Stacey Allaster, the US Tennis Affiliation’s chief government {of professional} tennis and the event director for the US Open, will step away from each roles after the 2025 US Open, the group introduced Wednesday.
Allaster, the primary lady to carry both title within the USTA’s historical past, referred to the transfer as an “evolution” as an alternative of retirement, a nod to 23-time main champion Serena Williams.
“You get to this age and surprise, ‘What’s all of it about?’ I’ve my well being, so the large query is ‘when is sufficient sufficient?'” Allaster, 61, informed ESPN on Tuesday. “After 38 years of working in skilled tennis, my cup is overflowing with gratitude and accomplishments and having had a possibility to offer again to the game that has given me all the things.”
Allaster, who knowledgeable her group of her impending departure Tuesday whereas sporting a “Time to begin residing” T-shirt, will stay an adviser for the USTA and can assist in the hiring course of for her alternative, which the group mentioned will start after the 2025 US Open.
She mentioned she’s going to be part of the board of trustees for the Ladies’s Sports activities Basis, a nonprofit began by Billie Jean King, and the board for the Canadian Olympic Committee.
Allaster, who beforehand was the CEO and chairman of the WTA and started her profession at Tennis Canada, mentioned she began enthusiastic about her subsequent chapter following the stress of the 2020 US Open, which was the primary large-scale world sporting occasion to happen through the COVID-19 pandemic. However she remained with the group and has since helped lead the US Open to file crowd numbers and awarding the best quantity of prize cash in tennis historical past.
Lew Sherr, the USTA CEO and government director, thanked Allaster for the “numerous methods she has helped form American and world tennis” in an announcement.
“Below her management, we have achieved a lot collectively, together with reaching the exceptional milestone of 1 million followers on the US Open — a imaginative and prescient she helped flip right into a actuality [in 2024],” Sherr mentioned. “She’s constructed a tremendous group and been a tireless advocate for gender equality, leaving a legacy that can proceed to encourage future generations in our sport.”
Thought of a trailblazer for girls in sports activities and credited for serving to safe equal prize cash for girls at Wimbledon and the French Open whereas on the WTA, Allaster referred to as being the primary lady in each of her roles on the USTA “an unbelievable privilege, a duty and an inspiration” and mentioned it saved her motivated on even the hardest of days.
“I’ve carried that duty on this 5-foot-1½-inch body and tried to display with confidence {that a} working skilled mother can efficiently run and lead the No. 1 skilled sport for girls worldwide and likewise lead the most important annual sporting occasion on the planet,” Allaster informed ESPN.
Allaster was named Companion of the Order of Canada, her native nation’s highest civilian honor, for her work in gender equality in 2022, amongst a slew of different high-profile awards and distinctions over the course of her profession.
