On World Tennis Day I ask.......Is Tennis Participation worldwide really growing?

Today is World Tennis Day, which I launched at the 2012 Davis Cup final in Prague and which the ITF organized for the first time in 2013. Most people know that I have a huge interest in tennis participation. I oversaw the creation and launch of the very successful ITF Tennis Play and Stay campaign in 2007, and the rule change for 10 and under tennis in 2010. I was also on the board of the Tennis Industry Association (TIA) for 15 years, where I learned so much about the wider tennis industry.

On this important day for world tennis, I thought it might be the right moment to publish something important about worldwide tennis participation.  

The ITF Global Survey on Tennis Participation

In 2025, the ITF released the results of a 2024 survey on tennis participation that claimed that tennis participation worldwide had increased by 25.6%  between 2019 and 2024. I have taken a lot of time over the past 6 months to study these survey figures and results. I have also spoken with a range of experts, including major tennis ball manufacturers, those dealing with participation in the top nations, as well as the teams involved with preparing statistics related to tennis. I also spoke to the coaching organisations and the people in charge of coaching and tennis development in the major nations. 

I discussed this survey with various people within the ITF, who were responsible for the survey. I asked various questions related to the figures, but unfortunately, a lot of the questions I raised remain unanswered. 

My observations and conclusions:

I am a very positive promoter of the sport of tennis, and I recently published an article that highlighted the health benefits of tennis and listed numerous other reasons why I believe that tennis is the world’s best sport.  

I care deeply about the health of the sport, and I feel it is important that we have accurate information and statistics, so that people working in the tennis business can make the right decisions for the future of the sport. I believe that tennis is the best sport in the world, but I also believe that the tennis industry needs to consider the changes in lifestyles especially among young people. Tennis must be ready to adapt to the changes in the needs and lifestyles of the different nations of the world, in order to remain the best sport.

Some findings from the report to consider and question:

• The USTA has announced that tennis participation in the USA increased by 7 million players in the years 2019-2024. However, during this period, the ball shipments to the USA were overall static, and in fact, in 2024, they were slightly less than in 2019 (see chart attached). The USA does not manufacture tennis balls. The figures shown in the chart for ball shipments are accurate, as they are controlled by the Government Statistics office and linked to duties/ taxes to be paid on these shipments.       

• How is it possible that 7 million extra people are playing tennis, but there are no additional balls being used? One answer given by a USTA staff member was that maybe players are playing longer with each can of balls. Do you believe that?

• In the USA, the Coaching organisations have told me that, with the exception of clubs that have other activities/sports, tennis participation is down and tennis courts are being lost throughout the nation to Padel and Pickleball.

• I spoke to the organisers of adult tennis leagues in the USA and was informed that the number of frequent players had reduced. Whilst the number of teams and leagues has increased (which I see has been promoted a lot) the actual number of players playing in the USTA leagues has reduced, with many players representing multiple teams across various leagues, and many older players are playing in leagues designed for younger players.

• The ball shipments among the top 15 nations in Europe (and USA) were also static in that period (see the chart attached).

• In nations like the Netherlands and France, the number of players registered with the federation and actively playing has reduced. At one stage, 25+ years ago, the Netherlands had 750,000 playing registered members actively playing. Today it has 660,000 members playing, but this includes Padel and Pickleball players who are now included in their statistics. Registered players across France have reduced from 1.4 million in the late 90s, down to around 1.1 million today. It is important to keep in mind that the 1.1 million mentioned in France has increased by 100,000 over the past three year but this statistic now includes Padel and Pickleball players. This figure also includes the players playing in 10-and-under green and orange ball competitions, who previously would not have been counted. It would seem that the number of registered tennis players has, in fact, reduced.

The ITF report stated that 99% of the 105,988,119 players in the world are from just 33 nations (104,885,580). 

• I have lived in Asia for the past 5 years, and I can see that in many nations, tennis is becoming more popular, and participation has grown. In Kazakhstan, for example, we have over 60,000 players, and we have a great partnership with Lexus for our 10 and under and our ‘Tennis for Life’ program, which is growing each year. Nations like China have definitely seen big growth in terms of participation. The challenge is in the more mature tennis markets.

I also studied the 2022 participation report produced by Tennis Europe that had the participation figures for each nation from 2012 to 2022. Overall, it showed that whilst racket sales grew, ball sales were static, and that in many of the nations, the numbers in the areas of frequent players and federation members had reduced. There was also a big reduction in many of the nations in terms of the number of junior tennis players competing. The Tennis Europe chart attached showed that the overall number of junior members in clubs reduced by 16% and the adult members declined by 32% between 2018 and 2022. Only the number of senior players increased. This is really worrying to me and conflicts with the positive figures presented by the ITF.

What happens if we are told that everything is fine in tennis participation?

If everyone is told that tennis is performing brilliantly worldwide in terms of participation, they will not be looking to make any changes to the product. With every product, there is a lifecycle. In mature markets in the later stages of the product life cycle, products often face challenges with sales. The same is true of tennis, and I believe that in many nations, especially those that are mature tennis nations, there are big challenges with tennis participation, especially among teens and young adults.  

