106th ATA National Championships Will Continue to Advance DEI in Tennis This Summer

“Increasing the number of certified diverse coaches, and recognizing coaches wherever they are in the pipeline, is hugely important to all of us,” Wiley says.

According to the ATA, historically Black universities—including Tuskegee and Howard—offered tennis to its students as early as the 1890s. Beginning with Philadelphia’s Chautauqua Tennis Club in 1898, African-American tennis players competed in invitational tournaments throughout the Mid-Atlantic and Northeast. 

After the U.S. Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) barred players of color from its tournaments, however, a group of African-American businessmen, college professors and physicians gathered in Washington, D.C. and formed the ATA on Nov. 30, 1916. The following August, the inaugural ATA National Championships in Baltimore’s Druid Hill Park offered three events: men’s and women’s singles, and men’s doubles.

The color line finally blurred in 1940 when white American Don Budge—who in 1938 had become the first player to capture the Grand Slam—entered an ATA tournament. He defeated ATA champion Jimmie McDaniel before partnering with Dr. Reginald Weir in doubles against McDaniel and Richard Cohen—all men of color.

The USLTA finally ended its discriminatory policy due to pressure from white members Edward Niles and Alice Marble, who won five Grand Slam singles championships between 1936 and 1940. In 1950, negotiations within the two organizations resulted in Althea Gibson becoming the first Black player to compete in the U.S. National Championship at Forest Hills, N.Y.

By that time, Gibson was in the midst of raising the ATA National Championships singles trophy 10 straight times (1947-1956), while capturing five Grand Slam singles titles. Other notable ATA National Championships participants include singles champions Arthur Ashe (1960-62), Zina Garrison (1979-80) and Lori McNeil (1981), as well as Leslie Allen, Chanda Rubin, Katrina Adams and Coco Gauff—who won the most recent US Open.

Today the ATA National Championships attracts more than 700 participants of all ages, backgrounds and ethnicities from throughout the U.S., Puerto Rico and the Caribbean to its dozens of events. This year’s championships will additionally feature numerous social mixers, educational webinars and a fundraising gala on July 18 honoring Martin Blackman, general manager of USTA Player Development.