McDonald Celebrates USTA Basis’s Mackenzie McDonald Faculty Fund

By Tennis Now | @TennisNow | Monday, March 10, 2025

Picture credit: Rainer Torrado Studio

A 3-time all-American at UCLA Mackenzie McDonald is aware of all concerning the worth of upper schooling.

Now, McDonald is paying it ahead serving to junior gamers pursue faculty goals.

The USTA Basis, the charitable arm of america Tennis Affiliation Included (USTA), together with skilled tennis participant Mackenzie (Mackie) McDonald, at present introduced the launch of the USTA Basis’s Mackie McDonald Faculty Fund.

The Mackie McDonald Faculty Fund is a brand new initiative that can present particular person participant grants to highschool seniors who will proceed their tennis careers on the collegiate degree.

The Fund will instantly assist student-athletes who progressed by means of the tennis-playing pathway by way of the USTA Basis’s Nationwide Junior Tennis & Studying (NJTL) community, a nationwide group of greater than 250 sports-based neighborhood organizations that use tennis as a instrument to organize younger individuals from under-served communities to be prepared for his or her futures, wherever their lives take them.

McDonald, who has reached a career-high world No. 37 within the ATP singles rankings and No. 49 in ATP doubles rankings, and famously defeated Rafael Nadal within the second spherical of the 2023 Australian Open, had a stellar Division I collegiate profession earlier than turning skilled.

A local of Piedmont, Calif., McDonald competed for the UCLA Bruins from 2014-16, incomes All-America honors all three years. He completed his remaining season ranked No. 1 in singles and doubles within the ITA collegiate rankings and swept the NCAA singles and doubles titles in 2016, making him the primary man in 15 years–and simply the fifth since 1974–to perform the feat.

By way of the USTA Basis, McDonald is now utilizing his experiences and platform to encourage the subsequent era of college-bound college students to understand what’s attainable and hopes this Fund will assist younger individuals perceive the significance of schooling, and foster their private development in sports activities and past.

“Going to UCLA turned out to be among the finest selections I made in my life, and for my life, and I’m glad to be enjoying an element in serving to younger individuals chase their faculty goals, on and off the court docket,” McDonald mentioned. “Working in the direction of guaranteeing that every one younger individuals, regardless of the place they arrive from, are capable of unlock all the advantages that larger schooling has to supply is a duty meaning a lot to me, and I can’t wait to see how this Fund helps not simply younger individuals and their schooling, however their households and communities.”