World Tennis has confirmed that the second Mental Health in Tennis Summit will take place on December 3, 2026, at the USTA National Campus in Orlando, United States. The event will bring together representatives from the ATP, the WTA, the Grand Slam tournaments, and various national and regional federations, with the aim of strengthening the collective commitment to the well-being of athletes and everyone involved in the sport. The initiative comes at a time when mental health has gained greater prominence in high-performance sports, where competitive demands, public exposure, and pressure to achieve results can affect both performance and athletes’ quality of life. In this context, the organisation aims to advance towards a coordinated approach that can turn awareness into concrete and sustainable measures.
The new summit will continue the process that began in 2022, when the first meeting, held during the US Open, brought together 83 participants from different areas of tennis to establish a common position on mental health. That work was reflected in a statement published in June 2026 in the British Journal of Sports Medicine, which recognised psychological well-being as a priority for governing bodies and highlighted the need for cross-sector collaboration. The document also established 25 recommendations across five areas: standards of care, education, media and social media, safeguarding, and research. These guidelines will form the basis of discussions in Orlando, where participants will assess progress, identify key gaps, and define shared priorities for 2027 and beyond. The challenge will be to turn the agreed principles into practical actions that can be applied across a diverse sporting community, ranging from junior players to elite professionals.
From consensus to concrete actions to protect mental health
One of the main objectives of the second summit will be to determine how recommendations developed in recent years can be translated into policies and practices within tennis. The need to make progress in this area reflects the particular characteristics of the sport, in which players face extensive international schedules, constant travel, long periods away from their families, and competition in which they often have to manage moments of success and frustration on their own. Media exposure and online abuse add to these demands, potentially increasing psychological pressure and making emotional recovery more difficult throughout a season. Although tennis offers significant physical, social, and mental health benefits to millions of people, the professional environment presents specific challenges that require coordinated responses from those who organise competitions, support athletes, and make decisions about their development.
The scale of the problem is also supported by research indicating that more than one-third of elite athletes across different sports experience clinically significant symptoms of depression or anxiety. In this context, discussions about mental health cannot be limited to individual care when a problem arises; they must also consider the conditions in which athletes train, compete, and build their careers. Brian Hainline, a member of the World Tennis Board and chair of the Commission on Medicine and Science in Sport, has defended this perspective, emphasising that mental health is a responsibility shared by the entire tennis ecosystem. Governing bodies, tournaments, coaches, families, and medical teams all contribute to creating the environments that influence players’ well-being. This approach aligns with the International Olympic Committee’s 2026 consensus statement on the mental health of elite athletes, which highlights the responsibility of sports organisations and the importance of developing environments that support well-being.
A commitment aimed at reaching all 214 national federations
The next phase of the work will also focus on how the agreed measures can reach the 214 national federations that make up World Tennis and their respective youth development programmes. The organisation recognises that needs vary across countries: cultural, linguistic, and economic differences, together with unequal access to qualified mental health professionals, influence how each federation can implement support policies. Therefore, the objective is not simply to establish a uniform model, but to develop a common framework that can be adapted to different circumstances without losing its fundamental principles. This task is particularly important in youth development, where young athletes begin to face international travel, new competitive demands, and decisions that can influence their sporting and personal futures.
Dave Haggerty, president of World Tennis, has stressed that no organisation can address this challenge alone and that players need consistent support as they move between tournaments, tours, and national teams. For the executive, this work must cover every stage of an athlete’s career, from those taking their first trips abroad to those competing at the highest professional level. The December summit will help define priorities and establish how responsibilities will be shared among the different organisations involved in the initiative. Coordination will be essential to ensure that support does not depend exclusively on the structure of a tournament or the federation to which a player belongs, particularly in a sport characterised by international mobility. The results of the meeting will be announced in early 2027, once the participating organisations have defined the next steps to turn existing recommendations into concrete initiatives across world tennis.
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