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WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. — The USTA announced today that the Indianapolis Tennis Center, on the campus of Indiana University-Purdue University Indianapolis, has been named as a USTA Certified Regional Training Center as part of its continuing expanded efforts to develop future American tennis champions. The Indianapolis Tennis Center joins three academies in Chicago — the Midtown Tennis Club, Score Tennis and Fitness and the CARE Academy — which were named as USTA Certified Regional Training Centers in July, creating a Regional Training Center network to better serve the junior tennis community in the Midwest Section.

“The Indianapolis Tennis Center will be the main site in our Midwest network, and combined with our other Regional Training Centers in Chicago, will give us a strong presence in the area,” said Martin Blackman, Senior Director, Talent Identification and Development, USTA Player Development, who oversees the USTA Regional Training Center program. “The Midwest has one of the strongest developmental infrastructures in the country thanks to Andrea Calvert-Sanders (Director of Junior Tennis, USTA/Midwest Section), Mark Faber, Chairman of the Midwest Coaches Commission, and an incredibly engaged and effective coaches commission. USTA/Midwest has developed an Under-10 system that will seamlessly feed into the newly established Regional Training Center network.”

The USTA Certified Regional Training Centers expand the USTA Player Development program’s reach throughout the country by partnering with academies, clubs and tennis centers that have a proven record of identifying and developing tennis players. In December, the USTA named the Racquet Club of the South in Atlanta and The Junior Tennis Champions Center in Maryland as its first two Certified Regional Training Centers. In addition to the Midwest network, the USTA also has named a network of facilities in Texas this summer. The USTA plans to name between eight to ten more Certified Regional Training Centers throughout the country over the next five years.

“The Indianapolis Tennis Center, on the IUPUI campus, is excited to be named a USTA Certified Regional Training Center,” said Kathy Risacher, Director, Indianapolis Tennis Center. “With this partnership the USTA has expanded their search for young tennis talent and entrusted their goal of developing future American champions to the ITC and the USTA Midwest Section. We are delighted to be part of the bright future of United States tennis.”

In addition to continuing their already existing programs, the USTA Certified Regional Training Centers will also host USTA Player Development camps for players, ages 10-14, in their respective regions. These players will be selected in conjunction with the USTA National coaching staff and their respective USTA Section Coaching Commission. The Centers will also help identify talent in players as young as 6-years-old, run programs using the QuickStart* format and host QuickStart tournaments for players 8-and-under and 10-and-under.

The camps will be staffed by the top coaches at the USTA Certified Regional Training Centers with assistance from the USTA national coaching staff. The coaches at the USTA Certified Regional Training Centers will also work in conjunction with the USTA Coaching Education program by working with and training the top coaches in their region and USTA Section. Additionally, the coaches will attend training sessions at USTA National Training Centers.

The Indianapolis Tennis Center is located in on the campus of IUPUI in Indianapolis, and has been in existence for 30 years. The facility boasts six indoor and 12 outdoor hard courts along with two clay courts, in addition to a stadium court and a grandstand to host events such as the Indianapolis Tennis Championships, an Olympus US Open Series event. In addition to Risacher, the ITC’s coaching staff is led by head coaches Bryan Smith and Jeff Smith.

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. The Player Development program is based at the USTA Training Facility in Boca Raton, Fla., and also utilizes the USTA West Coast Training Center in Carson, Calif. Last year, the USTA began implementing its Certified Regional Training Center program as part of its expanded efforts to develop future American tennis champions, which will expand the USTA Player Development program’s reach throughout the country by partnering with academies, clubs and tennis centers that have a proven record of identifying and developing tennis players. The USTA expects to name approximately ten more Regional Training Centers over the next five years.

* QuickStart Tennis is a new play format that has been developed to help kids ten and under play the game of tennis. To make the game more accessible to children, several elements have been modified including the court size, the racquet size, the balls, the scoring system, and even the net height.