The group in charge of tennis in the US is starting its first coaching program

The U.S. Tennis Association announced the start of its first all-encompassing coaching program on Wednesday, a little more than a year after an outside review of the USTA's safeguarding system offered recommendations for how to better protect players from abuse such as sexual misconduct.

“At the end of the day, we have to create safe environments for all our players,” Craig Morris, the CEO of the new USTA Coaching initiative, said in a video interview with The Associated Press from Florida.

Morris said the USTA now can make sure that everyone who is certified is Safe Play approved, including completing a criminal background screening and being able to identify, respond to and prevent misconduct.

The USTA estimates there are currently 25,000 to 30,000 coaches in the United States, and the country’s official governing body for the sport would like to see the number rise to around 75,000 to 100,000.

That would include everyone from parents teaching their children to the sorts of professional coaches who will be working with athletes at the U.S. Open, the USTA's showcase event that begins on Aug. 24.

The effort is connected to the group's goal of having 35 million people playing the sport in the U.S. by 2035.

“The USTA’s never been in the coaching business. We’re probably the last major tennis federation in the world that doesn’t do this. And it’s our responsibility. … This is recruitment, marketing, benefits, services, education, certification. What’s the future generation of coaching going to look like? We have to start getting high school kids and college kids looking at this as a career," Morris said.

“This is fundamental for U.S. tennis. For the protection of this game, the USTA has to invest in protecting the delivery system of the sport,” he added. “And for the very first time in our history, we’re going to do that.”

In June 2024, a 62-page report presented to the USTA Board of Directors included 19 specific recommendations for how to “increase player safety.”

The report was made public less than two months after a tennis player was awarded $9 million in damages by a jury in federal court in Florida following her accusation that the USTA failed to protect her from a coach she said sexually abused her at one of its training centers when she was a teenager. The USTA also was a defendant in four other lawsuits related to sexual abuse of tennis players over the last two decades.

FILE - The entrance to the welcome center at the USTA National Campus is seen in Orlando, Fla, Tuesday, Dec. 12, 2017. T (AP Photo/John Raoux, file)

RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Democrat Abigail Spanberger has been sworn into office as Virginia’s first female governor. Spanberger was sworn in at noon Saturday amid a cold drizzle outside the state Capitol after centuries of men holding the state’s top office.

Spanberger defeated Republican Winsome Earle-Sears to succeed Gov. Glenn Youngkin, also a Republican. It marks a new chapter as Democrats pull the levers of power in Virginia while Republican President Donald Trump sits in the White House next door.

Two other Democrats were also sworn in. Ghazala F. Hashmi, the first Muslim woman to serve in statewide office in the U.S., is the new lieutenant governor. Jay Jones is the first Black person elected attorney general in Virginia.

Spanberger, a former CIA case officer and member of Congress, defeated Republican Winsome Earle-Sears in November. Her inauguration as the state’s 75th governor is a historic first: only men have held the post since Virginia first became a commonwealth in 1776. And no woman served as a colonial governor before then.

She will be referred to with traditional formality: “Madam Governor” or, as some officials phrase it, “her excellency.”

According to “A Guide to Virginia Protocol and Traditions,” males in the official party wear morning coats and women wear dark suits for the inauguration and many, including the new governor’s husband, kept to that tradition on Saturday.

But as the first woman to serve as governor, Spanberger wore all white on Saturday, a possible tribute to the women’s suffrage movement. She wore a gold pin on her long, white coat.

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin, center, arrives to deliver his State of the Commonwealth Address during the opening of the 2026 session of the General Assembly at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Wednesday Jan. 14, 2026. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin acknowledges the applause as he delivers his State of the Commonwealth Address during the opening of the 2026 session of the General Assembly at the Capitol in Richmond, Va., Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026. Lt. Gov. Winsome Earl-Sears, top left, House Speaker, Don Scott, D-Portsmouth, top center, and Senate President Pro ten, Louise Lucas, D-Portsmouth, join in the welcome. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)

Virginia Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger during an interview at the Capitol Tuesday Jan. 6, 2026, in Richmond, Va. (AP Photo/Steve Helber)