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Mobile Tennis Tournament Director Will Travel to US Open in New York

Sep 1st, 2015

ATLANTA – Aug. 31, 2015  Mobile (Alabama) Area Tennis Association (MATA) President Lorraine Novak has been chosen by USTA Player Development Department to participate in a five-person blue ribbon panel to mentor tennis tournament directors.   

The panel will meet with United States Tennis Association (USTA) staff and tournament directors from all over the United States to share ideas and best practices on the demands of running tennis tournaments. The panel will convene in New York City on Sept. 3 during the US Open.  

Novak is the tournament director for USTA sanctioned tournaments at the Copeland-Cox Mobile Tennis Center. She also works as a local youth coordinator which helps bring tennis to the elementary school systems in Mobile.  

Tournaments in 2015 at the Mobile Tennis Center accounted for over $52 million in economic impact, according to MATA officials. Tournaments helped generate $2.8 million in Mobile city taxes, along with $606,000 in Mobile County taxes. Additionally, the tournaments, which included national, sectional, state and local junior, college and adult competitions, helped generate over 12,000 hotel room nights in the Mobile area during the 2015 fiscal year. The center, which is billed as the largest public tennis facility in the world, has hosted as many as 25 tournaments a year.    

“The USTA is pleased to honor Lorraine Novak as one of five of the absolute best junior tournament directors in the country. We are hosting them in New York City with tickets to the US Open for the  opportunity to gather these best and brightest to compare notes and compile some best practices,” said USTA Director of Junior Tournaments Bill Mountford.   “It is fitting that Lorraine Novak, tournament director for dozens of USTA, USTA Southern and USTA Alabama tournaments at the Copeland-Cox Mobile Tennis Center, has been selected to be on a national panel for tournament directors,” Bill Ozaki, Director of Programs & Player Development for USTA Southern, said. “In addition to the leadership and direction from Lorraine and Scott Novak, the support from the city of Mobile is without equal in regard to the amenities provided for the players, parents and coaches.”      

Lorraine Novak added, “It is an honor to be chosen for the blue ribbon panel as one of the top five tournament directors in the United States. It is truly a team honor as we have ‘blue ribbon support’ from the City of Mobile, Mobile County, Mobile Sports Authority and the CVB. We pride ourselves to being open and listening to new ideas by parents and players. Treating out of town players like they are special guests is our trademark.”  


The USTA is the national governing body for the sport of tennis in the U.S. 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. It owns and operates the US Open, the largest annually attended sporting event in the world, and launched the Emirates Airline US Open Series linking seven summer tournaments to the US Open. In addition, it owns about 90 Pro Circuit events throughout the U.S., and selects the teams for the Davis Cup, Fed Cup, Olympic and Paralympic games. A not-for-profit organization with more than 710,000 members, it invests 100 percent of its proceeds in growing the game. It is divided into 17 sections, of which USTA Southern is the largest. The 174,000+ USTA members living in Alabama, Arkansas, Georgia, Kentucky, Louisiana, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina and Tennessee make up USTA Southern, and account for nearly 25 percent of the total USTA membership. A professional staff housed in Peachtree Corners, Ga., carries out USTA Southern’s daily operations, but policy is formed and much of the organization’s work is executed via a board and committee structure of more than 200 volunteers.

For more information about the types of programs and services offered by USTA Southern, visit http://www.southerntennis.com/

Media Contact: Ron Cioffi, USTA Southern W: 770-368-8200 x112 C: 770-378-7856 cioffi@sta.usta.com