Stacey Allaster, america Tennis Affiliation’s chief government {of professional} tennis and the match 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 a substitute 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 massive query is ‘when is sufficient sufficient?'” Allaster, 61, advised ESPN on Tuesday. “After 38 years of working in skilled tennis, my cup is overflowing with gratitude and accomplishments and having had a chance to offer again to the game that has given me all the things.”
Allaster, who knowledgeable her group of her impending departure Tuesday whereas carrying a “Time to begin residing” T-shirt, will stay an adviser for the USTA and can assist in the hiring course of for her substitute, which the group stated will start after the 2025 US Open.
She stated she is going to be a 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 commenced her profession at Tennis Canada, stated she began excited about her subsequent chapter following the stress of the 2020 US Open, which was the primary large-scale international sporting occasion to happen in the course of 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 international tennis” in a press release.
“Underneath her management, we have achieved a lot collectively, together with reaching the outstanding milestone of 1 million followers on the US Open — a imaginative and prescient she helped flip right into a actuality [in 2024],” Sherr stated. “She’s constructed an incredible 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 ladies in sports activities and credited for serving to safe equal prize cash for ladies at Wimbledon and the French Open whereas on the WTA, Allaster known as being the primary lady in each of her roles on the USTA “an unimaginable privilege, a duty and an inspiration” and stated it stored her motivated on even the hardest of days.
“I’ve carried that duty on this 5-foot-1½-inch body and tried to exhibit with confidence {that a} working skilled mother can efficiently run and lead the No. 1 skilled sport for ladies worldwide and likewise lead the biggest annual sporting occasion on this planet,” Allaster advised 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.