Hello dear readers, friends, and racket sports enthusiasts.

The racket sports industry has never moved faster. New technologies, changing player expectations, emerging sports, evolving governance, and shifting business models are forcing every club, coach, manufacturer, federation, and entrepreneur to rethink what comes next.

This month's issue explores those changes from every angle.

We begin by examining one of tennis's biggest questions: is the sport still serving players—or has it become all about the money? Alongside Rich’s ever popular Publisher's Notes, Gary Horvath explores the powerful relationship between sport and society, reminding us that tennis has always been about much more than competition.

The future of tennis takes center stage as we analyze the International Tennis Federation's transformation into World Tennis, ask whether tennis has become too difficult in an era of instant-gratification sports, and investigate how pickleball and padel are reshaping the competitive landscape in what may be the biggest challenge tennis has ever faced. Mike Knowles adds another perspective, arguing that today's racquet sports industry doesn't have a growth problem—it has a decision problem.

Across facilities and club management, Rod Heckelman shares practical advice for managers looking to improve everyday operations, while our padel coverage delivers a truly global perspective. From the latest international news and India's explosive growth potential to the importance of local market density, the lessons from Chile's dramatic slowdown, and London's inaugural Clash of the Coaches event, we examine both the opportunities and the realities facing the world's fastest-growing racket sport.

Our pickleball section rounds up the latest news, trends, and voices driving another sport that continues to reshape the recreational landscape.

Knowledge remains one of the industry's greatest competitive advantages, and this issue is packed with insights to help professionals stay ahead. Gareth Shaw explores how artificial intelligence could democratize tennis coaching across emerging markets, Ken DeHart returns with practical coaching and business tips, Susan Nardi delivers a thoughtful reflection on tennis's deeper purpose, and Rod Heckelman curates another outstanding collection of learning resources. David Pyrzenski continues his Building in Public series by examining the challenges facing today's club directors, while our monthly Multimedia Picks highlights the podcasts, webinars, and blogs worth your time.

Whether your passion is tennis, padel, pickleball, club management, coaching, technology, or growing the racket sports industry, this issue offers ideas, analysis, and practical insights designed to help you navigate an industry that continues to evolve at remarkable speed.

If you have insights, ideas, or industry experience to share, we invite you to contribute to RacketBusiness — because the conversations that shape our sport start with voices like yours. 👉 Write for RacketBusiness

Enjoy the issue, stay curious, and keep swinging forward.

See you courtside,

Rich & Tim (Learn more about us)

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From inside the lines…

An exclusive series of short features, only available to newsletter subscribers, from the owner’s of Racket Business. This month…

The Next Generation Won't Just Play Racket Sports. They Must Build Them.

For years, our industry has focused on one question: How do we get more people to play? We think it’s the wrong question. The better question is: How do we inspire more young people to build careers in racket sports?

The global numbers tell an encouraging story. Tennis participation has surpassed 106 million players worldwide, the highest level ever recorded by the International Tennis Federation. Padel now boasts approximately 35 million active players, while pickleball has exploded to more than 22 million regular participants globally.

Participation is growing. Facilities are expanding. Technology is transforming coaching. Investment continues to flow. Yet every conversation with club owners, manufacturers, governing bodies and event organizers eventually arrives at the same concern:

Who will lead this industry in ten years?

Young people aren't rejecting racket sports. They're rejecting industries that don't appear to offer clear career pathways.

Many teenagers know they can become software developers, sports marketers, content creators or entrepreneurs. Few know they could build a career managing a tennis club, designing padel facilities, developing AI coaching platforms, manufacturing equipment, running tournaments, producing media, or leading national governing bodies.

The opportunities exist. We simply don't tell the story well enough. As Billie Jean King has often reminded the sports world: "You have to see it to be it." That principle applies just as much to careers as it does to athletes.

Today's Industry Looks Nothing Like Yesterday's

Twenty years ago, a career in tennis usually meant coaching or club management. Today? A young graduate could specialize in sports analytics, AI coaching, digital media, facility design, event production, sustainability, community engagement, performance science or data-driven membership growth.

Those careers didn't exist for previous generations. The racket sports industry has become a technology business, an entertainment business, a health business and a community business—all at the same time. That's exciting. But only if young people know it.

Purpose Matters More Than Perks

The newest generation entering the workforce increasingly wants purpose alongside a paycheck. Fortunately, racket sports have always delivered both.

Kelly Fairweather, Chief Executive of the International Tennis Federation, recently emphasized the importance of investing in grassroots participation, saying the ITF is working to support "the health of the game around the world, for all abilities and ages to play," while embracing new ways for people to engage with tennis and its related sports.

That mission resonates. Helping a child discover confidence through tennis. Creating inclusive community clubs. Using AI to bring coaching into underserved regions. Building facilities that become neighbourhood gathering places. These are meaningful careers. We should start talking about them that way.

Stop Recruiting Employees. Start Recruiting Missionaries.

The best people in our industry rarely entered it because of the salary. They stayed because they fell in love with the impact. Ask almost any long-serving coach, club director or industry executive how they started, and the answer is rarely strategic. Someone inspired them. Someone opened a door. Someone invited them onto a court. The next generation deserves the same opportunity.

Every Club Is a Classroom

Perhaps the biggest untapped resource isn't a governing body or a university. It's the local club.

Every junior programme should expose young players to the business behind the sport. Invite teenagers to shadow tournament directors. Let them help produce social media. Teach them how facilities operate. Explain sponsorship. Show them marketing. Introduce them to sports technology. Give them ownership. Because people protect what they help create.

The Industry We Build Tomorrow

The future of racket sports won't be determined solely by participation numbers or court construction.

It will be determined by whether today's young players decide that this is an industry worth dedicating their careers to.

If we want more coaches, innovators, entrepreneurs, facility managers, content creators and industry leaders, we must begin treating career development with the same importance as player development.

The next great champion may never win Wimbledon.

They may instead design the software that transforms coaching, build the club that becomes the heart of a community, launch the company that redefines player experience, or lead the governing body that shapes the next generation of the game.

Our responsibility is to make sure they know those opportunities exist. Because the future of racket sports won't simply be played on the court.It will be built by the people who choose to work beyond it.

_{Please note that all of our content is created by human professionals. While we utilize Generative AI technology to assist in correcting syntax and grammar, our articles are written entirely by our team of experts. We value the expertise and creativity of our human writers in delivering high-quality content to our readers.}