Administration and Business Affairs, USTA Player Development. Blackman will start in his new position on January 1.
In this new position, Blackman will interact with the USTA Player Development coaching and administrative staffs, as well as top coaches and tennis centers across the country to lead the USTA’s efforts in identifying and developing American talent. Specifically, Blackman will oversee the USTA’s efforts to develop and implement its new USTA Certified Regional Training Centers. The first two sites in Atlanta, Georgia and Washington, D.C. were just recently announced. A dozen more of these centers are expected to be identified by the USTA in the next 3-5 years.
“Having Martin join our staff is another positive step towards cultivating young American talent,” said Patrick McEnroe, General Manager, USTA Player Development. “Not only was Martin himself an incredibly accomplished junior and college player, but he has a proven track record of both scouting and developing young talent, both as a college coach and as director of a major training facility.”
Blackman, 38, of New York, played professionally for seven years after an outstanding amateur career. He was a two-time finalist at the USTA National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., winning the Boys’ 16s title in 1986 and reaching the Boys’ 18s final two years later. Blackman was a member of two NCAA Championship teams at Stanford, where he played doubles with McEnroe. From 1999 to 2004, Martin served as the head coach for American University’s men’s tennis team, which won three consecutive conference titles under his tutelage, earning him three Conference Coach of the Year awards. Since 2004, Blackman has served as director of The Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, Md., one of the recently announced USTA Certified Regional Training Centers.
The new USTA Player Development unit has been created to identify and develop the next generation of American champions by surrounding the top junior players and young pros with the resources, facilities and coaching they need to reach their maximum potential.