Tennis Continues to Surge in Latest USTA Study

The USTA announced a bold mission in 2024 to increase the number of tennis players in the U.S. to 35 million by 2035. While it was met with some general skepticism, the USTA is showing doubters some early success just two years after the announcement.

According to the USTA, tennis participation has increased by 1.6 million in 2025 to eclipse a new high of 27.3 million total players. Since 2019 when the tennis resurgence began, tennis participation in the U.S. has grown by 54 percent, adding nearly 10 million players over six consecutive years of growth.

The independent study findings show the growth of tennis was driven by more play occasions, more players coming and staying in the sport, and strong momentum from play by women and communities of color. 

The following key metrics are from the USTA press release and show the strong performance across the different demographics.

• People are playing more often: "Core players," defined as individuals who played 10 or more times throughout the year, increased by 1.5 million to 14.5 million in 2025. This means that as overall participation has grown, so has the number of people that are regularly playing tennis, with more than half of all players (53 percent) considered "core players." This increase also helped drive the more than 616 million play occasions in 2025. 
• Women were significant drivers of growth: In 2025 1.1 million more women took to the court than in 2024, representing a 10-percent increase from 2024.
• Participation among people of color experienced significant gains: The number of Black/African Americans playing tennis increased by more than 450,000 (14 percent), Hispanic/Latino players were up more than 550,000 (12 percent) and Asian/Pacific Islander players grew by more than 260,000 (10 percent). All three of these groups represent greater percentage growth than the overall increase.
• More first-time players entered the sport: Tennis recorded an uptick in new players entering the sport, with 4.9 million picking up a racquet for the first time – up 9 percent year over year. 
• Player retention rates are up: Players also remained in the sport at a higher rate than in 2024, with 20.7 million players staying in the sport, up 10 percent (1.8 million additional players retained) in 2025. In addition, 1.7 million players returned to tennis after having been away from the sport for more than one year.
• Unprecedented intent to play: More than 25 million respondents that currently do not play tennis are very interested in playing the sport. This represents a strong subset of individuals that could shift to a playing population.

Check out the full report here.