Why Have Americans Lost Interest in Tennis?
To lay my soiled cards on the table, I like tennis. And the charge one hears all too often from those who disparage it — that it’s a fey, elitist, country-club sport unsuited to red-blooded Americans (at least since red-blooded American men stopped winning majors, anyway) — simply doesn’t hold water. If you think it’s such a pansy sport, you should try playing it.
It is true, however, that the game’s origins are elitist and aristocratic. The place to see how tennis, or “Real Tennis” began, is Hampton Court outside London. It was an indoor amusement. Among its early “stars” — the Nadals and Federers of their day — were fellows with names like King Henry VIII and Louis X, neither of whom could be described as an Average Joe. On the other hand, the least aristocratic sport in the world is soccer, which can be played with a tin can, and we’re not crazy about that either.
Oddly, one of tennis’ many problems in the States is that it could do with people a bit more like Henry VIII. You know — wives, mistresses, intrigues, gossip, executions. Maybe the hitch is that the top players (on the male side, anyway) are way too well behaved by contemporary standards, and where’s the fun in that? There are no reports of tennis stars raping groupies in hotels, brandishing guns, injecting steroids, tattooing their foreheads, or — like several players on France’s national soccer team — getting it on with underage hookers. Nor is there a John McEnroe or Jimmy Connors around to scream at linesmen, inform them they’re “abortions,” etc., although Serena Williams did do her part for the distaff side at last year’s US Open by threatening to ram a tennis ball down a lineswoman’s throat. To be precise: “I swear to God, I’ll f***ing take this ball and shove it down your f***ing throat.” Well, at least she believes in God.
Until he lost his No. 1 ranking to Spaniard Rafael Nadal this summer, the dominant figure in the sport since 2003 — the most dominant in any sport, as even Tiger Woods admitted — has been the Swiss Roger Federer, known for his effortless, nonchalant play. In his best-selling autobiography, Open, Andre Agassi gave us a brief glimpse of what it was like to face him at his peak: “Federer comes onto the court looking like Cary Grant. I almost wonder if he’s going to play in an ascot and a smoking jacket. He’s permanently smooth, I’m constantly rattled, even when serving at 40-15.” Nonetheless, Agassi made Federer work, taking him to a third-set tie-breaker, at which point Federer “went to a place” Agassi claimed not to “recognize” and won 7-1. Perhaps he entered a fourth dimension, leaving the American Barbara Streisand dubbed a “Zen master” stuck in a retro space-time warp.
Americans used to revere men like Cary Grant. Some still regard him as the paragon of Hollywood actors, the ideal of urbane masculinity. Was Agassi suggesting Federer actually looked like Grant? (He does have a dimple.) Or was he drawing a connection between the elegance of Federer’s shot-making and Grant’s debonair onscreen persona? Either way, he was pointing to a kind of ultimate perfection. Do Americans still go for it? Here we come to a crossroads. Among tennis fans, in America and elsewhere, Federer is idolized. But in America, he has almost entirely failed to pop the tennis bubble and penetrate the world of sports-fandom in general. He didn’t even make the cover of Sports Illustrated until 2009, by which time he had equaled Pete Sampras’ record of 14 Grand Slam titles. He’s since added two more, and probably had more right to be named the athlete of the last decade than Tiger Woods, to whom he came second.
There is something feline and meticulous about Federer’s style, one of refined violence, that may be insufficiently “in your face” for most American sports fans. But at least he has never come across like a smug soulless corporate money-machine like Woods, with his BlackBerry full of hookers. He even has a made-to-order American nick name, “Fed-Ex,” as in Federal/Federer Express. For years the smartly turned out “Fed-Ex” has repeatedly beaten America’s No. 1 player, Andy Roddick, who never takes the court without a baseball cap, wears sweat-soaked shirts that might have been purchased from a blind tailor, and frequently serves the ball at 140 mph. (His fastest serve has been recorded at 155 mph – a world record.) Despite his “shock and awe” tactics, and commendable work ethic, he has lost four Grand Slam finals to Federer, and his overall record against him in 21 matches is a dismal 2-19.
