The practice of tennis has increased by 25.6% in five years to reach 106 million players in 2024 according to a study carried out by the International Tennis Federation (ITF) and unveiled on Thursday.
“The ITF World Tennis Report revealed an increase of 21.6 million people playing tennis last year, compared to 84.4 million recorded in the same study in 2019 , before the global pandemic,” the ITF stressed in a press release.
“This is the first time that there have been so many players,” said the president of the international body, David Haggerty.
“This report confirms that we are a sport that is thriving, with millions of people around the world enjoying the benefits it brings,” he said.
To obtain this figure of 106 million players, the International Tennis Federation compiled the number of people who played tennis at least once in the past year in 199 countries.
Asia is the region in the world with the most tennis players (35.3 million) ahead of Europe (29.6 million) and North America (28.8 million). These three geographic areas bring together the majority of players, far ahead of South America (8.8 million), Oceania (1.8 million), Africa (892,000) and Central America and the Caribbean ( 665,000).
Among the reasons explaining this increase in the number of players, the ITF pointed to the role of tennis stars like Carlos Alcaraz, Naomi Osaka and Zheng Qinwen “who help inspire the next generation of players”.
The body also pointed to an increase in the popularity of tennis and the investments made to increase the number of infrastructures and coaches.
The figures in this report go against fears linked to emerging competition from padel and pickleball (another popular racket sport in the United States).
In July, Novak Djokovic estimated that “tennis is in danger. If we do nothing globally or collectively, padel and pickleball will replace tennis clubs.”
On the ITF side, we do not see these new disciplines as competition. “Some padel or pickleball players also play tennis,” said David Haggerty, seeing in these other racket sports more opportunities for people to stay active.
