Craig Tiley Officially Named USTA CEO; Georgia Women, Ohio State Men Remain No. 1 in Latest ITA Rankings; Tulane Introduces New Tennis Facility; Michael Zheng writes first diary entry for Tennis.com; Eubanks signs with Tennis Channel

After several months of speculation, today came the official announcement: Craig Tiley is returning to the United States as Chief Executive Officer of the United States Tennis Association, after serving twenty years as tournament director of the Australian Open and thirteen years as CEO of Tennis Australia.

Tiley, 64, was coaching the University of Illinois men’s team when I started covering college tennis, although his teams’ three national titles (two Indoor, one NCAA) came in 2003 and 2004, before my first college tournament in 2005. I had no doubt he would succeed in his new role when he left Champaign for Melbourne after the 2005 season, but I never could have imagined the heights to which he would take it. tournament would lead.

When Gordon Smith retired as CEO of the USTA in 2019, Tiley’s name obviously came up as a replacement, but I don’t think he was ready to grapple with the ever-problematic USTA governance structure. That hasn’t changed, with the USTA board having ultimate power in the organization and the chairman and president cycling in and out over a two-year period. The USTA has had two CEOs since Smith’s retirement: Michael Dowse, who lasted two years, and Lew Sherr, who left after three years to join the NY Mets. It’s safe to say that Tiley has a much broader tennis background than either of them and a good understanding of how the organization functions, or doesn’t, thanks to his many years as a director of slam tournaments and CEO of a federation.

What the release doesn’t say when Tiley will start, with a vague reference to “the coming months.” There are rumors that he has written a non-compete clause into his TA contract, which may put his start date much closer to the US Open than the USTA would like, so I don’t expect to hear much from him in the coming months. Tennis Australia’s announcement about his departure is here.

My interest is in his plans for player development and for college tennis, with his predecessor making a huge commitment to play collegiate tennis just over a year ago with the 10-year NCAA Division I team contract starting in 2028. Again, I don’t think we’ll know those plans for a while, but I’m optimistic he’ll give those areas the necessary attention when the time comes.

Ben Rothenberg has a comprehensive look at the highs and lows of Tiley’s more than thirty years in tennis this article on Bounces.

It has only been less than a week since the last publication of the rankings, but today new ITA Division I team rankings, the second edition, were published, which were determined by the computer algorithm. The top rankings did not change, with the Georgia women and Ohio State men at No. 1, but there were three new Top 10 women’s teams: Arizona State, Cal and Pepperdine. LSU’s loss to unranked Ole Miss dropped them from 4 to 9, while Southern Cal, Oklahoma and Texas dropped out of the Top 10.

The Top 10 men are the same 10 programs, but reshuffled, with Mississippi State, which barely edged past Vanderbilt 4-3 at home on Saturday, moving from 10th to 5th. Click on the headline to see the full list of the 75 teams with rankings.

Top 10 ITA Division I Men’s Team Rankingscomputer, February 24, 2026 (last week’s rankings in brackets):

1. State of Ohio (1)
2.Virginia (2)
3. Wakebos(4)
4.Texas (3)
5. Mississippi State (10)
6. TCU (7)
7. LSU (5)
8. Baylor (6)
9. San Diego (9)
10. Central Florida (8)