A few weeks ago it was noted on Mike & Mike in the Morning, the popular ESPN talk show, that Roddick, a former world No. 1, and the last American tennis player to win a major (he won the U.S. Open in 2003), had dropped out of the Top Ten for the first time in eight years. The miniscule press coverage this garnered (only six other Americans are in the top 100 on the men’s side, with Roddick’s nearest compatriots, John Isner, Mardy Fish, and Sam Querrey, coming in at 19, 20, and 21) told you everything about the sport’s national decline.
The fact that Nadal, the new world No. 1, has bulging biceps, an in-your-face style, and otherworldly athleticism, hasn’t notably improved the situation. Though he does go in for sly time-wasting, he is generally an excellent sport, a charismatic personality, and appears to live a scandal-free existence. He’s also an international heart-throb, at least beyond American waters, but his romantic life has been kept fairly private. (In his Wikipedia entry under “Personal Life,” is a single sentence: “Nadal has revealed himself to be an Agnostic.”) Likewise the top women players. Many of them wear come-hither on-court outfits and are regularly photographed in bikinis, but their sex lives are so opaque they might as well be nuns.
Tennis ought to appeal to conservatives, not least on the grounds that today’s players are polite and well-mannered, though there’s a fair amount of bitchiness among the women. But my sense is that the game’s attraction is mostly to liberals. This intuition was only fortified when veteran tennis writer Pete Bodo announced on his blog that he was writing about tennis-nut Sean Hannity’s serious case of tennis-nuttiness for Tennis magazine. The reception on the site’s usually excellent comments board was distinctly chilly. Of course a lot of people dislike Hannity, but the liberal tilt was fairly pronounced, and in some cases characteristically censorious.
The U.S. Open begins August 30, and lasts two weeks. It should be pretty good. U.S. Open’s usually are. Wimbledon may be the grandest of the Grand Slams, but the one in Flushing Meadows is the most joyously raucous. The hush that falls over Wimbledon’s historic lawns is notable by its absence — we got concrete, not grass — particularly during night matches. We may never again see the kind of drunken craziness provoked by a midnight duel between Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe, or by Agassi and Sampras, but then New Yorkers are not as wild as they used to be.
One theory as to tennis’ declining popularity is that baby boomers who grew up with Borg, Connors, McEnroe, et al, are too old to play it anymore and thus have migrated to playing and watching golf. Novelist Martin Amis, once an avid tennis player, recently admitted that it’s not much fun hitting the courts at 60 when your reaction time is half what it used to be. “You see the return coming over the net, and you think, Oh, look, there’s a ball coming over the net. … So then you do an absurd dash to the ball, and are completely crowded on the shot. It’s grotesque. Going to a lot of trouble to get humiliated every afternoon, I don’t see the appeal in that.”
Contrast that with the story a fellow tennis fan told me about golf: “A video producer I worked for used to take his crew golfing and they would all smoke pot before playing. Try that before a tennis match. I think Americans have always played more golf than tennis. It’s just a more enjoyable sport to play poorly: Hit a lousy shot, get in your golf cart, go for a ride, fetch the ball, hit another lousy shot, smoke a joint, etc.” Still, even if you’re too old or lazy to actually play a sport, that doesn’t automatically mean you lose interest in it as a spectator. Can it be that we’re a nation of individualists who only like team sports? But then why do we like golf?
The most obvious explanation for tennis’ woes can be found by examining the men’s Top Ten, which currently consists of two Spaniards, a Serb, a Swiss, an Argentinean, a Czech, a Scotsman, a Russian, a Swede, and … an American. (Despite being diagnosed with a mild case of mononucleosis, Roddick has worked his way back to #9 — a testament to his resilience and spirit.) If you want to know why tennis is falling off the map in America, that’s probably why. But aren’t Americans known for their openness and generosity to outsiders? Are we really going to turn our backs on a phenomenon like Nadal just because he’s Spanish? Or ignore a strategic wizard like Scotland’s Andy Murray because he’s, you know, from Scotland? What does this say about us?
