I'm curious as to why this piece barely mentions female players. Tennis has historically been one of the most equal sports in terms of pay, fame, and sponsorship opportunities for women, but over the past five years or so that trend has been reversing. WTA tournaments now offer significantly less prize money than they did even a decade ago compared to ATP prize money (apart from slams of course). I'd say female players are not respected like they used to be, being shunted to lesser courts at suboptimal times in favor of the men and not being promoted or sponsored at previous rates. I agree with much of what you're saying about the ATP's advertising strategies and how that would bring more female fans into the fold, but I also think you could attract more female fans by elevating the women who play the sport too.
I totally agree with this concern! Part of it is that I'm just less familiar with the WTA and didn't feel like I could do it justice in the same way--and I never want to speak about something I'm not totally comfortable on. You're spot on: the elevation of female athletes will certainly appeal to women. However, I do think the social media strategy of the WTA can be quite lacking at times, especially with how hard finding highlights and information can be.
You raise a very compelling point. I actually have a piece planned about the gender politics involved playing tennis planned, especially examining the prize money issue. It's a pretty intensive piece so it might be a bit, but I feel you'll probably gel with it more than this.
I've been thinking about this piece the past few days and my own journey through fandom. I've been in/out of fandom since 2001. 2001! Back when my home was over in Livejournal. Reddit wasn't a thing. Menstennisforums were just A Lot - I assume they still are, I haven't looked. And ... fandom is still doing fandom things. The fem dominated space is still putting a lot of work that makes it a fun and welcoming space. The fan gifts, those were so much to collaborate and contribute to back in the day! I saw a tweet of getting getting something together for Andrey and it made me smile/remember/cringe when I sent in something for Carlos Moya eons ago. The photo sets, gifs, videos. All of the fan accounts that keeps everyone up to date on tournament results and when/where/how to watch the next match because tennis is awful at letting their fans know what is coming up next. All of that takes real work that needs to be acknowledged.
I haven't been active in fandom the entire time - LJ died its natural death in the late-ish 00s, life happened, and as noted, tennis is just awful at having a central hub of information. ATP is here, WTA is there, if your player falls out of the top 50/100, good luck at finding their next tournament, or at least back then. There wasn't an entrylist bot to keep you up to date. You need that engagement to keep the fun. It loses that special something when you are just by yourself, watching the scoreboard highlight, and go, 'welp' when your fav loses or freak out when an upset happens.
I think I fell back into fandom when, on a whim, I searched for something on youtube and found a tennis commentating stream back in 2019 and I was back. That seems like eons ago now. I've only now begrudgingly joined twitter.
I have kids now, they're 10 and 5. This summer was the first time I've attended any sort of professional event. They've always been too far away. We've knocked out two - an ATP 250 and a WTA 125. The WTA event was their favorite - it was girls, like them, and because of the fashion. It wasn't fancy, we were on bleachers sitting in the sun for two days. The day they were with me at the ATP event we had covered box seats. But they still liked the WTA more. It was a free for all on where you sat, so they planned on where to sit so they could get players signatures after the matches.
Something that both tours really struggle to market is doubles. They liked the singles but the doubles matches - my girls were captivated the entire time. There are so many potential storylines for doubles and both tours just waste that entire side.
The "bad" side of this is that they've now decided that tennis on tv is boring and that live tennis is the ideal way to watch. I've had to break it to them that tennis is only in our area for those two tournaments and that is it for the year. One of the smart things with the ATP 250 is that it included admission to the Tennis Hall of Fame museum, and we watched the hologram of Roger. Afterwards, I had to explain to them who Roger was and one of the volunteers looked a bit horrified at the idea of there are now kids that who don't know who Roger is, because he really isn't in their active playing memory. My kids know Rafa because they picked out his racquets to learn with - they're colorful and have purple on them. I had to explain that Nadal wasn't a brand of racquet but maybe I should have let that go on for a bit longer.
I wonder what the future of fandom will be when I think of them and how excited they are about tennis. My oldest already "ended" a friendship with a kid at school over the kid yelling about how "tennis isn't a real sport". They're 10!
At the 250, most I went to the finals by myself and I had a seat next to two college boys who were excited. They quickly picked up on that I had been Around For A While and started asking questions. It wasn't in a Are You A Real Fan, but in a "Please share, why is he doing this, what if he did this, what do you think about the new coaching policy, etc." which made my heart happy.
I'm just in a pensive and reflective mood. I'm headed to NYC in a few hours for my first US Open and it still is seems like a dream, that it can't be happening. I remember my tennis coach assigning us 'homework' of watching Serena vs Venus in 2001. It was something that coming back into fandom and the GOATS were still there, because of course they were still there. They were tennis. But now THE GOAT of them all is swinging for the last time and all we can do is watch with bated breath.
It's more of a systemic issue, although I agree entirely. This has to change, from under the bright court lights to the dim screens of tennis twitter users. The WTA players should be paid more than the ATP players. There is no reason not to. Both sell out. Women love sports. Women are forced out of sports. Give them a sport to turn to. Tennis can be the newest women's sport, even if it is traditionally male. They deserve opportunities and their opinions are valuable. I loved this article, and I'm really hopeful that tennis can become a more friendly environment, even in the harshest of online debates.
