Tennis Boom, Redux: Recreational tennis continues its resurgence

For the recreational tennis player, the last 14 months have been a stressful time. Masks. Gloves. Disinfecting benches, grips, water bottles. The careful monitoring of tennis balls. Facilities closed, opened, closed, opened. Doubles and distance. League play and tournaments cancelled.

“It was a little scary,” says Hyacinth Yorke, a teaching pro at Southampton Tennis in the Philadelphia area. “You didn’t know if the mental psyche could handle all that isolation.”

And yet, throughout this time, increasing numbers of people played tennis. According to data from the Physical Activity Council’s Participation report, tennis participation increased by 22 percent in 2020.

Now, as more and more people become vaccinated, the courts are not only remaining crowded, but tennis' social aspect is coming to the fore.

“I feel like this is the tennis boom part two,” says Trey Waltke, general manager of the Southern California-based Malibu Racquet Club. “Everyone is talking tennis. Everyone is playing. People are rediscovering how great tennis is.”

Waltke estimates his club has added 50 new members in the last year—from newcomers to others returning after a few years away to zealots playing even more. They’re also investing in their games.

“Stringing is going through the roof,” says Jimmy Miller, a stringer at Swetka’s Tennis Shop, a longstanding independent store located in Mountain View, Calif. “People with old racquets are bringing them in for new strings and grips. Lots of people are demoing racquets too.”

“The pandemic made it so kids stayed in a lot,” says Carlton Jones, director-owner of Aztec Tennis Club, a community tennis organization in Berkeley. “But once they get out there on the court, they see that tennis is a perfect distancing sport.”

All this demand, coupled with production slow-downs that took place in 2020, has triggered a hunger for product. Instructors are rapidly filling their appointment books with lessons, including everything from private sessions to doubles strategy workshops to multi-court clinics. Racquet orders take a little while than longer to be fulfilled. Several clubs have even reported running out of tennis balls.

Competitive events are beginning to make their way back on to the calendar. In April, dozens of age group competitors came to the Palm Springs area to compete in the Wilson World Tennis Classic, a senior tournament that includes various events for players ranging from ages in the 50s to the 80s.

“The vaccine has made a big difference,” says Carolyn Nichols, who won the women’s 65 singles title and runs the website, SeniorTennisBlog.com. “Everybody was so happy to see friends and play tournaments again.” (Amid an atmosphere of gratitude, might there be less cheating and temper tantrums?)

And so, with a great many more people excited about the chance to play tennis, what do club managers, retailers, instructors and others in the tennis business need to do to maximize this opportunity?

“We’ve led so many to the water,” says Steve Contardi, operating partner at The Club at Harper’s Point, a Cincinnati-based facility. “Now we have to do more things to get them to drink it.”

Jones concurs. “It’s all about excitement,” he says. “You’ve got to get these kids to have a little bit of fun. Forget about doing pushups for training. Have fun. I’d rather have 100 kids who are happy than one kid who wins a lot of matches but eventually gets tired of it all.”