So come on, sports fans, show these foreigners a little love. But don’t do it for their sake, do it for your own. The power, speed, and precision of today’s players will astound you. And if you want to see Nadal, a legend still in the making, or catch Federer while he’s still in shouting distance of his prime, not to mention a bunch of other great players, this is your chance. Take it.
I have played tennis, and had some talent at it, but it just ain’t all that. I’m a dude. Men should not play sports that women can be equally good at. Tennis is a chick sport. Leave such an effete sport to the chicks. Same with soccer. Chicks can play as well as the dudes.
Give me American Football. There’s a reason girls don’t play real football.
Marc Malone is correct. Most Americans like democracy when it comes to politics…but when it comes to sports, we want to see the elite play: the biggest, strongest, fastest and toughest.
Tennis players are great athletes…but it is still viewed as elitist, too prissy and will always seem like a sport for rich country club types. Moreover, the two best female players…the Williams sisters…look more like guys, and with the dress code seemingly gone (what could be sexier than a white mini-skirt?), the glamor is gone too. Another factor is that the same people are always playing.
Soccer/European football on the other hand, is too democratic and can/is played by everyone everywhere. Besides, watching a bunch of girls…or a bunch of skinny and regular looking guys play a sport where they kick a ball around for what seems like forever without scoring, is just boring.
Rugby, American football, basketball…and certainly boxing, require specialized physiques in addition to talent. Moreover, they are games where scoring is constant and contact is inevitable. Baseball and golf are the exceptions and maybe our form of balance for the preference for “blood sports.”
I am a four times a week tennis player, regularly playing an hour of singles before heading over to the PJ Media office in El Segundo. (Yes, I shower). Keeps me fit. As Brendan says, anyone who thinks it’s a fey sport ought to give it a whirl. If you’re not in top shape, you won’t last a set against a good player, let alone five. (BTW, someone on here said that women can play the sport as well as men? That’s absurd. Trying being on the receiving end of a serve from John Isner or Tomas Berdych, both the size of NBA forwards, and tell me that.) This a great sport that lasts a lifetime, if you stay with it.
As a spectator, I have many memories from watching Rod Laver at Wimbledon to, best of all, being in the second row for the 18-year old Jimmy Connors vs. the 40-year old Pancho Gonzales, right here at the old Pacific Southwest in LA.
One other thing, that there aren’t many American men in the top ten at this moment is, I think, mostly accidental and cyclical. They will be back. In fact, it could be as soon as next weeks US Open. Mardy Fish is playing at the top of his game and, who knows, Roddick, a terrific guy, may shake off his slump and prevail.
And Brendan, if you’re interested in a game, give me a call.
Roger, Bravo for your defense of tennis as a sport (you will have no shortage of yahoos here spouting otherwise,) but that does not change the fact that it makes me (as a 64-year-old) feel slow and old. I used to rely on speed, quickness, and getting to a lot of balls, but now, the feeling of running (or some caricature thereof) in cement pushes me toward windsurfing, hunting, hiking, and maybe a little biking.
As for watching it on tv, it just takes too damned long, as does a baseball game. An NFL game can usually hold me for a couple hours, but for the tennis matches (the finals at the majors), I may check at the beginning, the middle, and the end, unless something exceptional appears to be happening.
Thanks, Roger. Your point about the men’s serve is particularly well taken (by me), since I was nearly killed by Andy Roddick. A few years ago I was watching him serve on a practice court at UCLA, when he threw down a bomb. The ball popped through the chain link fence, and missed the top of my head by about an inch. It was past me before I knew it.
I guess you are too young to remember when the question was settled about the ability of women to compete with men in tennis. Try googling Billy Jean King. The guy got beat by a GIRL!
Some years back when Martina Navratilova was in her prime she was a member of a club where I belonged. She hired one of our best teaching pros to be her coach and hitting partner.
