Tennis Participation Surges Amid Racket Sports Boom

The rise of pickleball and padel might be a boon for tennis, too. A new USTA report found participation at record highs, with millions more ready to hit the court

Tennis may have taken a backseat in recent years to the rise of pickleball and padel’s growing hold on the U.S., but new data shows the racket sport classic is anything but fading. To the contrary, it’s growing. 

The sport added another 1.6 million players in 2025, pushing U.S. participation to a record 27.3 million, according to the 2026 U.S. Tennis Participation Report from the U.S. Tennis Association.

That’s roughly 1 in every 12 Americans ages 6 and up and a 54% increase from 2019, 17.7 million played, according to the association.

The report also surfaces findings that shed light on who’s playing tennis and why.

Millennials Take the Court

Adults 35 and up drove nearly 95% of the sport’s 2025 growth, totaling 1.5 million new players and setting record highs across all established adult segments. The 35-44 cohort grew 13% year over year, adding 488,000 players, while the 65+ group grew 14%, adding 299,000. 

Female participation also climbed 10%, contributing another 1.1 million players. Youth participation, which still trails 2021 peaks, added 200,000 players in 2025, which the USTA sees as a sign of momentum.

The report points to several drivers behind the interest in tennis, including the sport’s health, wellness and social benefits.

Brands are taking note. Oura just inked a five-year deal with USTA, making the smart ring maker the organization’s first-ever wearable partner across the US Open, USTA Coaching and USTA League. USTA is also eyeing a goal of 35 million American players by 2035, leaning into tennis as a longevity play, citing research that tennis players live an average of 9.7 years longer than sedentary peers.

Thorne also recently signed its own multi-year deal as the Miami Open’s exclusive vitamins and supplements partner.

Geography of Growth

Notably, the fastest-growing tennis-loving areas over the past five years appear to correlate with the same markets where boutique fitness, longevity clinics and wellness real estate have taken hold. 

Pacific Northwest leads the report’s section rankings with a 9.8% five-year compound annual growth rate, followed by Northern California (+9.2%), New England and Texas (both +7.5%) and New York, northern New Jersey and parts of Connecticut (+7.2%).

Online search interest also popped in specific areas. New York jumped from eighth ranking spot in 2020 to fourth in 2025 for tennis-related searches, and the Bay Area climbed from 13th to sixth over the same period, per Google Trends data cited in the report. 

Perhaps unsurprisingly, warm-weather cities still top tennis-related search volume. Palm Springs ranked first and West Palm Beach-Fort Pierce second, the same positions they held in 2020.

Room To Grow

For all the growth tennis has seen, the report notes an opportunity pool of 25.4 million “very interested” non-players in 2025. 

The Southern region, which covers nine states from Tennessee to the Carolinas, saw the largest year-over-year jump in interested prospects, adding 742,000 (+20%). Texas (+479,000, +21%) and the Midwest (+450,000, +16%) followed.

Nearly 40% of tennis players use public parks as their primary venue, while 13% play at recreation centers and 11% at private tennis clubs.

And it’s not just on court where there is interest, according to the Tennis Channel. The network reported its highest-ever audience at the BNP Paribas Open in March, with viewership up 39% year over year and Tennis Channel Live up 57%.

Pickleball, Padel & Beyond

Of course, tennis isn’t the only racket sport pulling players. Pickleball reached 24.3 million participants in 2025, up from 4.2 million in 2020, while padel logged 1.1 million in its first year of segmented reporting. Table tennis held steady at 15.9 million, and badminton ticked up to 6.8 million.

Tennis legends are investing in the broader racket sports boom, too. Andre Agassi, Kim Clijsters and Sloane Stephens are among the celebrity investors backing Ballers, a hospitality-driven social sports venue with locations in Philadelphia and a new Boston Seaport location with three outdoor padel courts and five pickleball courts. There is also a chef-driven food truck, areas for private events, community programming, fitness classes, clinics and social leagues. The concept is headed to Los Angeles and Chicago next.

Still, tennis leads on volume and intensity. Total play occasions hit 616 million in 2025, a 7% increase, with core players (10+ sessions a year) reaching a record 14.5 million, or 53% of all participants. Core players now account for 93% of all play occasions, according to the report.