The year 2022 was another smashing success for tennis. After 2020 served up a whopping 22% increase in tennis participation in the U.S. and 2021 saw another net increase, tennis participation grew yet again in 2022. The U.S. Tennis Association (USTA) announced yesterday that last year the number of tennis players in the U.S. bounced up even further by another million. That brought participation levels in 2022 to over 23.6 million, based on numbers compiled by the Tennis Industry Association. That means that tennis has courted at least 5.9 million more people since the beginning of 2020 for a 33 percent increase.
All of that may sound a little bit punny, but the overhead conclusion is that tennis has experienced quite a remarkable renaissance during the Covid-19 pandemic. Early on in the pandemic, many people started realizing that tennis may be a great alternative to getting exercise in health clubs and sports where you get a little too familiar other people’s armpits. Heck, would you rather play on a open tennis court in the great outdoors or go to an enclosed gym where everything smells like rubber and you run on a treadmill that a dozen people may have sweated on during the previous several hours? Tennis also has provided a great way to socialize rather than standing in an enclosed, fart-filled bar during a Happy Hour where people may be shouting pick-up lines such as “You know your eyes are the same color as my Porsche.”
While that spiky ball-shaped thing called the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2) may have had something to do with increased tennis participation over the past three years, it probably hasn’t been the only thing that has contributed. The USTA has been making substantial efforts to further augment the country’s tennis infrastructure. After all, if you build it, there’s a darn good chance that they will come, right? Such efforts have included provide technical assistance to build and refurbish tennis courts around the U.S. with over $750,000 awarded to more than 45 total projects and $285,000 allotted to new construction projects. Those allotments went to a lotta new courts being built, specifically over 585 courts being completed in 2022.
The USTA has created quite a racket in schools, too. In 2022, the USTA donated tennis equipment to nearly 1,600 schools, encompassing around 5.9 million children. Last year, the USTA Foundation, the charitable arm of the USTA, also granted over $435,000 in scholarship funds to 46 student leaders. The USTA Foundation provided over $7 million in support, services, and funding to National Tennis & Learning (NJTL) chapters around the country as well. As I’ve covered for Forbes before, these chapters have expanded access to tennis for a wide range of under-resourced youth. Indeed, youth is being served.
At the same time, the USTA has tried to remain adult about things. There was a 11 percent growth in adult participation in the USTA League in 2022. And you don’t have to necessarily be the next Roger Federer or Serena Williams to participate in the USTA League. Heck you could be the next William Serena or Federetta Rogers for that matter. The 284,000 or so players who participated in the league throughout 2022 came in all skill levels.
Speaking of skill levels, in 2022, the USTA and the International Tennis Federation (ITF) threw in some more changes for good measure too. They introduced a new tennis player rating system called the World Tennis Number, automatically assigned to anyone who plays in a USTA event. Ratings can range from a 40 for people who say, “What is this tennis thing that you speak of” all the way to the top score of 1, which would be a “I can’t make your party because I am playing at the U.S. Open next week” level. Having such a rating system in place makes it easier for players to find others at the right level. It also can be another thing to put on your Tinder profile.
Speaking of the U.S. Open, the 2022 edition bore the marketing tagline, “Spectacular Awaits.” Well, spectacular seemed to not only wait but it also hung around for three weeks at the National Tennis Center in Flushing, New York City, and had a bunch of sandwiches. The 2022 U.S. Open attracted a record 888,044 fans, with every single session in Arthur Ashe Stadium selling out, in a good way. Visits to USOpen.org and the U.S. Open app topped 35 million total from 13 million unique devices, representing 20 percent increases. The U.S. Open’s social media channels garnered a record one billion impressions during the three weeks in August and September. After all, you always want to make a good impression on social media, right?
Speaking of social media, playing tennis ain’t like scrolling threw social media looking at people put dog noses and ears on themselves. Tennis can provide real health benefits as it can get your entire body moving with the possible exception of your ears. The USTA announcement quoted Brian Hainline, MD, Chairman of the Board and President, USTA, as saying, “The increase in tennis participation for the third year in a row is not only important for the health of our sport, but also for the health and well-being of those who have made the game a part of their lives.”
Scientific studies have supported the health benefits of tennis. For example, results from the Copenhagen City Heart Study (CCHS) published in 2018 in the Mayo Clinic Proceedings showed that those playing tennis regularly on average lived 9.7 more years than those who remained sedentary. In fact, of all the sports examined in the study, tennis came out on top, lobbing past badminton which was associated with a 6.2-year increase, soccer with a 4.7-year increase, cycling with a 3.7-year increase, swimming with a 3.4-year increase, jogging with a 3.2-year increase, calisthenics with a 3.1-year increase, and health club activities with a 1.5 year increase. Think about that the next time you are calisthenicalling or health club activitiing. An extra 9.7 years could come in handy, especially if you’ve got a lot of items in your house with lifetime warrantees.
As another example, a cohort study of 80,306 British adults published in the British Journal of Sports Medicine in 2017 found that those who participated in racquet sports, including tennis, were 47 percent less likely to have died and 56 percent less likely to have died from a cardiovascular cause than those who didn’t regularly participate in sports.
Of course, these were observational studies that can only show associations and correlations and not necessarily cause and effect. But you gotta figure that running around on a tennis court and swinging a racket is a lot healthier than sitting around, assuming that your head isn’t getting in the way of the racket. And tennis is not a contact sport where concussions are a real risk, unless something has gone horribly wrong during the match.
The year 2022 showed that the surge in tennis interest wasn’t just an early pandemic fad like wearing no pants during work meetings and politely telling people that they are on mute for the 22nd time. No, tennis has strung together quite a run over the past three years. Indeed, the U.S. seems to have really opened to tennis again.