I later asked him how well Navratilova compared to a pro of his stature when they were both seriously sparring. He modestly replied that she was good for 6-2 or maybe 6-3 if she was really on her game. He could routinely annihilate her–and she was the top woman in the world. I have no doubt that he could still slice and dice the Williams sisters.
I watched the BJ King/Bobby Riggs match back in, what, 1970 or thereabouts. It was clever in its novelty. BJ was in her late 20s and Riggs was, I believe, 55 or so. Male players were not in nearly the buff shape in those days as they are now. I believe that is true for athletes in general.
Tennis will cycle back. The power, grace, grit, and demands of world-class tennis played well combine to make a compelling case.
The women’s power game has gone way past Martina’s level thereof. Yes a decent male player could beat Serena, but I’m thinking that she could clean the clock of the teaching pro, who played against Martina. He is now OLD by tennis standards.
I have been on several righty discussion boards over the years, and have noticed that few righties like Serena. Any ideas why?
I’m sorry but Billie Jean King beating 55 year old Riggs doesn’t settle anything.(although he did beat Margaret Court lets not forget)
I’d expect Federer or Nadal would beat the Woman’s No.1 6-0 all day long.The difference between the men’s and women’s game at that level is a quantum leap.
That the prize money at Wimbledon is the same for the Men’s and Women’s singles is a joke.
I agree with Marc Malone. Any sport carrying a score of “love” just sounds too effete for real men: ie., Americans, unless they are Europhiles or have been exposed to it from early youth.
Sorry, Roger.
Come on. Come on. Who can resist foul mouthed women in short skirts who grunt like pigs when they serve? Kind of like a biker bar I used to hang at….
Well, i say the decline is somewhat akin to basketball, there is no compelling rivalry. Conners VS Borg, Borg Vs McEnroe, now that was exciting sport, the fact that they played tennis almost didnt matter. Ditto BB, Bird VS Magic, it really doesnt get any better than that. It was compelling because the the fierce competition between 2 stars of fairly equal abilities. We just dont have that kind of thing today and so sports fans drift off.
Seriously, there isn’t a compelling anything about tennis. Soccer, samey same. Love to Golf, hate to watch it.
Yep, gimme Football and not the Euro kind, thank you very much.
Great article!
Try this for fun; substitute US Open for Australian Open, & Roddick for Hewitt. Your entire case will still hold perfectly.
During the last open down here, we actually had an Australian (Sam Stosur) playing Serena Williams in the Semi-Final (as far as I can remember). Most of the game wasn’t broadcast by the (free to air) provider that had the rights because Home and Away was on. FFS. It wasn’t broadcast at all on any other channel. Neither was Federer’s game in the quarter’s (I think) when he was two sets down – kidding me.
It’s still very popular for individual (physical) spectators down here, but not on TV.
PS:
Marc – I laughed when I read this:
‘Give me American Football. There’s a reason girls don’t play real football.’
Er, is there a reason the guys play it wearing mattresses?
James – the rivalry between Nadal & Federer is as great & fierce as any other rivalry in sport; the fact that they don’t ghetto/smack talk each other clearly doesn’t appeal to the proletariat
fed-rafa isn’t a rivalry when one guy owns the other.
“Er, is there a reason the guys play it wearing mattresses?”
Because many of the guys in the game are 6’6 to 6’8; weigh 300+ pounds and can benchpress small socialist countries that play tennis.
Don’t be obtuse. Without that padding, there wouldn’t be a player able to play after the first five minutes as they would all be on the way to the hospital.
Even with that padding, nearly every week, someone suffers a career ending injury, and occasionally someone dies, or is paralyzed for life.
I found Pete Sampras to be the most boring player of all time. Whereas Federer is always interesting to watch, especially when he falls behind, he often conjures up miracle comebacks. The Federer/Agassi match was one for the ages, so were several Federer/Nadal matches. Or since neither one is American people don’t care? Go watch your football then.
I meant since neither Federer/Nadal are American. Federer is the greatest player of all time, that in itself makes him interesting to watch.
fed isn’t even the greatest of his era, much less the greatest of all time.
