Kamau Murray

Kamau Murray

Kamau Murray is the founder of the XS Tennis and Education Foundation. Kamau participated in Chicago Park District tennis programs as a child and subsequently was awarded a tennis scholarship to Florida A&M University where he received a full scholarship earning his BA and MBA. Kamau Murray began offering tennis coaching to 5 children in 2004. As the need for a program of its type became increasingly evident, XS Tennis was founded in 2008. Murray’s initial five students have gone on to win national championships, IHSA state championships, two Junior Olympic Gold medals. From 2008 -2017, 100% of graduating seniors have received college tennis scholarships to prestigious universities. As a child Kamau dreamed of going to the US Open. Although he never got that chance, for the past 6 years Kamau has given 100 children the opportunity of a lifetime. In an unlikely sequence of events, Kamau’s community work and reputation for transforming tough, inner city kids into college tennis players caught the eye of WTA touring professional Sloane Stephens. In 2017 40 inner city youth not only got a chance to attend the US Open, they got a chance to witness Kamau coaching Sloane Stephens to her historic 2017 US Open title, and see their south side coach become only the 3rd African-American coach to win a grand slam in its 95 year history. In 2014 Kamau walked into city hall with an “idea” to build a world class tennis facility on the south side and take tennis out of the country clubs, and into the community. Well in a year where 3 of the 4 US Open Semi Finalists were African-American, it is proving to be more than just an “idea”. The new $15MM XS Tennis Village is only the 3rd facility to ever be built in a low income census track area.