Couldn't the argument be made that fandom in even the most macho of sports, say, American football, is also based almost entirely on emotion? After all, it makes no rational sense at all to be a fan of one's hometown team, nor of any other, for that matter. In the case of hometown teams, almost none of the players are actually from that hometown; nearly 100% of them would leave immediately if offered more money to play elsewhere. They're mercenaries, and they're expected to be so. Teams no longer have stable identities or playing styles. They almost all change coaches and therefore philosophies constantly, so there's virtually no reason in that respect to favor one team over another for more than a few years at most. Rather, team allegiances are highly irrational, usually based on a mythical imaginary past, and often in opposition to one or another rival team. In other words, it doesn't seem at all dissimilar to jingoism or first world nationalisms.
In tennis, the homogenization of playing surface speeds, poly strings, and training methods has led to a homogenization of playing styles, so that almost everyone on both tours is somewhere between a defensive and an aggressive baseliner. It seems that "rational" or "substantive" reasons for allegiance to any particular player are diminishing, at least when compared to previous generations when there were clear and irreducible differences between, say, Borg and McEnroe, or between Navratilova and Evert. In this context, when someone like Ash Barty or Ons Jabeur appears, even though they're hardly the second coming of Goolagong or even Radwanska, they're like a breath of fresh air, if only because a slightly higher percentage of their backhands are one handed slices and a slightly higher percentage of their points are won by placement without overwhelming power.
If that's all the case, then might it be that a complementary way to increase tennis fandom is to increase the incidences of difference in playing styles and tactics by reversing the homogenization of playing surface speeds and encouraging the development once again of surface-specific specialists. To take it all a step further, it might also be fruitful to divide the tour into geographic regions, where different climactic conditions, traditions, etc., would tend to favor one court surface over another. In the wetter regions, perhaps clay. In temperate ones, more grass. In dry ones, hard courts. In very cold regions, indoor. Fans would actually get to know the players from their regions personally, instead of having to watch pixels of them as they globetrot across the planet, spewing carbon in their wake. The slams and the international competitions would be the only global events, and each slam should be played on a different surface. True, under this scenario, nobody would ever be good enough on all surfaces to come close to challenging the 20, 23, or 30 slams that the big 3, Serena, and Graf have, but then again, it would create more opportunities for emotional attachments (only this time, maybe without necessitating appeals to a mythical and nostalgic past) and just might help address some of the issues you so compellingly raise.
I'm curious as to why this piece barely mentions female players. Tennis has historically been one of the most equal sports in terms of pay, fame, and sponsorship opportunities for women, but over the past five years or so that trend has been reversing. WTA tournaments now offer significantly less prize money than they did even a decade ago compared to ATP prize money (apart from slams of course). I'd say female players are not respected like they used to be, being shunted to lesser courts at suboptimal times in favor of the men and not being promoted or sponsored at previous rates. I agree with much of what you're saying about the ATP's advertising strategies and how that would bring more female fans into the fold, but I also think you could attract more female fans by elevating the women who play the sport too.
I totally agree with this concern! Part of it is that I'm just less familiar with the WTA and didn't feel like I could do it justice in the same way--and I never want to speak about something I'm not totally comfortable on. You're spot on: the elevation of female athletes will certainly appeal to women. However, I do think the social media strategy of the WTA can be quite lacking at times, especially with how hard finding highlights and information can be.
You raise a very compelling point. I actually have a piece planned about the gender politics involved playing tennis planned, especially examining the prize money issue. It's a pretty intensive piece so it might be a bit, but I feel you'll probably gel with it more than this.
Absolutely wonderful. Agreed with all of it. 👏🏽👏🏽
Fantastic article!! Keep it up!!
I've been thinking about this piece the past few days and my own journey through fandom. I've been in/out of fandom since 2001. 2001! Back when my home was over in Livejournal. Reddit wasn't a thing. Menstennisforums were just A Lot - I assume they still are, I haven't looked. And ... fandom is still doing fandom things. The fem dominated space is still putting a lot of work that makes it a fun and welcoming space. The fan gifts, those were so much to collaborate and contribute to back in the day! I saw a tweet of getting getting something together for Andrey and it made me smile/remember/cringe when I sent in something for Carlos Moya eons ago. The photo sets, gifs, videos. All of the fan accounts that keeps everyone up to date on tournament results and when/where/how to watch the next match because tennis is awful at letting their fans know what is coming up next. All of that takes real work that needs to be acknowledged.
I haven't been active in fandom the entire time - LJ died its natural death in the late-ish 00s, life happened, and as noted, tennis is just awful at having a central hub of information. ATP is here, WTA is there, if your player falls out of the top 50/100, good luck at finding their next tournament, or at least back then. There wasn't an entrylist bot to keep you up to date. You need that engagement to keep the fun. It loses that special something when you are just by yourself, watching the scoreboard highlight, and go, 'welp' when your fav loses or freak out when an upset happens.
I think I fell back into fandom when, on a whim, I searched for something on youtube and found a tennis commentating stream back in 2019 and I was back. That seems like eons ago now. I've only now begrudgingly joined twitter.