I don’t care about sports generally, but I used to play tennis. I gave it up because it occurred to me that it was even more ridiculous a sport than golf, which Samuel Clemens (aka Mark Twain the Second) once accurately defined as “a pleasant walk spoiled”.
The past “heroes” of tennis I also considered to be somewhat less than inspiring. Bobby Riggs? John McEnroe? They practically invented the “bad boy” act that is now considered de rigueur in the NBA. My take is that acting like a petulant child throwing a tantrum in public isn’t something any adult should do. Let alone anything that their “public” should encourage.
For my money, the best tennis match in history was the one between the blancmange (from the planet Skyron in the Andromeda Galaxy) and Angus Podgorny (from Scotland) at Wimbledon on Monty Python’s Flying Circus. (Episode # 7, “You’re No Fun Anymore”.) It treated the sport with exactly the level of seriousness it deserves; i.e., very little.
cheers
eon
Tennis is the best sport in the world because of the combination of athleticism, power and geometry. American football is for weak-minded fools who need their fill of big hits and touchdown celebrations. Leave tennis for the higher-brained folk.
I stopped watching when John McEnroe’s baby-like whining spread to others. No time to watch obnoxious, arrogant fools in shorts. Could achieve most of this effect in less time watching a Chucky Schumer or Bahney Fwwank press conference.
On the other hand, a long time ago I enjoyed watching Rod Laver, John Newcombe, Arthur Ashe and Ken Rosewall. It was a different sport.
I played tennis moderately seriously — competitively through high school and college — and have never found tennis on television particularly compelling. My father, who was a world class amateur player in late 1920s and early 1930s (losing 6-4, 6-3, 6-4 to Bill Tilden at the height of his powers was a badge of honor), and who played competitively as late as his early 60s, was also cool on televised tennis. Our reasons, I’m sure differ from the reasons of more recent fans: we knew the old game, and enjoyed, and the generally high standards of sportsmanship and behavior that characterized tennis before the 1970s and the explosion of interest in the game and the vast increase in the number of professional players. My father knew the guys who took professional tennis from its infancy to the wider public. He never blamed them for wanting to make more money (many of them barely made ends meet in the early years), but he thought it would ruin the game in the long run.
I stopped watching tennis pretty much for the same reason I stopped watching golf . . . it got to the point that no matter what was happening the media had a few “love affairs” going with a few selected players such that the only thing that they ever talked about was those players. For example, even when Tiger was way back in the pack, far off leader board, all we heard and saw in TV was “When Tiger is going to make his Big Move” and put in the winning shot. Take the Williams Sisters for example in tennis, the same thing. We got to watch them and of course their IDIOT father setting in the stands looking like a fool. Nope, until something comes along that is enjoyable to watch, not a chance of me ever watching tennis again, and golf too. It is strange because at one time I knew a lot about both sports, today all I can remember about golf is someone made a comment about “Fried Chicken” and the media went nuts. Besides it is just not as motivating to watch a sweaty, ugly person run around on the court, lol. Must be a man thing, lol.
No thanks.
Bunch of endorsement craving prima donas.
Too many players have become media “star”, obnoxious behavior and all. Tennis has morphed from a semi-sedate game played in a mannerly fashion into just another venue for a loud mouth looking for attention and another life between the pages of every gossip rag in print. John McEnroe was the beginning of the turn off and at this stage, he is tame by comparison. The clothing worn by some of the women, the grunting noises, the diva attitudes, the strutting, posing, the cheapness and low class behavior of many of the female players has become such a turn off. With tennis, in particular, there were many aspects to the game besides the game that have all been discarded as too quaint or archaic to matter. Well..stripped of it former form down to the bare basics, it’s just another ball being banged around.
The reason Americans have lost interest in tennis is that it
is unbelievably boring to watch or play. And though the
players have to be technically proficient at this very peculiar
skill set (admittedly achieved thru years of practice) you
really don’t need to be much of an athlete or have a physical
presence. I’m guessing either of the Williams sisters could
take Federer two out of three falls.
Tennis seems to be the perfect sport for the 19th century.
