Tennis News You Can Use, November 29, 2021
Tennis Postcards from the Edge
The November Challenge for the USTA Tennis Champions program was to distribute postcards promoting the play of tennis to the local community. Some participants in the program treated the postcards the same way as the flyers from last month and distributed them by hand. I decided to go the postal route.
My understanding of the spirit and intent of the USTA Tennis Champions initiative is to attract people to tennis who are not currently engaged in the ecosystem. At the same time, the target audience should be relatively active which is beneficial for people starting to play tennis. For this initiative, I also believe that people who are relatively engaged with social media are also desirable. That increases possible tennis shares and mentions should anyone who received a postcard be inspired to take to the courts.
To find those people, names were scraped off a recent post on the Wichita Falls Parks and Recreation Department official Facebook page. Those names were cross referenced against online resources for postal mailing addresses. Some of the people used to live in Wichita Falls and have moved away and were dropped from the list because I am focusing on that local area. In what I took to be a very good omen, the number of addresses that met my criteria from the first pass of the exercise was exactly the number of postcards that the USTA provided.
There were also clues along the way that suggested this process was yielding good prospects for tennis engagement. One person identified is a relative of one of my mother’s old tennis buddies. Someone I played high school tennis with also turned up in the exercise. That person no longer lives in the local area so I was spared the decision of whether tennis needed that inflicted back onto the sport.
My strategy produced a very diverse set of recipients judging from online age indications and hit a wide swath of neighborhoods and housing types. I am very happy with the way it turned out. The postcards were dropped in the mail Wednesday November 24.
I will probably never know if anybody followed up with actual tennis, but I do feel like the effort primed my brain to think of creative ways to identify prospective tennis players in the community. It would be easy for the USTA to replicate this directly on social media with targeted ads based on demographic data from the local area.
International Olympic Committee Whitewash of the Disappearance of Peng Shuai
Initially silent on the disappearance of Peng, a women’s tennis star Peng Shuai, Olympic officials are now facing a growing global chorus of concern. Cornered by the criticism, the I.O.C. finally responded. This, Olympic officials insisted, was a time not for public statements but for “quiet diplomacy.” To critics it is just the latest proof that the I.O.C. will not take any action that might upset China’s government, with the Beijing Winter Olympics now only months away. Full Story: The New York Times (11/26)
Interactive Tennis Ball Art Exhibit
You have to check this one out! Visitors to Stephen Friedman Gallery in London are invited to bring an old tennis ball to swap with a new one from the numerous neon shelves that line the walls in a work by artist David Shrigley. Mayfair Tennis Ball Exchange is on exhibit at the gallery until January 8, 2022. This would also totally work in a tennis pro shop setting as well. Full Story: The Art Newspaper (11/29)
Tennis Great Smashes Barolo
As the Davis Cup descended on Turin last weekend, tennis star Novak Djokovic reportedly paired a bottle of 2014 Damilano Barolo Cannubi with his dinner. The article also describes in great detail the food he was served. Full Story: Wine Searcher (11/29) Editorial Note: The Total Wine on Park Lane in Dallas has this bottle in stock.
Tennibot, the Robot to Pick Up Tennis Balls, Secures Funding
Autonomous tennis ball collector Tennibot has received investment from Benson Capital Partners, the VC firm founded by New Orleans Saints and Pelicans owner Gayle Benson. Tennibot uses sensors and Artificial Intelligence cameras to retrieve tennis balls across a court. Full Story: Sport Techie (11/29)
This Week in Professional Tennis
| Date | Tournament | Tour/Level | Location/Timezone |
| 11/25-12/5 | The Davis Cup Finals | ITF | Madrid, Spain; Innsbruck, Austria; and Turin, Italy (UTC + 1) |
Tennis Australia Announces Tour Events Leading into the Australian Open
Ready for a big Australian Summer of Tennis?
— TennisAustralia (@TennisAustralia) November 25, 2021
Tell us what event you are most looking forward to in January 2022 … pic.twitter.com/yiobZbrP3N
