The Big Serve
Take Heart. Take Part. Take Action.

Welcome to the big serve. We at the USTA congratulate you on taking the first step to advocate for tennis in your community. Register on this site to receive updates and a newsletter about tennis advocacy and explore our site.

You will find some great resources on this site which will help you to build tennis facilities and create programming in your area like handbooks...

The 28-court Hillsborough Community College tennis complex will remain open to the public under new management, school officials say.

The HCC tennis facility had been slated to close on March 3, when a 20-year operating lease with the City of Tampa expires.

Instead of closing, however, the 16 hard courts and 12 soft courts at HCC will be operated by Keystone Ventures LLC under a 60- to 90-day deal now being finalized. During those two or three months, HCC will work toward signing a longer-term deal, officials said.

"This is great news for area tennis players," said Hillsborough County Tennis Association President Sharon Belmudez. "HCC is the largest public tennis facility in the Tampa Bay region, so we are very grateful to the school for finding a solution." (read more...)

Taking up the cause for tennis is not a small commitment. Having tennis courts constructed in your local public park, for instance, can involve wading through levels of bureaucracy and take years from start-up to completion. The rewards, however, are immense. If you believe in tennis and all the benefits it brings to your community, then your efforts will be richly rewarded. This site can help you take the first steps toward putting together a comprehensive campaign.

We realize that if you have never launched or work on a advoacy campaign before, getting started can be daunting. To ease your transition into advocacy, this post outlines a step-by-step process that you can use to see your project through from conception to completion, with helpful hints and tips to follow along the way. We welcome your feedback and suggestions via the comment section of this post.

Here's a case study on advocacy efforts paying off - and it's something we need to repeat around the country!

On August 1, 2007 the Montgomery County (MD) Council held its second hearing and then formally approved special appropriations recommended by Parks staff to fund the $500,000 installation of tournament quality outdoor tennis court lights at Olney Manor Park during fiscal year 2007.

The members and leadership Montgomery County Tennis Association were effectively...

Talk about a great birthday present! World Wrestling Entertainment CEO Vince McMahon built a new state-of-the-art tennis facility for his mother in Ebensburg, Pennsylvania. She's been a lifelong fan of the sport and a string of bad winters and winding mountain roads had made it difficult for her to get to the courts recently.

What is really fantastic is that the courts are for the entire community to use and were the first ones built in the town...