At least with golf you can play drunk and still rack up a
reasonable score.
Golf…a sport? Who knew? I thought a sport require one foot to be off the ground from time to time…even billiards is closer to that definition. Golf is much like Poker as a sport…eye shades, slow play, smoke, drink, eat…finish the analogy.
In fact, all kids need two sports whether they are male or female. They succeed with a team sport and an individual sport…both ones where score is actually kept and winning is respected. They learn to work together like no other activity on the team concept and learn to rely on themselves for the individual sport.
If one looks at the data, participants in sports have higher academic achievement, lower unplanned pregnancy rates (obviously for the girls), lower arrest rates, higher graduation rates and a host of other achievements.
Until we get rid of the concept of “no losers and no winners” we will guarantee no winners and become a nation of mediocre adult losers….wimps, if you choose. Look for both golf and tennis to make comebacks, but tennis will be first.
Soccer is very boring. Tennis is too, but at least has some exciting moments and rivalries. It shames me as a patriotic American that we admire the INCREDIBLY BORING sport of American football with its 10 minutes of action and incessant hype created by the media. Without beer and betting, football is dead.
Baseball is the best sport by far. It combines all the best of the other sports. Cannot wait for October.
Tennis is one of those sports that are better played than watched. Sports that don’t take a big investment or large groups. Football, however is a gladiator sport made for a stadium and TV replays. Also, I should take time out from shelling Napoleon’s troops on my computer big screen?
Brat McEnroe turned me off to tennis, not to even mention the poise of the sport, w/ the whites and manners; as in fencing (my personal sport) -gone the grace, poise, form as one kills the enemy- much harder presenting a smaller target and using skill in the offense/defense. Now, no need for the Foil or Epee- might as well use a 2X4.
I recently saw the pix of one of the Williams steroidal gargantuas playing in what the PMSNPC anchor called “flesh coloured tights- yet bare-ass was what the pix showed.
I surfed to find the truth and, even though someone blacked in some panties, the rest of the pix showed, clearly, hairless female genitalia.
Really?
Have we become so oppressed to the point of self-censorship by the skin colour ‘pass’ that the obvious is quickly redefined, as though we are blind?
Guess so.
And I haven’t even mentioned the ‘f’ bombs now heard in tantrum– cripes.
All that hard work spent w/ an Italian Fencing Master is as much a thing of the past as grunts and brute force replace the sports I once loved and enjoyed as civilized miniwar.
Great article but the author misses the point. All the great players today (both men and women) are European. But why is that? Author doesn’t seem to recognize that the Euros are in much better shape than we are as a group of people–thinner and much more disciplined in very aspect of their lives. We are fat and lazy as everyone knows. Until we wake up our kids and tell them yes you need to run in the outodors today for five miles when it is 90 degrees (instead of coddling them) we will never be good in any sport again. Has anyone seen the Asian teams destroy us in the Little League World series. Same story–fat Americans gains thin , disciplined Asians. Stop coddling and start pushing our kidns out of their house and into the real world of competition.
True. This is psot 1960 liberal America. They coddle and don’t believe in competition. Go to Long Island, Bel Air, Marin, Boca, etc to see ti daily.
In conservative America, kids work, dont eat sushi, nor attend Harvard and believe in good/evil, right/wrong, win/lose. They join the military, stay in shape, go to church and fight.
So it’s a Barack Obama segment of America vs the rest.
BTW, Asians may be fit and hard-working, but Euros are lazy socialists — especially in the west. Just look at their anti-work protests and greed. So they may not be fat, but they don’t hold a candle to US ‘red state’ worth ethic.
The eastern Euros, outside of Greece, are an exception. They like America and work hard because they are poor. That’s where you find those great tennis players and olympians, etc.
PS Even as a young nurse, the whites I so loved/wore, from head cap to toe (nursing shoes kept clean, polished nightly) that bespoke my profession are also gone- and, as in tennis, whatever goofy outfit shows up is now de rigeuer.
