Jim Thompson was named the 2026 USTA Florida Excellence in Service Award winner. Thompson is a USTA Florida tournament director and coach trainer who runs events at Lake Cane and provides tennis services at Reunion Resort. Ask the people who work alongside him and the same idea keeps surfacing. He is a bridge: between tennis and the community, between the people running an event and the families walking through the gate.
“He involves people and he likes being that bridge, and he does everything he can to serve the community,” said Natallia Urbanovich, a certified referee who works his events.
And that may undersell it. Thompson is also part of USTA Coaching, serving as a mentor, an ambassador and a coaching professional, which puts him in the position of developing the next group of coaches alongside running his own events.
His first instinct, upon hearing the news, was to point somewhere else.
“The real reward is what’s happening on the court and what we’re doing for the players,” Thompson said. “I know we’re trying to get 35 million players by 2035. And if I could do a small part of that, I’m honored to do that.”
The service shows up first in the simplest way possible, which is that he is there.
“He’s here two to three hours before the first ball is ever hit,” said Alex Perez, who works the tournament desk and serves as a backup tournament director. “It seems like everywhere that he goes, when he leaves, he leaves a facility a better place.”
The Great Communicator
Thompson’s reputation is built in large part on how he handles people, particularly in the moments when tournaments get difficult.
“He’s enhanced the tournaments tremendously, communicating with parents, coaches and players,” Perez said. “I call him the great communicator.”
For the staff who work his events, that extends to how he treats the people on his own team.
“He’s very responsible. He listens to us. He helps us. He appreciates us,” Urbanovich said. “It’s just a pleasure to work with him.”
Juan Duque, a roving official and monitor at Thompson’s tournaments, put it more plainly.
“He is the definition of the word service, being able to serve a whole community of tennis,” Duque said. “I would say he’s a very charismatic person. He’s the type of person that you want to talk to. He makes people feel very good.”
The results back it up. Perez, who has been running tournaments for nearly four decades, said the feedback has never been stronger. “We’ve ran tournaments for 38 years and we’re getting approval ratings like never before,” Perez said. “We are getting five-star approvals for most of our tournaments now, and it’s pretty much because of Jim.”
Tennis as a Positive Force
Thompson’s connection to the game started long before he was running events. Growing up in New York, Thompson returned to tennis whenever things around him were not easy, and it became something he passed down.
Jon Thompson, who works the tournament desk alongside his father, saw it firsthand. “When growing up in New York, when situations weren’t great, he always used tennis as a positive, like a positive influence for him,” Jon said. “And then he contributed that to me.”
That arc, from player to father to coach to tournament director, is one Thompson describes as a progression rather than a career change.
“When I was playing, I loved it, competing, being out there, grinding,” he said. “And then as I got older, being a coach to my sons and also many other players who have gone on to play college tennis, and then now as a tournament director, it’s been a team.”
One Word: Family
Pressed to sum up how his father runs an event, Jon landed on a single word. “Family,” he said. “He treats everyone as if they’re part of it.”
That is ultimately what the Excellence in Service Award is built to recognize. Not the people whose names are on the trophies, but the ones who make the trophies possible: the directors, officials and volunteers who show up early, stay late and treat a parking lot full of strangers like people they already know.
USTA Florida’s Best in Class Facilities and Providers Big Bold Move holds that the standard is care rather than size, and Thompson has spent a career proving it, one tournament at a time, in a role most players never think about until it is done badly.
Congratulations to Jim Thompson, the 2026 USTA Florida Excellence in Service Award winner.
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