While the coronavirus pandemic wreaked havoc with most team sports in 2020, at least one recreational sport saw a significant uptick in participation.
The United States Tennis Association reported a 22 percent increase in participation last year. Roughly 21.64 million people said they played tennis in 2020, according to data released last week from the Physical Activity Council’s participation report on more than 120 sports and activities nationwide.
Nearly 3 million new players picked up a racquet last year, an increase of 44 percent over 2019. The 3.82 million Americans who returned to tennis marked a 40 percent increase over players who returned in 2019. Also, the Tennis Industry Association reported a 40 percent increase in racquet sales in the entry-level category.
“This is one of the sports that everyone said could benefit from the shutdown,” said Kendal Hammel, head pro at Tipton Lakes Athletic Club and head boys and girls tennis coach at Columbus North High School. “It’s one of the safer sports to go out and hit the ball around.”
While the national numbers have soared, Columbus has seen a more modest gain. Mike Burt, director of tennis for Columbus Parks and Recreation and director of racquet sports at TLAC, said the club saw about a 5 percent increase in tennis revenue last year.
Burt said TLAC had about 200 kids in its junior program, a slight increase over 2019.
“They’re trying to be safe,” Burt said. “We have new people, but the people who are trying to stay safe haven’t showed up. We are starting to get more now. But it’s more in juniors and kids vs. adults.”
Hammel thinks the pandemic may have caused a couple of players from his high school boys team to skip the season in the fall.
“I know we have lost some people because of the COVID stuff, and we’ve even handful of kids that have not been playing tennis at all either,” Hammel said. “I had a handful of players on the boys tennis team last fall that did not play until the season started, and I’m seeing the exact same thing with the girls.”
Hammel did say he saw an increase in players coming in from out of town. Most of those came from Bloomington when the Indiana University facility was shut down for a period last year.
“We’ve had some new people, and we’ve seen more people from outside of Columbus,” Hammel said. “Our clinics have grown. But to say that we’ve seen a lot of new people come out, I would say I haven’t noticed. That doesn’t mean it hasn’t happened with people playing outside vs. coming to the club.”
Last year’s city tournament was canceled. Although they were delayed by two weeks, the city did run tennis lessons last summer at Donner Park and TLAC for all age divisions except 4- and 5-year-olds.
Last summer, instructors put a maximum of four people on a court at one time. Now, they are allowing six per court, which are 78 feet by 36 feet in size.
“I believe that definitely if you can play outside, and with the spacing and the number of square feet that our building is, that is safe, as well,” Burt said. “If you’re at baseline to baseline, you’re 78 feet apart.”
Burt said that while the numbers at the club and in the clinics may not have shown large increases, it doesn’t mean people weren’t playing recreationally. Along with golf, tennis is one of the most popular sports where players can maintain ideal social distancing.
“I’d never seen so many people playing out on the courts at Donner and Lincoln (Park),” Burt said. “It wasn’t supervised play. It was more public. That’s why it’s a nice sport — it’s for all ages, and you don’t need a lot of people to play. You only need one other person.”
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