The USTA Pro Circuit returns with a full slate of more than 100 events in 2022 and has introduced a new Sportsmanship Award for former U.S. Fed Cup player and long-time USTA Pro Circuit participant Julie Ditty.
The Julie Ditty Sportsmanship Award will be given annually to one male and one female player who best exemplifies the spirit of sportsmanship as voted upon by USTA Pro Circuit tournament directors. The award is named after Julie Ditty Qualls, the former pro and beloved coach, who passed away at the age of 42 in 2021 after a long battle with breast cancer. Ditty Qualls owns a record 38 USTA Pro Circuit titles.
Created in 1979 to provide additional competitive opportunities on American soil for players who aspire to earn the professional ranking points needed to gain entry into the higher-level tournaments, the USTA Pro Circuit has since grown into the largest Pro Circuit in the world.
“The USTA Pro Circuit serves as America’s premier pathway for men and women who seek to compete at the highest levels of professional tennis,” said Idelle Pierre-Louis, the USTA’s Senior Manager of the Pro Circuit. “Countless top professionals have developed their games on the USTA Pro Circuit and, year-after-year, communities around the country have the opportunity to see these exciting players compete up close in a variety of intimate, fan-friendly venues.”
For more information on the USTA Pro Circuit including the full 2022 calendar of events, please visit www.usta.com/procircuit.
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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. A not-for-profit organization with more than 655,000 members, it invests 100% of its proceeds in growing the game. It owns and operates the US Open, one of the highest-attended annual sporting events in the world, and launched the US Open Series, linking nine summer WTA and ATP World Tour 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, Billie Jean King Cup, Olympic and Paralympic Games. The USTA’s philanthropic entity, the USTA Foundation, provides grants and scholarships in addition to supporting tennis and education programs nationwide to benefit under-resourced youth through the National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) network.For more information about the USTA, go to USTA.com or follow the official accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and TikTok.
