US Open is first grand slam with female director

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While it might be too soon to discount Andy Murray’s recent comments about the lack of female tennis administrators, we are seeing one or two signs of progress. On Wednesday evening, Stacey Allaster was appointed tournament director of the US Open, becoming the first woman to hold that role at any grand slam. Allaster, 56, is an experienced hand, having run the WTA between 2009 and 2015, and then moved to the United States Tennis Association. Before that, she worked in her native Canada as tournament director at the Rogers Cup. The appointment, in which Allaster succeeds David Brewer after his eight-year tenure at the US Open, comes at a difficult time for the USTA, whose finances have probably been more heavily damaged by the pandemic than those of any other national federation. On Monday, the USTA were forced to lay off 110 staff, and on Wednesday they held contentious video conferences with player groups over the possibility of staging this year’s US Open behind closed doors in New York. Allaster will continue in her other main role as the USTA’s head of professional tennis. She has been a leading advocate of on-court coaching, which she introduced to the WTA tour in 2008, and which is still considered to be a “trial” even though it is now in its 12th year. Coaching from the stands was also introduced as a new WTA trial in January. This issue remains close to Allaster’s heart. For the past couple of years, the US Open has permitted coaching from the stands in its qualifying events, but resistance from other tennis bodies – notably the All England Club – blocked a move last year to add it in the main draw. Wimbledon is also set to be run by a female chief executive for the first time, when Sally Bolton steps up to replace the departing Richard Lewis in a couple of weeks.

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