From Elite to Street: How the USTA Is Making Tennis More Accessible

It’s hard to see yourself in the culture of a sport if you’re observing it from behind a fence. Tennis knows it has an image problem in the United States: that it’s viewed as a cloistered refuge of the wealthy. Its largest domestic event, the U.S. Open, counts American Express, JPMorgan Chase, Emirates Airlines, Rolex, Mercedes-Benz and Ralph Lauren’s Polo brand among its sponsors. It’s elitist by association, if not by nature. The United States Tennis Association (USTA) and its charitable arm, the USTA Foundation, have acknowledged this perceived pretension. Inclusion and representation require active participation, which means tennis—with the help of its more populist marketing partners—has to take its case to the streets. In mid-August, just before the U.S. Open, the USTA launched the “Let’s Tennis” campaign directing players to their nearest public court, promoting tennis programs within communities and touting the sport's health benefits. Developed with agency partner Yard NYC, “Let’s Tennis”—coupled with the U.S. Open’s “Be Open” social justice campaign—aims to make all of tennis as diverse as the players on the USTA grounds in Queens. “It's great that you actually experience [tennis]—the look and feel of it in Queens, and it being diverse—but I think some folks that are not in the sport have that country-club perception,” said Nicole Kankam, the USTA’s managing director of pro tennis marketing. This Year’s U.S. Open Puts Social Justice Courtside Setting the foundation That’s the perception (and culture) that National Junior Tennis and Learning (NJTL) centers have been changing for more than 50 years. Co-founded by Grand Slam champion and U.S. Open stadium namesake Arthur Ashe in 1969, the in-school and after-school program helped bring tennis into public parks and school gymnasiums. It also produced players including Venus and Serena Williams (who attended an NJTL in Compton, California), former Top 5 player James Blake (from Harlem) and current world No. 50 Frances Tiafoe (Maryland). The USTA Foundation, which runs more than 250 NJTL chapters serving upwards of 160,000 kids, launched its Rally for the Future fundraising campaign earlier this year. The organization wants to raise $20 million for NJTL chapters over the next three years and has gotten support from a somewhat less lofty sponsor than the U.S. Open typically draws: sandwich chain Jersey Mike’s. USTA Foundation executive director Dan Faber met Jersey Mike’s founder Peter Cancro at the U.S. Open Opening Night Gala in 2019, and Cancro has pledged “significant” resources to the organization. This year, Jersey Mike’s is donating 20% of all its Sept. 4 sales to the foundation, with hopes of raising $2 million. It’s also enlisted foundation chairman and 18-time Grand Slam winner Chris Evert as the face of its ad campaign. “We are very important components of the [diversity and inclusion] initiatives of the USTA and the sport of tennis, and USTA continues to help tell those stories that will not only impact the foundation but the sport of tennis overall,” Faber said. “It's 100% our mission, and trying to find stories and help tell those stories is the most simple thing we can do right now so that everybody can see themselves in the game.” Amex is Upping its Technology Game to Turn Heads at the U.S. Open Investing in diversity Both the USTA and its foundation have helped keep NJTL chapters afloat during the pandemic with the “Rally to Rebuild” campaign raising $6.5 million to provide both tennis programs and academic services between shutdowns. It’s the kind of “deep-dive investment in communities of color” that can change the face of tennis for generations, according to Ketra Armstrong, sports management professor and director of the Center for Race & Ethnicity in Sport at the University of Michigan. “I really like that they're trying to engage with the community, getting in on the ground level where the people that they need to speak to reside,” Armstrong said. “They're trying to become more touchable to the community, particularly those communities who don't see themselves at the U.S. Open.” That investment has helped bring more people to tennis overall. According to a report issued by the Physical Activities Council, a sports industry group that includes the USTA as a member, tennis participation increased 22% in 2021. Of the nearly 7 million new players, 3 million were first-time players, up 44% from 2019. Making that group less elite, however, will require more of the USTA’s time and resources. Its own USTA Serves foundation pointed out in 2013 that tennis participants in the U.S. are still 77% white, 14% Latino and 9% Black. Considering that the U.S. population is roughly 60% white, 18.5% Latino and more than 13% Black, there’s still an issue of representation. Meanwhile, as Yahoo! found in 2020, tennis participation among people of color drops beyond NJTL programs once parents have to pay between $14,000 and $20,000 a year for lessons, tournament fees and equipment. The USTA has whittled away at travel costs by changing its ranking system this year after losing 5,000 players from its events in 2018 alone. Players no longer have to fly to big tournaments in specific locations to chase ranking points, but equipment and lessons still make up more than half of tennis’ cost of entry. If tennis wants to be less of an elite country club, tennis and its sponsors may have to push a little harder to open the gates. “On paper, they're saying the things that I think could inspire social change, but it has to be sustained,” Armstrong said. “That's always the tricky part: It feels good and sounds good right now, but are they really committed to the long haul?” Serena Williams Becomes Wonder Woman in DirecTV Stream’s Fun Mashup Ad