Serena Williams arrives at the ESPY awards, July 11, 2024, at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles.Damian Dovarganes/The Associated Press
About 10 minutes into the movie Challengers, Zendaya’s character’s daughter pokes her head into a room and asks about watching something on TV together.
“Of course we can. We’re just talking about tennis right now,” comes the mom’s response. To which the child replies: “But you’re always talking about tennis.”
Sure seems that way in the broader world of pop culture right now as the U.S. Open arrives to wrap up the Grand Slam season. Tennis is having a moment even before play begins at Flushing Meadows on Monday – from the Zendaya vehicle’s use of the sport as a backdrop for its three-person love story, to the way Roland Garros serves as a setting in Season 4, Episode 1 of Emily in Paris, to recently released docuseries about Serena Williams and Roger Federer and an upcoming show about Carlos Alcaraz, to Williams’ turn as host of the ESPYs, to the roles played by Coco Gauff, Rafael Nadal, Amélie Mauresmo and Williams in the opening ceremony for the Paris Olympics.
And so on.
“Tennis is very deeply intertwined in the culture and the zeitgeist now. And it’s great to see,” said Jill Smoller, the long-time agent for Williams. “With all the movies and TV, the continued crossover between sports and fashion – in almost every sector, you’re seeing some athlete, somewhere, being represented.”
The sport is emerging from a golden era on the court, with Williams claiming a women’s-record 23 Grand Slam singles titles before walking away in 2022, Novak Djokovic up to 24 and still going, Nadal at 22 and Federer, who announced his retirement two years ago, at 20.
Now there is a new group of young stars. There’s the No. 1-ranked woman, Iga Swiatek, who already owns five major championships at age 23. Alcaraz has four, including the past two at the French Open and Wimbledon, and he’s 21. Gauff, whose first Slam trophy came at Flushing Meadows a year ago, is 20.
It’s off the court, though, where the spotlight is brightest these days.
“It’s growing,” said Taylor Fritz, a 26-year-old Californian who is ranked No. 12, the highest spot for a U.S. man. “With all the things going on in the entertainment space with tennis, I can’t see how it’s not bringing more attention and eyes to the sport. So that’s great. I want more than anything to see tennis be more recognized and popular in the U.S. Because outside the U.S., it seems like it’s always more popular.”
That’s why Saudi Arabia’s Private Investment Fund is pouring millions into tennis, sponsoring the women’s and men’s tours’ rankings; the kingdom also is now the site of the season-ending WTA Finals in Riyadh and the ATP’s Next Gen Finals for top 21-and-under players in Jeddah. Why the WTA and ATP announced Thursday that they’re releasing a new video game called TIEBREAK. Why the for-profit arm of the Professional Tennis Players Association just struck a deal on behalf of more than 200 players to sell Topps trading cards.
The ATP said this week its sponsorship revenues grew by 50 per cent from 2023 to 2024. The WTA’s social-media channels increased their follower count by nearly 25 per cent to almost 6 million from May, 2023, to May, 2024, and its social video views more than tripled to 66.5 million over the same period.
“Tennis, or sports in general, is the last, best reality show. People are clamouring for unscripted shows – and even the unscripted shows seem scripted sometimes, whereas tennis doesn’t. It can tug at the heartstrings. There are villains; there are heroes,” said James Blake, a former player who reached No. 4 in the rankings and now is the tournament director of the Miami Open.
“Tennis leaves it all out there. You don’t have a team to console you. You don’t have 10 other guys with you in the huddle,” Blake said. “It’s you out there, alone, showing all of your emotions. So people are relating to that.”
Netflix attempted to capitalize via Break Point, but the series never quite resonated and was cancelled after just two seasons.
Still, that streaming service is counting on tennis to generate interest in other ways, whether through live coverage of an exhibition match in Las Vegas between Nadal and Alcaraz in March, or by having its cameras follow Alcaraz around this season for a future series.
“It’s cool that tennis is becoming more worldwide,” said Marta Kostyuk, a 22-year-old from Ukraine who is ranked in the top 20, “and presented to people, in a way, as a ‘normal’ sport. I think people used to see it as too distant.”