Photo: JENNIFER POTTHEISER
K
atrina Adams has a lot of initiatives on her plate and is in a hurry to get them done.
That’s how it goes for presidents at the U.S. Tennis Association, volunteers who serve two-year terms.
Katrina Adams
U.S. Tennis Association | Chairman, CEO and President
Adams, whose term runs through next year, has one initiative focused on increasing tennis play among Hispanics, another to get more tennis in high schools, and a third to improve sportsmanship. Adams used to sit on a USTA committee that heard appeals of players, parents and coaches suspended or booted from rec leagues for infractions. “It’s a growing problem,” she said.
Adams is the first African-American and the first former pro tennis player to serve in her current roles with the USTA. She won 20 doubles titles in a career that ended in 1999, and she took a set off Chris Evert at Wimbledon. She’s now worked her way up the USTA volunteer ladder to the very top and is also well-known in U.S. tennis circles for overseeing the Harlem Junior Tennis and Education Program, a nonprofit that helps more than 1,000 kids annually learn tennis and study.
“I am a living example of tennis changing lives,” said Adams, who grew up on the south side of Chicago.
She also has a spot on “We Need To Talk,” the CBS Sports Network show featuring an all-women’s cast, giving Adams a wider profile beyond the sport of tennis.
— Daniel Kaplan
- Notable professional achievement: Becoming chairman, CEO and president of the USTA.
- Biggest professional disappointment: Not winning a Grand Slam.
- Best advice received: Stay true to yourself.
- Most memorable sporting events attended: Meeting Michael Jordan, taking a photo after a Bulls game vs. Detroit in 1989. And, walking alongside Tiger Woods at the PGA Championship in Atlanta in 2001 and saying, “It’s OK, Boo,” after a missed birdie putt, and he looked up and smiled.
- If my colleagues were asked to describe me, they would say I: Am direct and no-nonsense.
