New York Junior Tennis League offers life lessons for youth

Tennis and learning go hand in hand at a nonprofit in the city that works to develop the character of young people through tennis and education.

New York Junior Tennis and Learning has been operating for more than 50 years. Now, it’s the largest nonprofit youth tennis and education program in the country — serving 85,000 K-12 students in the city.

NYJTL was co-founded by tennis great Arthur Ashe in 1971. Ashe is the only Black man ever to win the singles titles at Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the Australian Open. He retired in 1980 and died in 1993.

Anchor Rocco Vertuccio spoke with Udai Tambar, the president and CEO of NYJTL and Kento Smith, a NYJTL scholar athlete, about the program and how it works with the USTA Sunday on “Weekends on 1.”