In the Mature Tennis markets, tennis faces challenges in participation

In any business, when customers reduce the frequency of buying a product or stop buying a product altogether, the company is forced to try to make changes. They usually reposition or reinvent the product in the marketplace by introducing different marketing, more attractive packaging, more competitive pricing, and promoting different positive aspects of the product. They try to understand their customers better and endeavour to identify what has changed. 

This helps the business to adapt the product to the changing needs and lifestyles of the different-aged customers and to hopefully increase sales.  If you are told that everything is fine and that the customers are still buying your product, you are less likely to implement the changes needed until it’s too late.

Is tennis still cool to young people today?

I grew up in a family where my grandfather played at Wimbledon and was a member of the first Davis Cup team in Ireland in 1923, and my parents also played tennis socially. I wanted to do what they did and to play tennis, because I saw it as something cool. Kids today usually don’t want to do what their parents do, and they certainly don’t think it’s cool to do what their grandparents do! We need to understand this.

What is a healthy sport?

• A lot of people of different ages play and love the sport.

• As a result of them playing the sport, they want to invest in things that may help them to play better (coaching, equipment, club membership, etc.)

• If they play and love the sport, they’ll want to watch the best pro players play live, and on TV or streaming services.

We need to make sure the tennis product is easier, more fun, more social, more accessible, and perceived as healthy by the prospective players.

I was really impressed with the Australian Open, which I attended again this year. Tennis Australia has managed to position its tournament not only as a tennis event, but also as a social event that is exciting for people of all ages to attend. The spectators included so many young people. However, at many of the other top tennis events, I have observed that the people watching are mostly over 50 years old, a market that most sponsors are not interested in.

The ITF World Tennis Number (WTN)

I think that the WTN could have a big impact on increasing tennis participation worldwide, but the ITF survey shows that only 2.3 million players from the 106 million players have a WTN (2.1%). In my opinion, this is because there has been too much focus on WTN for performance players in the past 8 years. The reality is that performance players do not need a WTN as much as the recreational players at the club level do. Performance players can usually find other players quite easily to play with and tournaments to compete in. Recreational players are more in need of a WTN to find players of a similar level.

In Golf, every club member has a rating- a golf handicap- because it is mandatory in clubs. They get an estimated one given to them when they join, and then after a few rounds of competition play, they are issued a more accurate one. 

I’m very pleased that the ITF recently reintroduced the on-court assessment that was introduced in 2003 with the International Tennis Number (ITN). I cannot understand why they eliminated its use in 2017 when the WTN was launched. 

This on-court assessment should have a very positive impact going forward in increasing the number of players with WTN at the club level. The biggest impact that the WTN can have is at the micro level. If every club member has a WTN, they can then find people of the same level to play with, get coaching that is appropriate to their level, and play in competitions with players of the same level. There will eventually be a status symbol linked to the player’s WTN that motivates players to play more and to try to improve.

How to increase the WTN to 30 million plus players? The obvious is so often the greatest secret!!

My simple solution to grow the number of players with a WTN is to create a new ITF rule. There are 698,034 courts and 130,742 clubs registered with their federations. If we assume an average of 200 members per club, that is over 32 million players.  At the next ITF AGM, they could look to introduce a rule as we did in 2010 for the 10-and-under competitions. The rule could be:

“By 2030, every member of an affiliated club of the 206 ITF member nations must have a WTN.”

Imagine the commercial/ sponsorship potential for the ITF and its member nations if 32 million players had a WTN!

Conclusion/Recommended Actions

• Too much of the data and information presented in this ITF survey, and promoted by some nations, is not credible. It should not have been published without closer scrutiny by the ITF team involved with the survey.

• The Sport faces challenges because of lifestyle changes and because of competition from sports like padel and pickleball. Participation has reduced in many nations, especially among frequent players and younger players.

• There is a need to consider changes to the product of tennis, especially in the more developed markets of the USA and Europe. The sport of tennis must adapt to the changing needs and lifestyles of its customers of different ages. This is especially important with younger audiences.

• I suggest that the ITF go back and study the report and consider the inconsistencies that I have highlighted. They can then hopefully produce a revised report that is more accurate and more useful to the tennis industry and the decisions facing them going forward.

• I propose to make the WTN mandatory for club members worldwide, which would help increase participation at the club level and improve the commercial possibilities of tennis in terms of sponsorship for the ITF and the member nations.

Once we have an accurate estimate of the health of our sport, the ITF, together with its member nations, and the people involved in the business of the sport, will be in a much better position to take the steps needed to keep tennis as the world’s best sport.

Happy World Tennis Day from -14°C Astana, Kazakhstan.

Note

The 33 nations that the ITF reported make up 99% of the players worldwide are:
Argentina
Australia
Austria
Belgium
Brazil
Canada
China
Colombia
Finland
France
Germany
Greece
Hungary
India
Indonesia
Ireland
Israel
Italy
Japan
Mexico
Netherlands
New Zealand
Poland
Portugal
Romania
South Africa
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Switzerland
Türkiye
United Kingdom
United States of America