Tennis Participation In U.S. Grows For Sixth Consecutive Year

InnovationHealthcareTennis Participation In U.S. Grows For Sixth Consecutive YearByBruce Y. Lee,Senior Contributor.Forbes contributors publish independent expert analyses and insights. Bruce Y. Lee, M.D., MBA, covers health, medicine, wellness and scienceFollow AuthorApr 26, 2026, 08:22pm EDT--:-- / --:--This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.This voice experience is generated by AI. Learn more.Patrick McEnroe (R), seen here commenting for the TV broadcast of the 2025 US Open Tennis Championships with brother John McEnroe, recently spoke to me about the continuing increase in tennis participation in the U.S. (Photo by Jean Catuffe/GC Images)GC ImagesWhat goes up, like a tennis ball, must come down, right? Well, that hasn’t really applied to tennis participation, though. At least, not yet since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. For the sixth consecutive year, the number of tennis player in the U.S. has grown, according to the recently-released 2026 U.S. Tennis Participation Report, sort of like Carlos Alcaraz’s hair each day of the 2025 U.S. Open after he had shaved his head. Last year, 2025, U.S. tennis participation bounced up further by 1.6 million players to 27.3 million Americans. That’s around a six percent increase if you don’t have an abacus or enough fingers handy to count and calculate. Patrick McEnroe, former professional tennis player and captain of the U.S. Davis Cup team and current tennis broadcaster and co-director of the John McEnroe Tennis Academy, called this “a boom for tennis the last five years.” He told me about how the JMTA courts on Randall’s Island in New York City “went from 20 to 29 courts and from four to eight every day, every court is packed with four to five kids per courts. So, not only are adults playing, but we’ve been able to attract a lot more kids and keep them in it.” Since 2019 U.S. Tennis Participation Has Grown By 54 PercentYeah, tennis has been making quite a racket throughout the 2020s. It began with nature...