An engineer overthinks tennis in a daily journal.
m the Halloween tennis social at the Wichita Falls Country Club suggests that tennis participation is enthusiastic and strong. According to data shared at the 2021 Tennis Industry Forum, participation in private club settings ticked up ever so slightly in 2021. The vast majority of new tennis participation in 2021 originated in public parks and schools. That fact is a scary Halloween story for Wichita Falls.
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The Tennis Industry Forum is an annual meeting that publicly shares information from the Tennis Industry Association, the USTA, the National Golf Foundation (!), and Tennis Industry United. The target audience includes tennis service providers and tennis equipment manufacturers. The data disclosed at that meeting is positioned as key industry research that can help a tennis business grow. The 2021 presentations included location details on where new tennis players are engaging with the sport. That data illustrates the fundamental challenge the USTA has with retaining those new players in the tennis ecosystem.
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Earlier this year, the post “Geeking Out over Tennis Participation Data in the Physical Activity Council Report” broke down the data revealed in the public version of the 2021 Physical Activity Council (PAC) Report. At the time, the USTA was falling all over themselves to issue press releases announcing a “surge” in tennis participation in 2020. The thing is, the data in the public PAC report didn’t exactly support that assertion.
Alice Marble is one of the most enigmatic figures in the history of tennis. She was a tennis superstar whose dominance on the court put her in a position to hobnob with some of the biggest names in Hollywood and society. Her private life is the subject of legend and sometimes venture well past the mark of “too good to be true.” The mystery only increases her allure.
Tennis officiating is divided into quite a few sub-disciplines. At an event it is pretty typical have officials on site fulfilling various roles and responsibilities. The tournament referee is responsible for making sure the competition is fair. The referee is also responsible for ensuring the tournament is played under ITF rules of tennis in accordance with USTA Regulations.
In early 2020, I hastily purchased a Perfect Pitch Rebounder for tennis when it became apparent that shut down of my city park courts was imminent due to Covid mandates. Apparently other tennis players simultaneously did the same thing, as the device went on long term back-order shortly after mine was shipped. It didn’t seem sportsmanlike to write about a tennis training device that players couldn’t have, so I didn’t at the time. As we head into the tennis “off-season” this year, the device is once again widely available. It is the perfect time to write about my own Perfect Pitch Rebounder.
The Australian Open turns up the pressure for players to get vaccinated in advance of the 2022 tournament. BJK discusses the rise of Ons Jabeur and a Roger Federer train that can’t be stopped. Top it off with a tennis world record set last week.
The October challenge for the USTA Tennis Champions program was to distribute flyers promoting tennis. Harkening back to my own days as a youth soccer coach and parent, there were many days when I stumbled off the pitch emotionally primed to embrace the virtues of an individual sport. As the Fall soccer season comes to a close, the time is right to distribute some flyers to encourage youth soccer players to give tennis a try.
Yesterday I wrote about how the USTA foists regular duty tennis balls on female tournament players. The next obvious question is when and why the policy started in the first place. It is a sordid tale of how tennis is a victim of the forces of technology and marketing. It is also a testament that complaining about the balls is an indelible part of the culture of tennis.
On the hard courts of Texas, bringing a can of regular duty tennis balls to a match is the epitome of poor taste. It simply isn’t done. The felt used for regular duty tennis balls doesn’t hold up to the wear and tear of play on an outdoor hard court. Consequently, I was surprised that regular duty balls were in use when I played the National Senior Women’s Hard Court Championships in Mission Hills, California earlier this month. I assumed that the selection was driven by necessity due to the the ongoing tennis ball shortage. As it turns out, the culprit is USTA policy.
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