The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) today announced the selection of Christopher Clarey as the recipient of the 2024 ITA David A Benjamin Achievement Award. On the award’s 30th anniversary, Clarey will be honored during the ITA Leadership Awards Weekend at the celebration luncheon that will take place at the Yale Club in New York City on August 25.
Clarey graduated from Coronado High School and then in 1986 from Williams College, where he was an English and history major and multisport athlete, competing as a top varsity tennis player, captain of the volleyball team and, for a season, as a soccer goalkeeper.
Clarey has since become one of the most highly regarded sports journalists. He spent over 30 years writing for the New York Times and covered more than 100 Grand Slam tournaments and 15 Olympic Games while reporting across over 70 countries.
“My years playing tennis and other sports at Williams College were not only great fun, they were a great school of life,” said Clarey. “The experience was precious not just because I became a sportswriter. What I learned – sometimes after quite a struggle – about resilience, humility, self-control, sustaining focus and striving for a common goal has served me in and out of the workplace. I am grateful and deeply honored to receive the 2024 David A Benjamin Achievement Award from the ITA, an organization whose mission I believe in.”
“College tennis and college athletics are ultimately about higher education and developing an informed and active citizenry,” said ITA President and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Timothy Russell. “For decades our Association has served our sport and returned American and global leaders in countless fields. In this celebratory anniversary year, it is truly fitting that the 2024 ITA David A Benjamin laureate is one of the most distinguished, remarkable, and insightful sports journalists and tennis writers of all time, Christopher Clarey. He embodies everything that is wonderful about our game and college tennis, as the greatest life curriculum.”
Clarey wrote for the Coronado High School newspaper and also began his professional journalism career on the West Coast as an intern for The San Diego Union. He soon joined the staff and covered high school sports, NCAA football and basketball, and then the San Diego Chargers. In 1990, he covered his first Grand Slam tournament at Wimbledon, where Martina Navratilova won her ninth and final singles title at the All England Club. Utilizing the lessons learned from his time in San Diego, Clarey made his first big career move in 1991 when he relocated to Paris to become a freelance journalist.
Working first with the New York Times in 1991, Clarey continued to contribute to the Times as a European sports correspondent until 1998 when he was hired as the chief sports correspondent for the International Herald Tribune, which later became the International New York Times. Clarey worked for the IHT and then for the Times as its tennis correspondent until June of 2023, when he left the company to become a full-time author and founded Tennis & Beyond, now the top tennis newsletter on Substack.
During his long and rich career, Clarey has interviewed in-depth the world’s most iconic tennis figures, including Billie Jean King, Rod Laver, Chris Evert, Martina Navratilova, Bjorn Borg, John McEnroe, Steffi Graf, Serena Williams, Pete Sampras, Andre Agassi, Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, Novak Djokovic, Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz. In addition to his extensive tennis coverage, Clarey also specialized in soccer, golf, and sailing, which would take him to six World Cups, five America’s Cups, and 10 Ryder Cups. Through it all, Clarey has written more than 6,000 stories about more than 60 sports for the Times and Herald Tribune.
Clarey became a New York Times bestselling author with “The Master: The Long Run and Beautiful Game of Roger Federer,” a biography that has been translated into 21 languages and was named by The Times of London in 2022 as one of the Best Sports Books of the Year. Clarey is currently writing a new biography entitled “The Warrior,” a character study of Rafael Nadal which is to be published in 2025.
Established in 1994, the ITA David A Benjamin Achievement Award has paid tribute to past participants in the world of varsity tennis who have achieved excellence in their chosen careers. The award honors both professional success and contributions to society made either as a result of a career or through humanitarian efforts. Endowed by Margie and Stan Smith in 2015, the ITA Achievement Award was named in honor of the long-serving Executive Director and ITA Chairman of the Board, Dr. David A Benjamin.
ITA Chairman Emeritus Dr. David A Benjamin contributed, ”It is a great privilege for the ITA to recognize and honor Christopher Clarey, a true ‘Master’ of the Pen, for his ‘long run’ of wide-ranging and superbly talented contributions to tennis journalism and the world of tennis in general.”
