Own The Arena ft. Katrina Adams

Summary

Katrina Adams — first Black female president and youngest president in USTA history, former professional doubles specialist (WTA), Northwestern University alum, Harlem Junior Tennis and Education Program leader, and author of the book “Own the Arena” — discusses her complete journey from a Martin Luther King Boys Club summer program in Chicago to leading the governing body of American tennis. The episode traces the stages of her tennis life: visual learner who started at 6 through brothers who quit after one summer, ATA (American Tennis Association) national champion from 10-and-under through 18s, Midwest Section #1 in 16s and 18s, two-time Illinois high school state champion, Northwestern scholarship, NCAA doubles champion, two years on the WTA tour, commentator, coach, USTA board member from 2005, vice president, then chairman/president/CEO. The book reframes tennis lessons as leadership frameworks applicable across any professional transition — “it’s not a tennis book.”

Guest Background

Katrina Adams grew up in Chicago, the youngest of three children (with older brothers who were enrolled in a Martin Luther King Boys Club summer tennis program — the sport was new to her family). Both parents were Chicago public school teachers who sacrificed significantly on teacher salaries to support her development. She started at age 6, played her first tournament at 7 (the ATA Nationals), started playing USTA events at 8, reached the USC Nationals by 10, and won every ATA age group from 10-and-under through 18s. After winning the Illinois high school state championship her junior and senior years, she enrolled at Northwestern at 16 (graduating from high school young — unbeknownst to national college coaches, who weren’t aware she was already a senior when they began recruiting). She was a top-10 national singles player and dominant doubles player at Northwestern, winning the NCAA doubles championship her sophomore year before turning pro. On the WTA tour, she trained alongside and traveled with Zina Garrison. She began pursuing her goal of post-play broadcasting — Northwestern’s communications program was a primary factor in her school selection — and eventually transitioned into the USTA board structure in 2005, ascending to president after roughly a decade of board service.

Key Findings

1. The Model Tennis Parent: Don’t Get in the Weeds

Adams describes her parents as “perfect tennis parents” precisely because they did not know tennis: “because they didn’t play, they weren’t really interfering with my own thought process of trying to tell me how to play — my coaches were doing that.” Her father drove her to tournaments across the country; her mother managed logistics at home with her brothers. There was no technical interference, no second-guessing of coaching decisions, and no pressure toward a specific career path. At 15 or 16, her parents had a conversation explicitly asking if she still wanted to play — in part because they were reaching the limit of what they could financially sustain on two teachers’ salaries. She interpreted it as an accountability check: “we’re holding you accountable that if we continue to provide for you, you have to give your all.”

2. “I Belong Anywhere I Step Foot In”

Adams describes playing in a national tournament in Birmingham, Alabama in the early 1980s — a place her parents (both from Mississippi) were reluctant to send her, knowing the historical reality of black access at country clubs. She describes walking in “bopping around, clueless,” while her father observed Black workers giving them knowing nods. Her ability to compete and thrive in environments where she was often the only Black player she attributes to her parents’ early instilled conviction that “we are just as smart and able as everyone else” — and to growing up in Chicago, which she describes as different from other parts of the country in terms of racial culture. She never felt inferior. Her competitive response to any form of challenge: “I’m number one, you’ve got to come beat me.”

3. College Recruiting at 16: The Visibility Problem

Adams graduated high school at 16, which meant that outside of Northwestern and other Illinois schools, no national college coaches knew she was a senior. She had wanted to attend UCLA or USC in California but received no recruitment from either. Northwestern had been recruiting her actively, she loved the purple warmups, and Northwestern’s communications department was ranked number one in the country at the time. She signed early and then received a flood of scholarship letters from programs that had not known she was graduating. Her lesson: players who are excellent but playing in markets with limited national media visibility are systematically under-recruited, and the families who navigate recruiting best are those who proactively communicate their timeline to coaches rather than waiting to be discovered.

4. Two Years of College, Not Four: Knowing When to Leave

Adams won the NCAA doubles championship in her sophomore year and was projected to return as the number-three singles player in the country. Her coach had actually expected her to leave after freshman year — “she says she got a bonus year out of me.” The transition to professional tennis was eased by immediate partnership with Zina Garrison and her coach: shared rooms on tour, mentoring on the “do’s and don’ts,” a built-in support network. She frames this as the key factor in smooth college-to-pro transitions: players who leave college for the tour with a mentor and a professional network in place adjust more quickly than those who leave alone. Her early WTA success came particularly in doubles.

5. The ATA as a Development and Identity Foundation

Adams played ATA (American Tennis Association) events from age 7 through 18, winning every age group from 10-and-under through 18s. The ATA — founded in 1916 for Black players excluded from USTA events — was a space where she experienced unqualified belonging before encountering the racial dynamics of mainstream junior tennis. She describes looking forward to ATA nationals every year, playing two events (singles and doubles) in two age groups, and remaining involved in an advisory role at the time of the recording. The ATA’s role in Adams’ story is a precursor to her USTA presidency’s diversity focus: an organization that created pathways for players who were systematically excluded from the mainstream.

