The United States Tennis Association (“USTA”) just issued a press release touting how tennis participation in the US supposedly “surged” in 2023. Various media entities have hyped that comment. But, did any of them read the full, original report that their press release was based on? I did. Here’s what it actually says.

 

1. The 21 page report was done by the Tennis Industry Association (“TIA”) with collaboration from the USTA. So, if there is a bias, we could expect the report to overstate tennis participation rates. It tracked participation from 2019 through 2023.

 

2. The report defines a “tennis player” as anyone who played tennis at least one time in 2023. Do any of us call someone who played pickleball one time in an entire year a “pickleball player”? I know I do not.

 

3. The report claims tennis had an “extraordinary” jump in participation in 2020-2021, during Covid. That jump was 4-5% a year. According to USTA’s own report, which also surveyed other paddle/racquet sports, pickleball was growing at the same time by 15-20%. If tennis growing 4-5% was “extraordinary”, then what words do we use to describe pickleball growth, when it was growing more than THREE times as fast?

 

4. The USTA says in the report that they consider it a success if tennis can just hold steady in particpation numbers. So they have completely given up on growth. And, sure enough, the growth in 2023 was 1% among people playing once in an entire year.

 

 

5. The number of tennis players under 18 declined by 14% in 2023. When you are losing over 1 million junior players, you are in trouble.

 

6. The USTA report defines “core” tennis players as people who play 10 times or more in an entire year. Do any of us even know any pickleball player who only plays 10 times in a year? A “core” pickleball player plays 10+ times a month. In any event, “core” tennis player participation dropped 2% in 2023. 

 

7. The number of non-tennis players who expressed any interest in playing tennis dropped 1% in 2023.

 

8. According to the report, pickleball participation was up more than 50% in 2023. Every other racquet/paddle sport in the report was either flat or declined in participation. If the current trends continue, the number of Americans playing pickleball will exceed the number of tennis players by the end of 2026.

 

Many thanks to the TIA and the USTA for doing the report. Now, if they would just be honest in their press releases, we'd be getting somewhere. The report clearly shows tennis is suffering a long, slow decline, while pickleball is booming. If anything, the pickleball boom is accelerating. Enjoy the game!

 

For those interested in investigating this topic further, you can dive into the full report from the TIA here, with info on pickleball's metrics on page 9 of 21.

 

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