I have kids now, they're 10 and 5. This summer was the first time I've attended any sort of professional event. They've always been too far away. We've knocked out two - an ATP 250 and a WTA 125. The WTA event was their favorite - it was girls, like them, and because of the fashion. It wasn't fancy, we were on bleachers sitting in the sun for two days. The day they were with me at the ATP event we had covered box seats. But they still liked the WTA more. It was a free for all on where you sat, so they planned on where to sit so they could get players signatures after the matches.
Something that both tours really struggle to market is doubles. They liked the singles but the doubles matches - my girls were captivated the entire time. There are so many potential storylines for doubles and both tours just waste that entire side.
The "bad" side of this is that they've now decided that tennis on tv is boring and that live tennis is the ideal way to watch. I've had to break it to them that tennis is only in our area for those two tournaments and that is it for the year. One of the smart things with the ATP 250 is that it included admission to the Tennis Hall of Fame museum, and we watched the hologram of Roger. Afterwards, I had to explain to them who Roger was and one of the volunteers looked a bit horrified at the idea of there are now kids that who don't know who Roger is, because he really isn't in their active playing memory. My kids know Rafa because they picked out his racquets to learn with - they're colorful and have purple on them. I had to explain that Nadal wasn't a brand of racquet but maybe I should have let that go on for a bit longer.
I wonder what the future of fandom will be when I think of them and how excited they are about tennis. My oldest already "ended" a friendship with a kid at school over the kid yelling about how "tennis isn't a real sport". They're 10!
At the 250, most I went to the finals by myself and I had a seat next to two college boys who were excited. They quickly picked up on that I had been Around For A While and started asking questions. It wasn't in a Are You A Real Fan, but in a "Please share, why is he doing this, what if he did this, what do you think about the new coaching policy, etc." which made my heart happy.
I'm just in a pensive and reflective mood. I'm headed to NYC in a few hours for my first US Open and it still is seems like a dream, that it can't be happening. I remember my tennis coach assigning us 'homework' of watching Serena vs Venus in 2001. It was something that coming back into fandom and the GOATS were still there, because of course they were still there. They were tennis. But now THE GOAT of them all is swinging for the last time and all we can do is watch with bated breath.
It's more of a systemic issue, although I agree entirely. This has to change, from under the bright court lights to the dim screens of tennis twitter users. The WTA players should be paid more than the ATP players. There is no reason not to. Both sell out. Women love sports. Women are forced out of sports. Give them a sport to turn to. Tennis can be the newest women's sport, even if it is traditionally male. They deserve opportunities and their opinions are valuable. I loved this article, and I'm really hopeful that tennis can become a more friendly environment, even in the harshest of online debates.
Couldn't the argument be made that fandom in even the most macho of sports, say, American football, is also based almost entirely on emotion? After all, it makes no rational sense at all to be a fan of one's hometown team, nor of any other, for that matter. In the case of hometown teams, almost none of the players are actually from that hometown; nearly 100% of them would leave immediately if offered more money to play elsewhere. They're mercenaries, and they're expected to be so. Teams no longer have stable identities or playing styles. They almost all change coaches and therefore philosophies constantly, so there's virtually no reason in that respect to favor one team over another for more than a few years at most. Rather, team allegiances are highly irrational, usually based on a mythical imaginary past, and often in opposition to one or another rival team. In other words, it doesn't seem at all dissimilar to jingoism or first world nationalisms.
In tennis, the homogenization of playing surface speeds, poly strings, and training methods has led to a homogenization of playing styles, so that almost everyone on both tours is somewhere between a defensive and an aggressive baseliner. It seems that "rational" or "substantive" reasons for allegiance to any particular player are diminishing, at least when compared to previous generations when there were clear and irreducible differences between, say, Borg and McEnroe, or between Navratilova and Evert. In this context, when someone like Ash Barty or Ons Jabeur appears, even though they're hardly the second coming of Goolagong or even Radwanska, they're like a breath of fresh air, if only because a slightly higher percentage of their backhands are one handed slices and a slightly higher percentage of their points are won by placement without overwhelming power.
If that's all the case, then might it be that a complementary way to increase tennis fandom is to increase the incidences of difference in playing styles and tactics by reversing the homogenization of playing surface speeds and encouraging the development once again of surface-specific specialists. To take it all a step further, it might also be fruitful to divide the tour into geographic regions, where different climactic conditions, traditions, etc., would tend to favor one court surface over another. In the wetter regions, perhaps clay. In temperate ones, more grass. In dry ones, hard courts. In very cold regions, indoor. Fans would actually get to know the players from their regions personally, instead of having to watch pixels of them as they globetrot across the planet, spewing carbon in their wake. The slams and the international competitions would be the only global events, and each slam should be played on a different surface. True, under this scenario, nobody would ever be good enough on all surfaces to come close to challenging the 20, 23, or 30 slams that the big 3, Serena, and Graf have, but then again, it would create more opportunities for emotional attachments (only this time, maybe without necessitating appeals to a mythical and nostalgic past) and just might help address some of the issues you so compellingly raise.