6. USTA President: Four Diversity Pillars and Underrepresented Communities

Adams describes inheriting a USTA already focused on diversity (African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, and LGBTQ+) and wanting to deepen that work. She found that NJTLs were effectively serving Black communities — aided by the visibility of Venus and Serena Williams inspiring a generation of young players from those programs — but identified a significant gap in Hispanic/Latino representation and engagement. She also notes the under-leveraged pipeline for Asian American players, pointing back to Michael Chang’s era as a previous period of visible Asian American professional success. Her USTA tenure aimed to expand all four diversity pillars simultaneously.

7. “Own the Arena” as a Cross-Sector Leadership Framework

The book reframes Adams’ tennis career not as a sports memoir but as a leadership development guide for anyone making professional transitions. The framework centers on lessons she learned across repeated “arena changes” — from player to coach to commentator to nonprofit director to governing body president. Each chapter uses a current professional situation to reference back to tennis-derived lessons: dealing with loss, discipline, resilience, goal-setting, standing on others’ shoulders. Stone identifies this structure as the “This Is Us” approach — the present situation illuminates the past, and the past illuminates the present, creating a non-linear narrative that serves a broad audience.

8. Broadcasting Ambition as a Recruiting Factor

Adams chose Northwestern specifically because she planned to become a tennis broadcaster or commentator after her professional career — Northwestern’s communications program was number one in the country at the time of her application. This forward-planning at age 16-17 reflects a sophistication rare in junior tennis: she was thinking not just about where she would play four years of college tennis, but about the platform the degree would give her for the thirty years after tennis. This strategy paid off: broadcast commentary became a significant phase of her post-playing career before she transitioned into USTA governance.

Actionable Advice for Families

• Tennis parents who don’t play should regard their non-tennis expertise as an asset, not a liability — parents who cannot technically evaluate their child’s strokes are less likely to interfere with coaching decisions, which Adams identifies as the single most important parenting behavior she observed across her career
• College selection should account for the post-tennis career, not just the tennis program ranking — Adams chose Northwestern for its communications department as much as for its women’s team, and that decision compounded across three decades of post-playing professional life
• Players should explicitly communicate their graduation timeline to all programs they’re interested in, not just nearby schools — Adams’ experience of receiving national scholarship offers only after signing locally shows that the recruiting pipeline has historically depended on players surfacing themselves, not just waiting to be discovered

INTENNSE Relevance

• Diversity and access as league identity: Adams’ career arc — from a Boys Club summer program to USTA president — is the exact pathway-expansion story INTENNSE should be building toward. A league that creates visibility for players from communities historically underrepresented in professional tennis requires the same proactive infrastructure Adams built at USTA (NJTL partnerships, community programs, visible role models)
• Broadcasting as a planned post-playing career: Adams’ deliberate choice of Northwestern for its communications program is a template for how INTENNSE should counsel players about career planning. A league with mic’d coaches and broadcast production infrastructure creates unique on-ramp opportunities for players transitioning from competition to media and commentary roles
• First-gen professional navigation: Adams’ experience of parents who were uninformed about the tennis scholarship system — and who were financially stretched by a sport they did not know — is the exact family profile INTENNSE is likely to encounter in its player pipeline. League programs that demystify the college-to-pro pathway help families like Adams’ access opportunities they didn’t know existed
• ATA partnership opportunity: Adams’ involvement with the ATA both as a player and as an advisory board member signals the ATA as a natural community partner for INTENNSE’s Atlanta-based launch. The ATA’s national network of Black tennis communities maps onto the demographic base INTENNSE should be building its player pipeline from
• Zina Garrison mentoring model: Adams’ pro transition was smoothed by an experienced mentor in Zina Garrison. INTENNSE’s player development infrastructure should include formal mentoring pairings — veteran players assigned to guide incoming players through the professional transition — to replicate the support structure Adams describes as decisive in her early success

Notable Quotes

“They were perfect. You know why they were perfect? Because they weren’t trying to get into the weeds.”

“Because they didn’t play, they weren’t really interfering with my own thought process of trying to tell me how to play. My coaches were doing that.”

“I never felt inferior to anyone or anything. I belong anywhere I step foot in.”

“We don’t want you to think that we’re forcing you to play. We want you to play because you want to play. So if you ever feel like this is not what you want to do, don’t be afraid to let us know.”

“I stood tall and I was very proud to be the first in hopes of not being the last.”

“Tennis in general teaches you how to build yourself, confidence, self-esteem, discipline, resilience — those are all the things that we need in our everyday lives as adults.”