USTA Taps Martin Blackman to Lead Player Development

The USTA has announced that Martin Blackman will succeed Patrick McEnroe as USTA’s general manager of player development.

The USTA has a scheduled conference call with the Chairman of the Board and President Katrina Adams and Chief Operating Officer and Executive Director Gordon where they are expected to formally make the announcement.

“The USTA is lucky to have secured an individual with as well-rounded a background as Martin Blackman,” said Adams. “I have known Martin for many years and I am confident that he is the right person at the right time to continue to lead USTA Player Development in the right direction moving forward.”

Blackman is a former professional player who reached a career-high ranking of 158th in the world back in 1994. He trained at Nick Bollettieri’s academy in Florida along with Andre Agassi and Jim Courier, winning the USTA Boys 16s national title. He went on to Stanford where he would win two NCAA championships before turning pro in 1989.

Following his playing career, Blackman would go on to coach the tennis team at American University. After that, he become the director of a junior training center in Maryland before opening up his own tennis academy in Boca Raton, Florida in 2011.

Blackman replaces McEnroe, who held the position for six-plus years before announcing last September that will be resigning because of personal and professional reasons.

Blackman will oversee both the USTA’s Player Development staff and Training Centers—including its Regional Training Center network and the Player Development facilities at the soon-to-be created USTA National Campus in Lake Nona, Fla.

Blackman then became the head men’s tennis coach at American University in 1998. During his tenure at American, Blackman was named conference Coach of the Year three times, leading American to three conference titles, two NCAA Tournament appearances and its first-ever national ranking.

In 2004, Blackman was hired as Director of the Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) in College Park, Md., and began to help build it into one of the premier junior training centers in America. In his five years at the JTCC, Blackman helped the Center double both its junior program enrollment and its full-time staff, and the JTCC has since worked with and helped develop pros including Alison Riske and Denis Kudla, and top junior Francis Tiafoe.

Near the end of his tenure in College Park, Blackman submitted a proposal to the USTA recommending that it partner with the best junior development programs across the nation, which was the impetus for the creation of the USTA Regional Training Center network. He was hired by USTA in 2009 as senior director of talent identification and development, a role that saw him oversee the implementation of the Regional Training Center program, serve as a co-leader of the Coaching Education Department and be USTA Player Development’s leader for Diversity and Inclusion.

Blackman left the USTA in late 2011 to found his own tennis academy, the Blackman Tennis Academy, in Boca Raton, Fla. After only its second year of full-time programming, Blackman’s Academy sent all eight of its graduating students to college on tennis scholarships.

Blackman also served two terms on the USTA Board of Directors, from 2003-2006, serving on the Audit and Collegiate Committees.

“If you set out to list all of the experience and qualifications you would want in the ideal candidate for this position, Martin checks all of the boxes. He brings a unique combination of experience and skills to the job. His expansive background in all areas of player development from experience as a player, to talent identification, to coaching at the highest levels gives him a solid platform to build on the great base that Patrick and the staff has built." said Smith. “His experience as a player, coach, administrator and innovator makes him the ideal leader for USTA Player Development as we continue to work with the American Tennis Family to identify and develop world-class American players.”

Blackman currently lives in Boca Raton, Fla., with his wife and their four children. He holds an economics degree from George Washington University.