Florida Qualifying Event Announced for USTA Junior Team Tennis National Championships

The re-launch of USTA Junior Team Tennis in Florida now offers players in the 18-under and 14-under advanced and intermediate divisions a chance to qualify for the Junior Team Tennis National Championships, to be held this fall at the USTA National Campus in Orlando.

The USTA Florida Junior Team Tennis National Qualifier will be held on July 21-24, 2017 at Red Bug Park in Casselberry, Fla. Registration opens April 1 and closes on June 30.

To qualify for the event players must have a current USTA membership, a junior NTRP rating (self-rating or dynamic rating, find out more at www.usta.com/junior_ratings), and must have played at least four USTA Junior Team Tennis local league matches recorded in TennisLink between Sept. 1, 2016 and June 30, 2017.

“For example if a boy or girl played singles and doubles against the Acers team, then played two positions against the Topspinners team in a USTA Florida JTT local league, and all four matches were recorded in TennisLink, the player would meet the criteria for playing the national qualifying event,” said USTA Florida Junior Team Tennis Coordinator Liz Coates.

Teams must be composed of three girls and three boys, and all players must be between the ages 11-18 by July 1, 2017. The match format will be girls’ singles, boys’ singles, girls’ doubles, boys’ doubles, and a mixed doubles match. The scoring format, subject to change, will be tradition best-of-three sets but with no-ad scoring, and a 10-point super-tiebreaker in lieu of a third set. If a player’s junior NTRP rating is 3.5 or above they must play in an advanced division.

Florida division winners in the 18-under and 14-under advanced and intermediate divisions will qualify for the 2017 USTA Junior Team Tennis National Championships, to be held on Sept. 21-24 for the 14-under, and Sept. 28-Oct. 1 for the 18-under at the USTA National Campus in Orlando.

For information on USTA Junior Team Tennis local leagues in your area go to www.ustaflorida.com/JTT.

For more info on the USTA Florida Junior Team Tennis National Qualifier go to http://tennislink.usta.com/TeamTennis/Main/ProgramHomePage.aspx?i=44845.

Nick Bollettieri Gets Intercollegiate Tennis Association Hall of Fame Nod

Nick Bollettieri (right) with tennis personality Dave “The Koz” Kozlowski

The Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced the 2017 ITA Men’s Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame induction class on Tuesday. Contributor Nick Bollettieri (Spring Hill College) of Bradenton, Fla., and players James Blake (Harvard University) and Matias Boeker (University of Georgia) join coaches Francis Baxter (University of Central Oklahoma) and Bill Otta (Saddlebrook College) in the five-person class.

The 2017 ITA Men’s Collegiate Tennis Men’s Hall of Fame Enshrinement Banquet will be held on Thursday, May 25, at the Georgia Center during the NCAA Division I Men’s and Women’s Championships, May 18-29, at the University of Georgia in Athens, Ga.

“This is a very accomplished and interesting class of 2017 and we’re very excited about adding all five members to the Hall of Fame,” said John Frierson, curator of the ITA Collegiate Tennis Men’s Hall of Fame. “We’re inducting two exceptional players, two very successful coaches from the Division II, NAIA and Junior College divisions, and another individual in Nick Bollettieri that would surely be on the Mount Rushmore of greatest and most important tennis coaches of all time.”

Bollettieri’s contributions to the sport are countless, and include his legendary tennis academy in Florida (founded in 1978) that has trained over 1,500 collegiate players and counting. The IMG Academy, formerly the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy, was the first full-time tennis boarding school to combine intense training on the court with a custom-designed academic curriculum.

Many of his former players went on to become ITA National Champions, including players like David Wheaton (Stanford) and Cecil Mammit (USC). His coaching protegees include more than 25 former players who have gone on to become college coaches at various levels, including Carlos Drada (Kentucky women, 2006-present), Cedric Kauffman (Kentucky men, 2012-present) and Chris Garner (Amherst).

He hosted the initial planning session of key ITA coaches in 1979 at The Colony in Longwood Key, Fla., that led to the forming of the ITA Board of Directors. Following Rolex sponsorship of the ITA All-Star Awards Outing & Luncheon in 2002-2003 at the West Side Tennis Club, Bollettieri personally raised the necessary money that allowed the continuation of the luncheon. Bollettieri has also spoken at the ITA Coaches Convention almost every year since its inception.

For more information go to www.itatennis.com.