{"id":162208,"date":"2025-06-14T10:20:25","date_gmt":"2025-06-14T14:20:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.fourseasons.com\/magazine\/?p=162208"},"modified":"2025-08-11T16:25:00","modified_gmt":"2025-08-11T20:25:00","slug":"tennis-everyone","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.fourseasons.com\/magazine\/culture-style\/tennis-everyone\/","title":{"rendered":"Tennis, Everyone?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Last year at my local community tennis courts in Brooklyn, the tennis fever seemed to hit a peak. The courts were packed from sunrise to the last drop of light. Even if it rained, the most committed found a way to dink some balls back and forth. Every tournament and league not only was full but also had an endlessly growing wait list. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cPeople can\u2019t stop thinking about tennis,\u201d a friend said, begrudging how hard it was to reserve a time to play amid all the new and renewed interest in the sport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Everyone on the local courts had their opinions about what was driving the tennis boom: the sport was portrayed as a font of wellness; the pros were getting more accessible on social media; pop culture was getting more obsessed with the tennis aesthetic; Zendaya and her boys in the film Challengers<\/em> seemed to propel the already engaged fashion brands to glom on to the sport like never before. \u201cTennis-core\u201d was all over TikTok; tennis players appeared in massive Louis Vuitton and Gucci campaigns and even on the cover of Vogue<\/em>. Serena Williams hosted the ESPYs. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Dior jacket, skirt, top, and shoes. Photograph by Matt Jones.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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The impact played out, literally, on the local courts. Alongside big growth in other racket sports like padel and pickleball, more than 24 million people are currently playing tennis in the United States and 106 million worldwide, and the numbers are only trending upward.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the center of this tennis pop-off are the pro events\u2014the most alluring moments for tennis fans new and old. True to form, every attendance record fell at last summer\u2019s U.S. Open. More than one million people passed through the Billie Jean King Tennis Center, many of them with Honey Deuce drinks in hand. That\u2019s more than 75,000 fans per day over the middle weekend. It seemed like the whole of New York City was awash in U.S. Open hats with the tennis ball swoosh, which had sold in record numbers as well. As a further sign of the love that the luxury world has for tennis, men\u2019s singles winner Jannik Sinner, a Gucci ambassador, carried a custom Head x Gucci duffel at the finals, while Aryna Sabalenka signed on as a new ambassador for Audemars Piguet after winning the women\u2019s title. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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The U.S. Tennis Association seized the moment and reached for superlatives. One slogan seemed everywhere, on the national morning shows and even painted on the courts: The World\u2019s Healthiest Sport.<\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Sitting in the stands of Arthur Ashe Stadium and Grandstand (the favourite stadium at the center for many die-hard fans), I overheard so many conversations of those who were new to tennis\u2014understanding the score, familiarizing themselves with the players, when to clap, when to yell. Tennis fans of old were mentoring the new inductees, telling them how wild the U.S. Open is compared to the other Grand Slams. \u201cOut here we play all night,\u201d someone said at 2 a.m.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Dior jacket, skirt, top, and shoes. Photograph by Matt Jones.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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The U.S. Tennis Association seized the moment and reached for superlatives. One slogan seemed everywhere, on the national morning shows and even painted on the courts: The World\u2019s Healthiest Sport.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It seems only fitting. A 2018 paper published in Mayo Clinic Proceedings<\/em> found that tennis players can live three to eight years longer than their counterparts who play other sports. The study, which went viral, observed 8,577 Danish residents ages 20 to 93 from 1991 to 2017. (The research team did not include some popular sports like basketball or baseball.) One other study, published in Frontiers in Psychology<\/em>, showed that tennis players gain greater health benefits than do players of other racket sports, like badminton, table tennis, and squash. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The findings didn\u2019t come as much of a surprise to those who know and love the game. Tennis is both aerobic and anaerobic\u2014perfect exercise for heart health. All the quick sprints, moving in multiple directions, rotational torque, and hand-eye coordination keep you sharp. You must think fast\u2014the ball is coming back\u2014and account for myriad variables at once. The short of it is, your blood flow, mind function, and heart are just better on tennis. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Norma Kamali dress, Sporty & Rich sweatshirt, Dior Shoes. Photograph by Matt Jones.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n
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Photograph by Matt Jones.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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And yet, the health benefits are not what the chatter is about at courts around the world. What\u2019s bringing people back and garnering so many newbies are the community and the belonging that come with the sport. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Anyone who\u2019s played at public or private courts can tell you there\u2019s a buzz to arriving at the venues day in and day out. There\u2019s always a mix of familiar and new faces. The game demands that you increase your community interaction. Something else all the studies raised: Social connection keeps loneliness at bay, which has a significant impact on longevity. If we stay social, we can stave off cognitive decline.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sure, all sports have a social element, but racket sports require that you get to know your opponents and partners on a deeper level than any other sport. In tennis, we find each other\u2019s strengths and weaknesses, and we also use downtime between games and sets to learn more. We\u2019re not just diving deep into the nuances of the game, which we do a lot, for sure; we\u2019re constantly growing our tennis networks and garnering a more intimate relationship with our own neighborhoods. Some coaches encourage players to keep a journal of everything they thought of during a tennis match. I\u2019d nudge people to go further and write down everything they learned about their hitting partners that day, tennis-related and otherwise. You probably learned where your partner or opponent lives, about their family and job, and, more importantly, how they feel about all those things. The breadth of sharing (and maybe oversharing) always surprises those who notice. Tennis players love to analyze, and we love to ask questions, which fosters connection. <\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n

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Norma Kamali bodysuit, Sporty & Rich skirt, Jimmy Fairly sunglasses, vintage sweatband. Photograph by Matt Jones.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n
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