Racket Business - Publisher's Notes for April 2025

Hello, dear readers, friends, and tennis enthusiasts.

I hope March was a good month for you. As I write this update from my hotel room in Berlin, Germany, I reflect on a productive month of March and an extensive business trip spanning multiple cities across the United States and Europe. This journey has included stops in New York City, Miami, Charlotte, Frankfurt, Berlin, Dresden, and Baden-Baden, with a final return through Frankfurt to Los Angeles.

During my stay in Berlin, I have scheduled a visit to one of Germany's most prestigious tennis institutions, Blau-Weiss Tennis Club. This visit presents an excellent opportunity to meet with Karsten Weigelt, a distinguished coach and prominent figure within the Professional Tennis Registry (PTR). I will post about my Blau-Weiss adventure in the May issue.

My March Highlight 1: Recently, I had the privilege of visiting one of the most prestigious racquet clubs in the United States: Sportime Randall's Island in New York City, home to the renowned John McEnroe Tennis Academy. This exceptional facility left a lasting impression, thanks in large part to the hospitality of Mike Barrell, the Executive Director of Tennis. For a comprehensive overview of this outstanding facility and its leadership, please refer to the detailed article I have prepared, The Best Job in the Awesome World of U.S. Tennis.

My March Highlight 2: RacquetX 2025 in Miami. Racket Business successfully participated in the industry showcase from March 22nd to 24th. Although the event began with a technical challenge when my laptop permanently failed to power up on the first day, the overall experience was highly positive. This was largely due to the seamless and professional setup provided by Robyn Duda and her team, as well as the opportunity to reconnect with existing contacts and establish new connections.

I raffled off a large ad in Racket Business among all new business subscribers, and Patrick McDonald won it for his employer, Playsight Interactive Ltd. (see the ad below.) Playsight’s new approach and presentation are also the most amazing story of transformation for me. After being quite critical of the company because of our survey of Playsight users about 5 or 6 years ago, and after a lot of changes that ended up with a management group buying the company back from Connexa Sports Technologies, Playsight has come back with a new strategy and much more affordable pricing. Read more in the RacquetX’25 article below.

I hope you like the April issue and that you get a few ideas that help you in your business.

Rich Neher

Table of Contents

• RacquetX ‘25 was amazing!

• USTA Executive Committee Votes For Line-Calling Te …

• USTA couldn’t raise the funds

• HEAD is Celebrating Female Athletes

• UPDATES

• Shout-Outs + One Funny Tweet

The first thing I noticed about the 2025 RacquetX Showcase was an expanded exhibitor section. The majority of the exhibitors were coming with products and services in the padel and pickleball spaces, or in both. Like last year, the absence of a big USTA presence was notable. Besides a small booth promoting the concept of Red Ball Tennis, the sport of tennis was a mere afterthought again at RacquetX ‘25. Real shame, if you ask me.

FLORIDA TENNIS

Holding the fort for tennis were my booth neighbors: Alex, Matt, and Tosca of FLORIDA TENNIS. Great people with an amazing magazine full of color and outstanding content.

BOOTH VISITORS

Glad to report that I had plenty of visitors at the RacketX booth. Here are just a few.

Mitch Kutner, the man behind the resurgence of Paddle Tennis in the form of POP Tennis, is a tireless promoter of POP all over the world. We’ll have a short report about his latest Australian Open adventure on the Racquet Sports Industry page.

Dan Santorum looked good and happy. RacketPro is growing. They now have an amazing 800 members! Dan says, “We have the best certification and the best people.” He said that the investor in RacketPro has one goal: To create the best pickleball certification program in the world. The latest Racket Pro recruit, International Director Inaki Balzola. Inaki, who held that position at PTR for 22 years, was on a mission in Asia when Dan and I spoke. Growth is everywhere for RacketPro.

VIDEO 1 - RACQUETX ‘25 GROUNDS

Roundabout view of the RacquetX ‘25 grounds

PLAYSIGHT

Playsight impressed me the most of all the exhibitors. Founder and CEO Chen M. Shachar explained that after the uncoupling from Connexa, they decided to totally go away from the expensive and maintenance-heavy kiosk system. They now work with just a camera or an iPad on courts.

Prices start at $50 per month/court, and installations can incorporate AI on demand. A lot of racquet sports clubs will be happy to hear that. Like, the proud owners of THE FORT, a brand new 43-court pickleball facility in Florida’s Fort Lauderdale. Chen was happy to report that all 43 courts will be equipped with Playsight technology.

THE FORT website states, “PlaySight's AI-enabled video streaming technology will keep you informed of your progress and is also a great party take-away. INSTANT REPLAY: We've all got that friend who can’t call it right. No problem—at The Fort, PlaySight’s instant replay on all courts has you covered! Hit an epic shot or a wild body bag? Download and share it instantly. Plus, join our monthly contests for the best (or funniest) moments. Capture the action at The Fort!”

