Tennis Hall of Fame CEO hails inductees Leander Paes and Vijay Amritraj, explores expansion possibilities for museum
For a regular tourist to the United States of America, Newport — an idyllic ocean-front town on the East Coast — is an unlikely destination. But for tennis fans worldwide, this town of mansions and manors is a pilgrimage. The original home of the US Open between 1881 and 1914, it also hosts the International Tennis Hall of Fame (ITHF) and its museum. An induction into its hallowed halls is considered the greatest honour for tennis professionals, and India’s Vijay Amritraj and Leander Paes are the latest inductees to a club that only has 267 members from 28 countries.
The ITHF CEO Dan Faber spoke to Sportstar about the institution’s plans as it gears up to welcome a few illustrious members over the coming years.
Vijay Amritraj and Leander Paes are the first Indians to enter the ITHF. The ITHF Museum has 30,000 footfalls a year. Now with two Indians in the fray, do you expect the number to go up significantly?
When you look at someone like Leander and meet someone like Vijay, they are an inspiration. To be the first two men from India to be inducted into the Hall of Fame is iconic, special and magical. Given the fact that there are so many people in India, I would only think there would be more footfalls.
The Museum in Newport is supposed to go through extensive renovation from November onwards. Tell us a bit about the project.
We’re renovating our museum, which is already unbelievable. It will cost us around $3 million. Starting in November, we’re going to make it a little bit more digital and more fan-friendly so they can interact with the different displays. It’s going to be prepared to put all these iconic names that are currently there and get ready for those who are joining the Hall of Fame in the future.
The big four (Roger Federer, Andy Murray, Serena Williams, and the Bryans) may come soon…
From an eligibility standpoint, all you have to do is do the math. This year, as you know, we’ve got Leander, Vijay and Richard Evans, who are three incredible inductees. Next year, from an eligibility standpoint, you have the Bryan brothers and Maria Sharapova. In 2026, from an eligibility standpoint, you’ve got this unknown guy named Roger Federer. And then it just continues to go from there. Then Serena Williams will become eligible. Ash Barty will become eligible. We are calling this the golden era of inductees.
Are there any plans to take the Hall of Fame to other locations? Making it more accessible to the tennis-loving public?
From the museum perspective, yes. It’s the International Tennis Hall of Fame, and we are a global organisation. I was hired to try to make sure that we continue to grow. We’re going to do that in a couple of different ways. From a physical standpoint, you will start seeing the International Tennis Hall of Fame at tournaments all over the world. In the museum, which will now be more digital, people from all over the world can access certain components of it. We have worked with our partner, Infosys, who have created a metaverse. So, you can technically go into our museum through the metaverse. You just have to create an avatar.
Will we see branches of the physical museum elsewhere?
We’re going to try to be more physically located in terms of presence. We envision that there will be pop-up museums. We have so much material and so much content that we could easily, depending on where we are in the world, put up these pop-up museums so that fans all over the place can experience some aspect of our museum.
Are there any plans to have a pop-up museum in India anytime soon?
Based on my conversations with Leander and Vijay, we’re going to crack that code. I’m looking forward to visiting India after the ceremonies and working on that.
New features that will be added to the Museum
The current USTA Wing will become the new Hall of Famers’ Gallery, with each Hall of Famer represented by a new cast racquet that signifies their legendary place in tennis history
The Celebration Gallery: A space celebrating the sport of tennis through the stories of its legends. The area will have a new Augmented Reality Sculpture to engage fans of all ages
The Roger Federer Hologram will offer a new immersive experience
The Newport Tennis Traditions gallery, celebrating Newport’s tennis origins and a new display for US Open trophies
The ATP 250 Hall of Fame Open, which has been held in Newport since 1976, is not part of next year’s ATP calendar. What is the future of professional tennis in Newport?
We said from the moment I started a year ago that professional tennis is in the fabric of the International Tennis Hall of Fame. It will never go away. We have an opportunity to bring in both men’s and women’s tennis, which has not happened in this Newport region for over 35 years.
So, now we’re looking to move it to the second week of Wimbledon, and we’re going to turn it into a festival of tennis in addition to the actual tennis tournament. We’re going to have double the professional tennis and double the participants, and it’s going to be super exciting.
Imagine that people could come here, maybe watch and participate, watch Wimbledon on big screens, and then, with the time change, the tournament starts soon after. We’re excited about equal prize money. We hope that there are people out there — corporations and donors — who will get behind us.
What are the reasons behind the change in dates?
From a tennis calendar perspective, it might be the right time to get the right players to Newport. We’re a grass-court tournament, and so far, Wimbledon is kind of out of the grass-court season, and you’re getting more into the hard court. But if we go to the second week of Wimbledon, which seems to be a bit of a trend nowadays, challengers are piggybacking on certain tournaments. We think this is the right thing to do from a grass-court tournament perspective.