2020 Tennis Surge: 31.1% in Southern
Tennis participation skyrocketed in 2020 and USTA Southern showed the greatest increase among the 17 USTA sections.
Last year, tennis participation jumped 31.1% in USTA Southern’s nine states, a higher percentage than any USTA section. A whopping 738,256 Southerners played in 2020 over 2019. Many of them are first-time players or others who played before but hadn’t picked up a racquet recently.
The data was compiled for the Physical Activity Council and prepared by Sports Marketing Surveys. Click here for a complete Southern report. For further information about the survey, click here.
Over the last five years (2015-2020), the section saw a growth of 3.9% in players.
USTA Southern was third among the sections in the percentage of players who are core players, defined as playing more then 10 times a year. USTA Florida and USTA Middle States had higher percentages.
Women make up 50.5% of the Southern players. Black players accounted for 20.3%, while Asian Pacific Islander were 8.9% and Hispanic/Latino were 3.3%.
Public parks were the most frequented location, representing 48.2% of play, followed by school/college at 15.6% and private clubs at 13%.
A total of 3,113,088 Southerners played the sport last year, 6.4% of the population age 6 and over.
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