VIDEO 2 - PADEL COURTS IN ACTION

All three padel courts were busy throughout the show

LECTURES AND PANEL DISCUSSIONS

Three jam-packed days of lectures, workshops, and discussions highlighted the 2025 RacquetX event. There was hardly any seat available during the panel session below. Titled “The Future of Padel: Global Growth, Innovation, and Industry Leadership,” the panel was led by RacquetX CEO Robyn Duda, and had Luigi Carara (Int’l Padel Fed.), David Sugden (Premier Padel), and Sergio Lewin (Hexagon Cup) as guests.

VIDEO 3 - RSPA PICKLEBALL CERTIFICATION

Racquet Sports Industry Leader Dominique Lemperle from Sarasota, FL, skillfully conducted a pickleball certification course for the RSPA at RacquetX ‘25.

HOME COURT

Just a place to rest and feel like home.

VIDEO 4 - DRAGONET

Dragonet Sport Technology featured and interesting ball machine for padel “The only patented continuous cycle machine for Padel, Tennis and Pickleball training.”

ADIDAS AND PADEL

Did you know that ADIDAS is in the padel courts business? The days when that German company only manufactured soccer shoes are long gone. Their Global Licensee, AFP Courts, is doing just that for the last 18 years!

AFP Marketing Manager Montse Garrés Cervantes revealed that the company has 4,000 courts installed in 54 countries. That means to me, they certainly are one of the leaders in that business.

FINAL WORDS

I reconnected with more industry movers and shakers, like Bill Riddle, Brian Dillman, Scott Mcculloch, Haitham Eletrabi, and others. One of the many values of such an event is the networking, and I personally love that aspect of it.

The show was a resounding success and I can’t wait to go back next year.

I heard the USTA’s 2025 Annual Meeting was quite uneventful overall. There were some rumblings about the lack of real food at the banquet (instead of cookies) and about the horrendous cab fares up to $190 (one way) from San Diego airport to the Omni La Costa Resort in Carlsbad.

On a more positive note, the Executive Committee, consisting of the entire Board and the Section Delegates, passed a vote to incorporate electronic line calling for sanctioned events. There are a ton of implications in regards to how to apply the technology and make it work within the somewhat complicated system of sanctioned events. Here’s what we know:

• Four companies were selected as potential technology providers for line calling:
  - Play-Replay (the USTA has a financial interest in that Swedish company)
  - Baseline Vision (I tested the system made in Israel and loved it)
  - Zenniz (a German program endorsed by the DTB, Germany’s tennis NGB
  - SwingVision, a US company endorsed by the USTA last year

• Each of those 4 products needs to be certified by the USTA first.

• Sanctioned tournaments are free to use any of the certified products.

• USTA Adult League needs approval from the League Committee first before deploying the technology for league matches.

Lots of questions need to be answered before the League Committee makes a decision on line calling during league matches. Some of the challenges: How to apply it for timed matches without wasting valuable match time. How many times can a team challenge?

I’ll watch the development closely and keep you posted. So far, I give it a thumbs up

USTA drops Maury County tennis facility due to fundraising issues

After a three-year process, SouthStar has announced the Legacy Point project in Spring Hill (Tennessee) will continue without a highly anticipated tennis facility.

The Franklin-based real estate development company originally broke ground on the 213-acre mixed-use project in Maury County in May 2024. The development plans to feature residential, commercial, office, green space and community amenities. It was also supposed to include a U.S. Tennis Association facility that, due to fundraising issues, has been withdrawn. Read more in the Nashville Tennessean.

I liked the HEAD article sent out last month: 75 Years HEAD - Celebrating Female Athletes on International Women’s Day: Past, Present, and Future

Green Bay Press-Gazette
Former Green Bay tennis coach convicted of sexual exploitation of minors with upskirt videos

A former Green Bay tennis coach accused of filming secret upskirt videos of children pleaded no contest Tuesday to six of the 16 felonies he was originally charged with. Read more here.

ITIA
Dominican Official suspended for six years under Tennis Anti-Corruption Program

The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) today confirms that tennis official Juan Gabriel Castro, from the Dominican Republic, has been suspended for six years and fined $6,000 following 12 breaches of the Tennis Anti-Corruption Program (TACP). 
Read more here.

The Guardian
Outbreak of legal battle in tennis comes after years of increasing tension

The 163-page PTPA lawsuit contains some valid and not so valid criticism of the professional tours and major events. Read more here.

LAW 360
Pro Tennis Player Asks 11th Circ. To Affirm $9M Abuse Ruling

A professional tennis player who was awarded $9 million over claims of sexual abuse from her coach has asked the Eleventh Circuit to uphold the ruling, arguing that a Florida federal court properly found the training facility should have done more to protect her based on the evidence.

In her appellee brief filed Monday, Kylie McKenzie has urged the Eleventh Circuit to uphold the $9 million in damages awarded to her by a jury in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida, saying evidence showed that the United States Tennis Association knew of the potential sexual misconduct committed by coach Anibal Aranda and owed a duty of care to protect her. Read more here.

Big Shout-Out to Christopher Clarey for creating the truly excellent newsletter Tennis & Beyond. I loved his post “Andreeva and Draper rise in the desert.”
Christopher Clarey's Tennis & Beyond

Big Shout-Out to the 2025 BNP Paribas Open in Indian Wells for a new all-time attendance record with 504,268 fans throughout the fortnight. 

One Funny Tweet