USTA SERVES AWARDS $15,000 GRANT TO VIC BRADEN’S JUNIOR TENNIS AMBASSADORS

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y. (Jan. 28, 2014) — USTA Serves, the national charitable foundation of the United States Tennis Association, today announced it has awarded the Vic Braden Junior Tennis Ambassadors program in Santa Ana a $15,000 grant. The foundation concluded its 2013 grant funding cycle by awarding $450,000 in grants to 40 organizations that provide tennis and education to underserved youth and people with disabilities.

A former school psychologist and elementary school teacher, the legendary tennis coach Vic Braden began his Junior Tennis Ambassador program (www.juniortennisambassadors.com) in 2007 because he saw that teachers in the schools were having a hard time controlling some kids with special needs such as ADHD. So he let those children become the mentors to other children and quickly saw that the student teachers adopted a new and positive energy for learning. The grant money will be used to continue funding the program, as well as Braden’s newest venture, Junior Medical Ambassadors.

“USTA Serves is proud to end the year by awarding and recognizing some of the country’s most phenomenal programs for their efforts toward impacting the lives of youth through tennis and education,” said Dan Faber, Executive Director, USTA Serves. “These programs have a solid foundation and exhibit tremendous dedication to serving children who deserve a life filled with education and physical activities. For this, we thank them for leading the way in designing a nurturing environment where students can thrive and succeed on and off the tennis court.”

The biannual grant process, a national initiative of USTA Serves, was established to award organizations that successfully combine tennis and education for underserved youth as well as people with disabilities to gain an opportunity to play tennis and improve their academic skills in a structured format. These programs also strive to help combat childhood obesity by promoting healthy lifestyles. To date, USTA Serves has awarded more than $17 million in grants and scholarships to standout players and programs throughout the country in order to provide at-risk and underserved youth with greater opportunities to achieve success.

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USTA Serves, the national charitable foundation of the USTA, provides financial support for disadvantaged youth and people with disabilities through tennis and education programs designed to improve health, build character, teach life skills and motivate students to strive for academic excellence. For more information on USTA Serves, visit www.ustaserves.com.

The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the United States and the leader in promoting and developing the growth of tennis at every level, from local communities to the highest level of the professional game. A not-for-profit organization with more than 770,000 members, it invests 100 percent of its proceeds in growing the game. It owns and operates the US Open, the highest-attended annual sporting event in the world, and launched the Emirates Airline US Open Series, linking eight summer tournaments to the US Open. In addition, it owns approximately 90 Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S. and selects the teams for the Davis Cup, Fed Cup, Olympic and Paralympic Games. The USTA’s national charitable foundation, USTA Serves, provides grants and scholarships and helps underserved youth and people with disabilities. For more information on the USTA, log on to usta.com, “like” the official Facebook page, facebook.com/usta, or follow @usta on Twitter.

For more information, contact:

Steve Pratt, BZAPR on behalf of the USTA; (310) 408-4555; stevep@bzapr.com

Jasmine Sheppard, Corporate Communications, USTA; (914) 697-2275; sheppard@usta.com