2026 Annual Meeting & Conference: Nearly 1,000 USTA members gathered to celebrate the power of tennis
USTA staff and volunteers from across the country gathered in Orlando, Fla., at the 2026 Annual Meeting & Conference (AMC) to share ideas and inspire progress achieving the organization's vision of reaching 35 million tennis players by 2035. The three-day event, held March 26-28, welcomed 964 attendees and kicked off with a keynote address from USTA President, Chairman of the Board and interim Co-CEO, Brian Vahaly.
“Throughout 2025, we spent considerable time thinking about how we turn our ambition of 35 million people playing tennis into an operating plan that actually gets more people onto a tennis court,” Vahaly said.
“And we began that work with a deep understanding that tennis happens locally: With coaches running lessons, with facility operators filling courts, volunteers and providers building programs in their communities. That is where participation actually grows.”
Those community members hosted a variety of sessions throughout the conference, with USTA committees sharing their successes and experiences from the past year, as well as goals for the next year. The sessions emphasized the ground-level work that is critical to achieving the organization’s greater strategy, which focuses on growing the game and sharing the power of tennis. Additionally, 10 tennis advocates at the grassroots and local levels were honored with national awards for their efforts.
Brian Vahaly and Craig Tiley at the USTA Annual Meeting and Conference. Photo by Susan Mullane/USTA.
That goal was also affirmed by a special guest at the AMC: incoming USTA CEO Craig Tiley. Vahaly welcomed Tiley out onto the stage during the general session, who was greeted by roaring applause.
“It’s an incredible privilege to be standing here in front of you, and I cannot tell you how excited I am about working with each and every one of you on not only delivering on our strategy of 35 by 35, but having more players play this beautiful game than anywhere else in the world,” Tiley said. “And that's what we're going to make happen here.”
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