27.3 Million Americans Play Tennis. Why Is Finding a Game Still So Hard?

27.3 Million Americans Play Tennis. Why Is Finding a Game Still So Hard?

Picture this. You’ve got a free Saturday morning, a fresh can of balls, and a strong urge to hit something. You open your phone and start texting. Your usual partner is out of town. The other friend you play with is “maybe.” The public courts down the road are full, and the nice ones are booked for three weeks.

By 10 a.m., you’ve done a lot of admin and zero tennis.

If that sounds familiar, you’re in very good company, because there’s never been a bigger crowd trying to do the same thing.

The Boom Is Real

The USTA reported that 27.3 million Americans played tennis in 2025, a gain of 1.6 million players and a new high. That’s 54 percent growth since 2019, with nearly 10 million players added over six straight years. floridatennisfloridatennis

The more interesting part is who’s playing. About 14.5 million people are “core players” who hit the court at least 10 times a year, and first-timers numbered 4.9 million. Another 1.7 million came back after more than a year away. That’s a lot of new players, a lot of regulars, and a lot of people dusting off an old racquet. floridatennisfloridatennis

The USTA’s stated goal is 35 million players by 2035. Getting there takes more than a good marketing campaign. It takes a sport that’s easy to actually play. floridatennis

The Gap Nobody Talks About

Picking up a racquet is the easy part. Playing regularly means lining up three things at once:

1. A person at roughly your level, who you’ll enjoy hitting with
2. A court that’s open, close, and in decent shape
3. A time that works for both of you

Miss any one and the whole plan falls apart. And all three have to match at the same moment, which is why people say they’d love to play more but only manage it a few times a month.

The partner problem. Many players are stuck with the same two or three hitting partners, or with no one. It’s not that other players don’t exist. You just can’t find them. Add the level problem: an advanced player stuck with a beginner (or the reverse) usually has a miserable hour, and both walk off the court less likely to come back. That’s why ratings like NTRP and UTR matter. Big Tennis has a plain-English guide to how tennis ratings and rankings work if you’re not sure where you fit.

And the best partner isn’t always the best player. A friendly rally with someone who shows up on time often beats a stronger hitter who cancels half the time. Big Tennis dug into that in The Best Tennis Partner Isn’t Always the Best Player.

The court problem. Courts haven’t multiplied as fast as players. Popular times fill up, and information is scattered across club websites, phone calls, and old directory pages that haven’t been updated in years. Half the battle is just knowing what’s within 15 minutes of your house.

The schedule problem. Even when you find a partner and a court, someone has to propose a time, someone has to confirm it, and someone usually cancels. A text thread that should take two messages drags on for two days.

Making the Match Easier

None of this is a mystery. The sport has grown fast, but the tools for connecting players, courts, and calendars haven’t kept up. That’s the gap two sister projects, TennisMatch.io and RunMyCourts, were built to close from both sides.

For Players: TennisMatch.io

TennisMatch.io is a search tool for the “where and with whom” part. It lists more than 58,000 tennis, pickleball, and padel facilities worldwide, so you can see what’s near you. From there you can browse players in your area, schedule a match, or look into leagues, ladders, and tournaments if you want some structure. You can also search courts and facilities before you head out.

The goal is simple: fewer texts, more tennis.

For Clubs and Court Owners: RunMyCourts

Players aren’t the only ones dealing with friction. Clubs, parks departments, and small facilities have the other half of the problem: a full schedule, a stack of cancellations, and people phoning the front desk to ask if there’s a court free.

RunMyCourts is club software built for that. Members can book courts from their phones, and when a slot is full they join a waitlist, so a cancellation turns into someone else’s game instead of an empty court. It handles bookings, members, dues, and card payments, and it works for tennis, pickleball, and padel. The Free plan covers court booking and waitlists with no time limit, so a small club can get started for $0.

Put the two together and you get a loop that works: players find courts, clubs fill them, and the sport has fewer reasons to lose people.

A Few Ways to Get More Tennis This Month

You don’t need an app to fix this, though it helps. Some habits that work:

• Set a standing time. “Thursdays at 7” survives longer than “let’s play sometime.”
• Build a bench. Keep four or five partners on your list, not one. Someone will always be free.
• Play your level. Matching ability makes every hour better. If you’re unsure where you land, check the rankings guide.
• Try something with structure. A ladder or league handles the scheduling nagging for you.
• Check the waitlist. If your local club has one, join it. Cancellations happen constantly.
• Look beyond your usual courts. There’s often a decent facility 10 minutes in the other direction.

If you’re still looking for a hitting partner, Big Tennis also keeps a Find a Game page with more ways to get on court.

The Bottom Line

Tennis is having its best stretch in years. With 27.3 million people playing, the sport doesn’t have a demand problem. It has a logistics problem. The people are there and the courts are there. They just aren’t finding each other fast enough.

Fix that, and a lot of those first-timers turn into regulars, and a lot of regulars play more. And that’s how you get from 27 million toward 35.

So if you’ve been meaning to play more, skip the group text. Find a court, find a partner, and book it. Your Saturday morning is waiting.