2023 USTA Eastern Lifetime Achievement Award Recipient: Lawrence Kleger

Longtime junior coach Lawrence Kleger is the recipient of USTA Eastern’s 2023 Lifetime Achievement Award.

Kleger, a native New Yorker, is one of the top developmental tennis coaches in the United States. Most recently he served as the director of the John McEnroe Tennis Academy (JMTA) at Sportime Randall’s Island, a position he shared with Patrick McEnroe and held for more than a decade. For all his work with junior players over the years, Kleger received USTA Eastern’s George Seewagen Award (bestowed upon distinguished tennis professionals) in 2013 and was named the USTA Long Island Region Tennis Professional of the Year in 2006. 

Over the course of his career, Kleger has trained countless Eastern juniors who have earned local, sectional and national rankings. Hundreds have received full tennis scholarships and preferred admission to play at top colleges and universities. His students have collectively captured a junior Wimbledon title, numerous USTA National Junior Championships and more than 20 USTA Eastern Sportsmanship Awards. Those latter honors make Kleger the most proud.

“Sportsmanship is everything to me,” he says. “It is a crucial piece of the process of becoming the best player you can be.”

Perhaps Kleger’s most prominent and extended coaching relationship—other than the one with his two daughters, Michaela and Nicolle—was with Noah Rubin. Kleger coached Rubin for over ten years until the young player received a scholarship to Wake Forest. During this period, Rubin won some of the biggest junior events in the world, including capturing the 2014 Wimbledon boys’ singles title and both the singles and doubles titles at the 2014 USTA National Junior Championships. Kleger credits not only Rubin’s physical gifts, but also his confidence, consistently positive attitude and tireless work ethic for the many peaks in their coaching relationship.

Rubin went on to become the ITA No. 1-ranked freshman and an All-American at Wake Forest. He was also  the runner-up at the 2015 NCAA men’s singles championship. Rubin launched his professional tennis career in the summer of 2015 and ultimately reached a career-high ranking of world No. 125.

Though their coaching relationship ended, Kleger says he will always feel linked to Rubin. 

“Noah knows, no matter what, that I am in his corner,” Kleger says. “I will always have that bond with him.”

Though he has a long road back to a court, Kleger is still very much himself. He continues to champion Eastern tennis and speaks at length about its bright future.

“Like John McEnroe, I believe that there are great American tennis champions somewhere in or near New York City,” Kleger says. “So, my goal remains to find and support those young champions. I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else but here.”