Katrina Adams is an American tennis executive as well as a former professional tennis player from Chicago, Illinois.  Adams built a reputation as a powerful doubles player during her career and continues to influence the field through her support of multiple tennis organizations.

As a child in 1976, Adams participated in a tennis program called Youth Action on Chicago’s West Side, where she was the youngest out of the group of teenage players.  The program was an all-day camp where she practiced tennis and fitness, and she credits the experience with building relationships that last to this day.  During high school, Adams became the first Black singles champion in the Illinois High School Association in 1983.  She attended Northwestern University and won the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA)’s doubles title alongside Diane Donnelly in 1987.  She was voted All-American player twice.

Adams turned professional in 1988 at the age of nineteen.  Between 1987 and 1996, Adams won seven of her twenty WTA titles alongside fellow American player Zina Garrison.  In 1988, she and Garrison won the World Doubles Championships in Tokyo, Japan.  That same year, the pair were Wimbledon doubles semifinalists.  Adams also reached her best Grand Slam singles result at the 1988 Wimbledon tournament, where she lost to former world number one player Chris Evert in the fourth round.  During her career, Adams reached the quarterfinals of all four Grand Slams and achieved a career-high rank of eight in doubles.

Adams retired in 1999.  In 2003 she began serving as a commentator for the Tennis Channel.  In 2015, Adams became President and Chairman of the United States Tennis Association.  She was the first former professional player, first Black woman, and youngest person to serve as president.  During her tenure from 2015 to 2018, Adams opened the USTA National Campus in Orlando, Florida, and spearheaded efforts to reach out to underrepresented, primarily Latino, communities.  In 2016, Adams served as the chairman of the Fed Cup Committee.  She was named chairman of the Gender Equality in Tennis Committee in 2018.  Adams has been recognized by various magazines.  She was named to both Forbes magazine’s “Most Powerful Women in Sports” and Ebony magazine’s “Power 100” lists in 2017.  In 2021, she published a book entitled Own the Arena: Getting Ahead, Making a Difference, and Succeeding as the Only One, in which she shares her leadership skills with her readers.

Adams continues to have an impact on the field of tennis and serves on the Board of Governors for the International Tennis Hall of Fame.