An outside review conducted on the USTA’s safeguarding system offered “19 specific recommendations” for how the group that oversees the sport in the country and runs the U.S. Open Grand Slam tournament can “do more to protect players from abuse such as sexual misconduct,” according to Howard Fendrich of the AP. The 62-page report written by two lawyers was presented to the USTA BOD last week and made public today. The report arrives "less than two months" after a tennis player was awarded $9M 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 review encompassed interviews with USTA employees and “access to hundreds of the organization’s documents.” It also included an “assessment of safeguarding at 51 other national governing bodies.” The 19 recommendations include: seven that “focus on preventing misconduct before it occurs;” nine related to keeping “individuals who are known to have engaged in misconduct” away from USTA facilities and events; two “aimed at expanding the number of individuals who get Safe Play Approved … and individuals who take SafeSport training, particularly parents;” and one that “calls for additional staffing and resources” for the USTA’s Safe Play Program to help adopt the recommendations (AP, 6/27).
