Google News
Stacey Allaster will be the US Open Grand Slam event's new tournament director - making her the first woman to hold the job at the American Grand Slam tennis tournament, according to Sports Business Daily
Stacey Allaster is the new US Open Tournament Director
Allaster is a former CEO of the women's WTA Tour and has worked at the U.S.
Tennis Association since 2016. Some of the changes she has pushed for during her tenure at the USTA include the serve clock and warmup clock and lobbying for coaching to be allowed during matches. She will also stay on as the USTA's chief executive of professional tennis.
Allaster is replacing David Brewer, who joined the USTA in 1997 and became the US Open Tournament Director in 2012. The USTA had said last year that Brewer would be stepping down after the 2019 Open. Meanwhile, the Western & Southern CEO and Tournament Director Andre Silva is taking the Tournament Director job at the PGA Tour's Players Championship, effective June 16.
According to Sports Business Daily, Wayne Richmond is a possible candidate for Tournament Director position of the combined WTA/ATP Western & Southern Open, of which USTA is majority owner. The USTA announced earlier this week that it will cut 110 jobs and close one office in New York as part of cost-cutting measures.
The US Open Grand Slam tournament is scheduled to be held in New York in late August as of now. The USTA has said it will make an announcement by mid-June about whether the tournament will go ahead. Some players have expressed concerns about playing in the tournament due to the strict guidelines being proposed in the tournament - these include restricted access to practice courts, limiting the support staff to only one member on the tournament site and players staying at tournament hotels near the airport and not having access to Manhattan.
The USTA is also proposing to move the Cincinnati event to New York in order to have the players be in one area. The 56 year old Stacey Allaster was the Chairman and CEO of the Women’s Tennis Association from 2009 to 2015.
While Allaster served as the CEO, the WTA secured one billion dollars in diversified contracted revenues and she also oversaw the partnership of an international media agreement. The US Open is one of the four Grand Slam tournaments on the tennis calendar and a major revenue driver for the USTA.