So, given that its Wimbledon time right now, I wanted to ask how big/popular tennis is in the USA in 2022, because it seems to be that the popularity of the sport is rather declining, especially in the recreational/amateur leagues.
As a small follow up question, do you have a significant amount of claycourts in the USA?
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It’s pretty niche. I didn’t realize Wimbledon was on until I scrolled past it on tv the other day.
Most courts available for public use are synthetic.
The tennis courts around me are pretty full on the weekends in good weather. I see more hard courts than clay courts in my area.
My dad likes to watch it, but I don’t remember hearing anyone else talk about it.
I have a number of different courts in the area to play on, for free, but none are clay. I have no idea where the nearest clay court might be
During the COVID shutdowns, one of the stupidest things done by local officials was to close the tennis courts. It’s difficult to imagine a safer activity, but common sense wasn’t exactly a goal.
I can’t speak to your second question, but regarding the first:
Tennis is generally a niche sport here with a relatively small percentage of the population interested in it. However, because we have well over 300 million people, the number of people we have who enjoy tennis would still be equivalent to a mid-sized country in Europe or Africa.
It has a lot of the same access issues that baseball & hockey do, in that equipment to play it with isn’t cheap, so that rules out a lot of people from ever getting interested in it.
Its got its niche. Its a moderately popular sport in high school. A small subsection of sports fans vaguely follow it with a very small hardcore group.
Claycourts are really rare. I’ve never played on one. Only hard courts. Though admittedly I’m a total casual.
personally, I would say it’s similar to Europe, maybe a little more niche.
As for clay courts, we have almost none — they are usually asphalt. I think the reason is that tennis courts in Europe are usually private tennis clubs, which can pay for clay/grass maintenance. In the US (or at least in my area), they are almost all publically owned/funded/maintained, at schools or in public parks. So they are asphalt, because it is cheaper and needs less maintenance than clay courts.
Tennis has a reputation for being a “country club sport.” Something for snobby rich people. It’s also considered a bit feminine. My peers who played tennis were very nice, but people don’t respect them as much as other athletes. Tennis courts are often in country clubs and gated communities. You can also find them in some public recreational complexes, but I rarely see them used and they’re often not well maintained
Most public courts are hard courts. My dad’s private club has clay.
In the northeast, tennis is one of the more common sports for adults to play and municipal courts are very common, as are high school courts being open to the public whenever the kids aren’t using them.
It seems a lot less common in Vegas but there are still a few public courts floating around and they get a fair amount of use.
It’s probably the second most popular amateur sport in the US (after golf)
The sport was gaining popularity in participation up until Covid, whether that picks back up remains to be seen.
The overall national media attention is decreasing with as Serena Williams career comes to an end and no clear American able to take the reigns.
As for the number of clay courts, they’re almost exclusively in private clubs, not uncommon, but not accessible compared to hard courts
The vast vast majority of Americans play on public courts that are pretty much only hard courts.
Above the WNBA, but below NHL.
For the professional level, the only reason I know Wimbledon is occurring is the picture of George Russel attending a game.
In my mid west town, most of our public parks have tennis courts that I’ve never seen a person using.
Until now I honestly thought this Wimbledon place was in the US.
There are empty tennis courts in every park and school in America. Tons of baseball diamonds that never get used too.
It’s not big as for little kids — easier/more cost effective to coach a pack of 10 or 20 at big team sports than 1 or 2 kids on a court. Courts demand more space per participant.
But — it’s a common thing to do to keep in shape here in Massachusetts. Lots of towns have town courts.
My husband and his friends play sometimes before they go fishing or play poker.
Clay courts don’t hold up well year-round in many parts of the US. I’ve only played on clay when I’m traveling and someone asks me to play. It’s usually in a climate that’s more constant throughout the year. In Kansas, we play year round in a combo of indoor and outdoor facilities.
Myself and most of my friends are pretty into sports, I don’t think any of them are watching tennis. I don’t think I’ve had a single casual conversation about it. I could not tell you who the world number one is right now.
We are a very large country with a very large population, so it would be easy to say that 30 million people are into something, but that still leaves out 90% of the population.
Probably depends on your area, culture, and social status. I think it’s a pretty big thing with the country club crowd. However, in the circles I’ve been a part of (ranging from lower middle class to upper middle class) its not super popular. It’s also definitely more popular in the northeast and California.
There are a lot of tennis courts in my city and they are frequently in use. I know there are also leagues that are popular, but I think the majority of players just play casually. I never see clay courts, just hard courts.
As a spectator sport, I don’t think it’s nearly as big as it used to be in the 1970’s and 1980’s. Then again you could say the same about almost all sports in the US outside of football.
People still do play it though and tennis courts are everywhere in the US (although I see more and more used for pickle ball lately). As for clay courts, there are virtually none. I would guess that more than 90% of the recreational courts in the USA are hard courts.
Clay courts aren’t a particularly huge thing in the U.S. The ones that exist tend to be [green clay](https://hartru.com/products/har-tru-green-clay?variant=29102288329) as opposed to red.
As far as popularity, it’s definitely waning. The Williams sisters, particularly Serena, were big draws for American media. Since their careers are effectively at an end, so too is the media coverage. Same with the near-retirement status of Roger Federer and Rafael Nadal. The biggest tennis stories in the U.S. this past year have not been about the sport itself but about other issues related to it: Novak Djokovic’s anti-vax stance and Naomi Osaka’s mental health hiatuses.