Image problem~~Can the USTA fix American tennis? Or is it all talk?

Sports Illustrated writer Scott Price and I have had several discussions about the USTA development initiative while I've been here in New York and his article (online only) covers just some of what we've talked about. The underlying question in all of this is what role a country's tennis federation should play in development. As I've said before, I believe every champion is an exception. The prudent way to spend the vast amounts of money produced by the US Open is to distribute it widely to parents and coaches for use in travel and instruction, and host a few camps to bring the best of the best together.

When things calm down later this month, I'm planning a post that will be entitled "If I Ran USTA High Performance I'd....." and I'm just going to start off with my answer. I hope it will spark a forum for productive suggestions from all of you. So start thinking how you would finish that sentence.