Tennis on an Upswing in the Southwest

Scottsdale, AZ  – Tennis participation is on a serious upsurge according  to reports gleaned from research groups that chart sport activity in America, showing that tennis participation in the United States has reached a new high of 25.7 million players at year-end 2024. 

This uptick showcases five consecutive years of growth*, including an 8-percent increase from the previous year, and those results bear out what is happening in the Southwest part of the country as well.

Of the 25.7 million total tennis players in the country, approximately 660,000 (2.57 percent of the total US tennis-playing population) reside in the USTA Southwest areas of Arizona, New Mexico and El Paso, Texas County. Our region itself has seen an annual increase in tennis participation every year since 2019, and our USTA Southwest membership in the last two years has also hit record highs (going over 15,000 members).

These growth figures reveal tennis' overall appeal and strengthening position in a crowded and competitive U.S. sports landscape both in the Southwest and nationally. 

SOUTHWEST KEY FIGURES IN THE PARTICIPATION REPORT

• Total play: There were 15.5 million play occasions just in our region (Arizona, New Mexico, El Paso County in Texas) in the year 2024! That’s a lot of people making time for tennis! 
   

• Overall Participation: 6.8% of the population in our region (Arizona, New Mexico, El Paso, Texas) actually played tennis in 2024.
   

• Core Players: The number of core players (those playing 10+ times per year) in the Southwest Section increased by 12% year-over-year, totaling 370K in 2024, and now account for over 50% of the section’s tennis participants.
   

• Player Retention: The Southwest Section demonstrated the most significant improvement in player retention, with an 86% retention rate, surpassing both the section’s previous year (58%) and the national rate (79%). We were second only to the Hawaii region in this category, meaning Southwest products are performing well in the market, and liked by players enough to want to return. 
   

• Latent Demand: Latent demand in the Southwest Section increased by 17% in 2024, with 743K "very interested" prospects to the sport, marking the first growth in this pool since 2021. With the Southwest a hotbed for population growth nationally, there will be a need for new outreach to these populations, as well as new infrastructure built to satisfy this demand. 
   

Driving Factors: The Southwest Section excelled in retaining existing players, recovering lost players, and attracting new players to the sport. Our goal is to always attract more youth players and that is a key area of emphasis that will remain. 

Other significant national findings on tennis’ participation growth in the United States from the research study include:

• Retained and returning players are on the rise with a five percent increase in retention rates over 2023 reaching a five-year high, while those who returned to the game after a break of at least one year rose nine percent. First-time and returning players brought 6.3 million players to the game in 2024 and tennis lost the fewest number of players year over year since 2020. 
   

• Tennis is increasingly attracting a younger player base as players under 35 powered tennis' expansion in 2024, contributing nearly two thirds of all growth (+1.2 million players). The youth influence is especially clear among those under 25, who drove 45 percent of total gains. 
   

• The game is increasingly more diverse with 26 percent growth in Black / African American participation, representing a 662,000 player increase, and Hispanic players up 15.4 percent, to 4.54 million players over 2023. Senior players too are on the rise with a 17 percent increase in growth to 302K participants. These trends suggest tennis is strengthening its position as a cornerstone of community engagement and healthy lifestyle choices.
   

• Tennis reached a new milestone in engagement in 2024, with Core players (those playing 10+ times in the past 12 months) growing to a record 13 million, representing 50 percent of all participants. This expansion in committed players surpassed 2023 by 11 percent and signals deepening engagement across the sport. The rise in frequent players has helped drive total play occasions to 575 million, a nine percent increase over the previous year.
   

Also announced recently, the USTA will make $10 million in grants to courts and facilities across the country to ensure there are ample spaces to meet player demand, especially in underserved communities. Learn more about TENNIS VENUE SERVICES AND GRANTS HERE.

Court investments that refurbish, build and extend playable hours on courts is one of the three major strategic focus areas for the USTA in its growth strategy. Three facilities in the Southwest, (Albuquerque Academy Tennis Center and Jerry Cline Tennis Center - both in Albuquerque) and Thorpe Park in Flagstaff, Arizona, have been recent recipients of this early round of funding aimed at improving infrastructure across the country. 
 

“This report confirms what we know at the USTA: tennis popularity continues to grow and is a sport that is increasingly looking more like America than ever before,” said Lew Sherr, USTA CEO.

“Along with our section partners, our mission is to get more people on the court to inspire healthier people and communities everywhere and we are thrilled to see these numbers validate the work we do.  We will continue to do our part through an ambitious strategy to grow the game to 35 million players by 2035, a goal that is both actionable and achievable as we seek to bring the benefits of the world’s healthiest sport to more people across America.” 
 

The extraordinary growth in tennis last year comes as the USTA continues to execute against the goal to grow broad-based participation to 35 million players by 2035. The strategy includes a focus on innovating new programs and varied play formats; getting more directly involved with coaching to elevate, expand, and support tennis coaches at all levels; and ensuring court infrastructure meets player demand where they are. 
 

This ambition is in service of the USTA’s purpose-driven mission of growing tennis to inspire healthier people and communities everywhere.
 

ABOUT THE PARTICIPATION STUDY AND RESULTS

 *Tennis participation in the United States is measured through two complementary research studies:

• The Physical Activity Council (PAC) Study on Sports and Physical Activity, which has tracked tennis participation since 2007, draws from a nationally representative panel of over 1 million Americans and features responses from 18,000 people ages 6 and older. The study tracks participation across 122 separate sports, fitness and recreational activities, with strict quotas for gender, age, income, region, and ethnicity to ensure a balanced sample and is administered by Sports Marketing Surveys USA.
   

• The PLAY Study (formerly known as the Participation and Engagement Study), which has provided supplemental data through a partnership between the USTA and the National Golf Foundation (NGF) since 2021 surveys 18,000 individuals ages 6 and older annually.
   

About USTA Southwest

Founded in 1912, the United States Tennis Association Southwest (USTA SW) is one of the 17 sections of the USTA and the national governing body for tennis in Arizona, New Mexico and El Paso County in Texas. We are a volunteer-driven organization with a professional staff located in these areas. Our mission, "To promote and develop the growth of tennis to inspire healthier people and communities everywhere," guides us every day as we work to make tennis a driver for positive change.