USTA Hosts Inaugural 'Tennis Innovation Challenge,' Winner Is a Court Booking Platform

The United States Tennis Association (USTA) launched the USTA Connect platform in 2023, organically integrating partnerships through a data-sharing program. Currently, USTA Connect has 39 partners, including racket brand Wilson, racquet sports club management platform Court Reserve (View related reading), tennis app SwingVision (View related reading), and all USTA Ventures portfolio companies (View related reading).

In June of this year, USTA Connect announced a major initiative: hosting the inaugural "USTA Connect Innovation Challenge." The competition is open to new technology platforms that help grow the sport of tennis, with a prize of $10,000, and the winning company also gains the opportunity to partner with USTA.

What makes this competition unique: After initial screening, USTA provides official data to finalist companies, including facility/court databases, anonymized player history, US Open tracking data, etc., for use in the "second round" presentations.

The inaugural competition attracted approximately 125 applicant companies. 10-12 companies passed USTA Connect's initial screening and received official datasets. In August, a panel of judges consisting of USTA leadership, VC firms, and US Open partner IBM evaluated the companies' virtual presentations and selected three finalists.

At an event on the evening of September 3, USTA Connect officially announced the winner of the inaugural challenge: Third Court, an AI-powered tennis court booking platform. 15 sports VCs and over 30 startups attended the final pitch presentations.

Third Court, founded in St. Louis, uses AI technology to help players efficiently arrange "opponents" and courts, enhancing playing efficiency and experience:

Players can come to the court alone, and Third Court calculates the end times of all current courts and the skill levels of players, arrangingpartners and courts of similar skill levels, allowing players to step onto the court without social pressure and enjoy the game.

The other two finalists were:

• Tennis Oasis: A prototype-stage mapping software that identifies tennis "deserts" and provides guidance on where to invest.

• HapticNav: A navigation app with 500,000 users that uses vibration feedback (with optional haptic wristbands) to help blind/low-vision individuals navigate public spaces, with potential applications at tennis events.

Although they did not win the championship, both companies still gained opportunities for further collaboration with USTA: Tennis Oasis will partner with USTA Mid-Atlantic Section, while HapticNav will collaborate with the US Open.

| Source: Third Court official press release; USTA official press release

| Image source: Third Court official website