The 2026 Florida Tennis Summit closed Sunday morning the way it was designed to close, by turning three days of conversation into a call for action in every community represented in the room.
Marcelo Gouts, 2025-2026 USTA Florida Board President-Elect, opened the session, titled “Public Tennis Courts Build Communities and Champions,” with a direct look at why public court access sits at the center of USTA Florida’s mission. Public parks are where many Floridians encounter tennis for the first time, and in county after county across the state, demand is outpacing the number of courts open to everyone.
Gouts then moderated a USTA Florida Hall of Fame panel on advocacy featuring MaliVai Washington, Dana Andrews and Jim Barnes, a group whose combined experience spans professional tennis, community programming and local government.
Each panelist spoke to the work in their own corner of the state, with Washington drawing on Jacksonville, Andrews on Tampa and Barnes on Wellington. The communities differ, but the message did not. Advocacy looks different in every town, and it almost never comes from outside the neighborhood. It comes from residents who know their courts, understand what their community needs, and are willing to say so in the rooms where parks and recreation decisions get made.
Three Things to Do at Home
Things closed with the ask that the entire Summit had been building toward. Attendees were urged to do three things: restore the courts already in their communities, push for new ones where the demand exists, and get programming onto the courts sitting empty. Each of those is a concrete step an individual advocate can take, and together they are what moves the needle on access across Florida.
The session capped a weekend that brought together coaches, volunteers, facility operators, providers and partners from across the state. For many attendees, the advocacy panel was the bridge between the vision laid out on Saturday and the work waiting for them at home on Monday.
To learn more about USTA Florida’s advocacy efforts or to request support for a local project, visit ustaflorida.com/tennis-advocacy or email advocacy@ustaflorida.com.
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