The Problem With Pro Tennis
It's difficult to avoid the 'broken record' syndrome when criticizing professional tennis. So why don't I begin with a victory, at least in my eyes.
One of the long held criticisms of pro tennis was its lack of integration with the American college system. That is not only over, the success of players who have attended college proves that all we needed was a system that was fair. And it helps highlight what is special about tennis, that we produce athletes that can not only succeed in college, they can succeed period.
It was once probably taboo for tennis fans to even know that a player went to college. But that snobbery should never have existed. Connors (UCLA) and McEnroe (Stanford) were "one and done" decades before Mike Krzyzewski used the term. But all the pieces seem to be there for the tour to promote more than just the top ranked players. Tennis has players coming from big colleges, some with NIL, so people should stop thinking that these athletes come out of nowhere.
Jannick Sinner's switch from being a competitive skier, his incredible rise up the rankings and his dominance seem to dent any notion that these guys don't come out of thin air. He's only been winning Grand Slams since 2024. But I challenge anyone reading this to quickly conjure who won the Superbowl in 2024 ? It was an overtime thriller, but I had to Google it. This despite the NFL being shoved down our throats daily. A lot more has occurred in tennis since 2024 besides Jannick. For tennis to survive, I think we have to ensure that fans are getting more information, and caring about it. The only way NFL fans forget the recent past, is that they are overloaded year round by a league that has (for now) a 17 game schedule that is only a tiny part international. Look at the tennis footprint and tell me that people should not know that Authur Rinderknech went to Texas A&M and Rafael Jodar went to Virginia.
Ok, college tennis connects to the other positive changes to the tour. The Futures and Challenger tours have been strengthened and their venues continue to amaze anyone attending these events worldwide. Whether you're in Europe or the states or Canada, you have Challenger events happening in your backyard. So regular baseball, football, basketball and hockey fans that are used to following their favorite athletes for years and years, can get a glimpse of tomorrow from following college tennis, Futures and Challengers. More than ever before, players from these settings are making it to primetime rather quickly.
But the coverage, and the money, is still too wrapped up in the stars, whether from today or yesterday. No American has won a Grand Slam singles title since Roddick, but that doesn't excuse every American top ten player since then having the ability to anonymously go bar hopping in any city in America. And in Europe, Challengers are played at some of the nicest places on earth, let alone the ATP tour. The history of the world is on stage every week on the pro tennis tour. And in fact these sub tours don't stop for the slams, don't even stop when the tour takes a break.
I don't accept that people would never care about a tournament in Istanbul, or the fact that Stefan Koslov is still battling on the Challenger tour (I think). People are so up in the business of college football players, college basketball players and America has pro lacrosse and soccer leagues. I turned on the TV yesterday and saw women's soccer on two channels, women's softball on two channels and auto racing on two channels. With Tennis.com turning into a scoreboard and gambling sponsors everywhere, I am convinced that no one is even trying to compete with all this. Tennis and tennis players are way more interesting, maybe we need more than the freelancing guy from 60 Minutes covering it.
You would think that gambling interests would want to create a larger tennis interest group. Instead, they have had success just usurping the powers that be and have been happy with that. To a certain extent you see that effect in other sports too. It's often unwatchable. If it's not gambling ads, it's questionable calls. How much do they go together ? But even the large sporting goods companies don't seem willing to do much aside from letting tennis kinduv slide into irrelevance when it comes to name brands. Good luck finding both Jannick Sinner's and Novak Djokovic's kits for sale anywhere. It's no wonder they can both skip the Canadian Open (Montreal Masters 1000) two years in a row, it doesn't affect them whatsoever. Their sponsors could care less. That's a problem.
The gambling on tennis in Europe is immense and intense. There are scandals constantly. Those warnings don't seem to be heeded in America, where the Trump family has brought us the polymarket. Nonetheless, legal gambling on tennis in Europe is as big as illegal gambling on football used to be in America. People in America now gamble on their phones, they don't queue outside a window. So getting in between even the gambler and their easy access to matches and scores, to provide them normal lifestyle information on tennis, is almost impossible. So here's an idea, why not ignore all this ? There will always be more people who don't gamble, and there is always a social price for gambling. So why not ignore gambling the way most of us casually ignore lots of controversial sponsors like the Saudi Public Investment Fund, BNP Paribas, Emirates, etc...
Ok, here we go. I am really tired of the things that tax dollars go to promote. It is high time that something good, something healthy, something that kids and families can share with professionals, gets shoved down our throats. The illiterate law breakers of the main pro leagues are mostly an embarrassment. The way in which leagues and owners and unions play lowest common denominator instead of producing a legitimate product is astonishing. The inmates run those asylums, pardon my French. America should see an uptick in cooperation between tourism interests and tournaments. And the places that already have a successful tournament need two of them. The freaking stupid US Open should go broke one month after the tournament every year once they give away every cent of profit to build tennis courts in America. And every clothing company in the world needs to be aware that almost all fashion comes from tennis.
Buddy Guy sings, "I got the blues, from my head down to my shoes." I would hire him to sing, "I got the blues, from my alligator shirt down to my tennis shoes." But we could fit a hat in there somewhere too for sure. Everyone in the world walking around in a polo shirt and some sneakers is showing off tennis roots. And with the advent of pickleball, we even have tennis for peasants and the unathletic. Tennis runs the world. We need to start acting like it. It is certainly a lot easier for tennis to be cultural than football, a sport that some say is going extinct.
Greg Gunther
Spring Hill College Tennis
USPTA / PTR / USTA TD
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