News

Atlanta, GA — USTA Southern Public Relations Committee announced the co-winners of the 2009 USTA Southern QuickStart Facility Award: the Cary Tennis Center, Cary, N.C. and the Harrison Tennis Center, Marietta, Ga.

The award honors outstanding facilities that have either painted permanent QuickStart lines or built permanent QuickStart courts in 2009. Additionally, the facilities were judged on how proactive they were in supporting and executing QuickStart programs, making QuickStart a permanent part of their community and impacting the growth of youth tennis.

Accepting the awards will be Tennis Park Supervisor Sean Ferreira of the Cary Tennis Park and Facility Manager Steve Lottinger of the Harrison Tennis Center. The recipients will be recognized during the USTA Southern Annual Meeting in January at the Atlanta Perimeter Marriott Hotel in Atlanta, Ga.

Both are municipal facilities; the Cary Tennis Park is a town facility and the Harrison Tennis Center is managed by Cobb County.

QuickStart is a format that allows 6- to 10-years-olds to play tennis on smaller courts, with lower nets, shorter racquets and more simplified scoring than used by adults. The 36’ court (the width of a regular tennis court) is used mostly by 6- to 8-year-olds hitting a foam ball about twice the size of a regular ball. The 60’ court (about three-quarters the size of a regular tennis court), used mostly by 8- to 10-year-olds, employs a low compression ball. Many youngsters play the QuickStart format as a part of USTA Jr. Team Tennis leagues.

The USTA offers grants to facilities that build permanent QuickStart courts or paint light blue court lines on existing full-scale courts.

Members of the Public Relations Committee are Chairman Pat Guerry, Vice Chairman Pat Devoto, Jane Gamble, Pam Hymer, Robin Jones, Elenora Mauritson, Mark McMahon, Bob Moran and Teri Wiley.

The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the U.S. and the leader in promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level — from local communities to the highest level of the professional game. It owns and operates the US Open, the largest annually attended sporting event in the world, and launched the Olympus US Open Series linking 10 summer tournaments to the US Open. In addition, it owns the 94 Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S., and selects the teams for the Davis Cup, Fed Cup, Olympic and Paralympic games. A not-for-profit organization with more than 730,000 members, it invests 100 percent of its proceeds in growing the game. It is divided into 17 sections, of which USTA Southern is the largest. The 183,000+ USTA members living in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee make up USTA Southern, and account for approximately 25 percent of the total USTA membership. A professional staff housed in Norcross, Ga., carries out USTA Southern’s daily operations, but policy is formed and much of the organization’s work is executed via a board and committee structure of over 200 volunteers. For more information about the types of programs and services offered by USTA Southern, visit southerntennis.com.