I took up tennis in my late thirties and became an accomplished player. For a brief time, I was good enough to compete against former Division II college players in their thirties and forties. I even lost a match once to Tony Trabert’s son, who was a really nice guy. But for me it was about getting really good, and my body ‘failed’ me – partly because I had no concept of how playing hard court tennis could rip up a not-entirely-fit middle aged body. Now I’m fitter but fairly arthritic, and can only get on the court once or twice a week. So I usually don’t, partly because as Amis said, you feel the decline more than the pleasure of playing.
As to the ‘Americanness’ (or not) of tennis. Well, too many people have written about this. The truth is, as a mass game tennis is not ‘American’ and is far more popular elsewhere (Europe, Asia, Latin America, Australia). It will never be an ‘American’ game, imo.
Greetings:
1) Any sport where you can’t bump into your competitor (or use your hands) isn’t that much of a sport.
2) Any sport that pays women playing three sets the same money that men get for playing five sets is a vehicle of oppression, sexist, racist, homo and islamophobic.
3) Any sport where laying down on the ground is the sign of victory is at best juvenile.
Whoever’s in charge of advertising for the US Open must have read the last paragraph of Bernhard’s piece. The tag line on their Web site is “It Must be Love” — a bit of wishful thinking, since all too many Americans would rather watch a meaningless exhibition NFL game than a tennis match. If they want to boost tennis’s popularity in the USA, they’ll have to change the rules and let the players tackle each other. Imagine Roger Federer trying to escape a blitz by Rafael Nadal.
Whoever’s in charge of advertising for the US Open must have read the last paragraph of Bernhard’s piece. On their Web site, the tag line says “It must be love.” That’s wishful thinking, since this time of year, most Americans would probably rather watch a meaningless NFL exhibition game than a tennis match.
If the powers that be in pro tennis want to boost their sport’s popularity in the USA, they’ll have to change the rules and let the players tackle each other. Imagine Roger Federer trying to escape a blitz by Rafael Nadal.
There are only so many variations to the bouncing of a ball. Tennis is a good sport to play but really not very interesting to watch. Sorry. I get the feeling NASCAR is going the same way…had its day but is very repetitive. On the plus side, at least they have lots of personalities competing at once and the constant potential for banging and tire-throwing crashes.
Golf is superior to tennis insofar as you can see the faces of the competitors as they approach, take, and react to their shots. It’s a human drama with a cast of characters that TV can choose from with different holes, conditions, etc.
I don’t believe that seeing the same 2 players hit a ball back-and-forth can compete. It’s like boxing vs. mixed martial arts, boxing only offers so many variations and is dying. You never know what will happen during an MMA match.
In sum, tennis’ day has come and gone. It will settle in eventually one step below hockey and one step above soccer and minor league baseball.
Sports, music, art…it’s all a matter of taste.
Whatever you like is what’s good.
I used to be a big football and baseball fan, and I always was bored to tears by tennis, but it’s not because tennis is objectively inferior, it’s just because Dave Surls liked football and baseball better.
OTOH, I once had a Joe Theismann moment where a big guy blindsided me as I was attempting to throw a pass, and caught me right above the ankle, sending my leg bones flying in all directions, so you might want to question my wisdom or sanity when it comes to enjoying football more than tennis.
I have to agree with those who have said about tennis that “you have to play it to appreciate it.” (The same is true with bowling.) I applaud the individual achievement and athletic endurance of the players but there is no sense of anticipation in watching tennis. The ball will either be in, be out or hit the net. I believe that we are more hooked on team sports (football, baseball, basketball and even soccer) because of the visual interplay of all the different components of the “organization.” In football and basketball everyone must do their job properly to contribute to a “good play” And I am one of those romantics who believes that nothing is more exciting then the mano-et-mano duel between a good hitter and a good pitcher. As for golf – Well, it’s played against pretty scenery and the long periods between shots really build suspense. (I say this as a lousy golfer.)
Also, it is probably just me but the parents and coaches (often the same person) of professional tennis players all seem to be a little nuts. Every time I watch a match involving some female European player her mother/father/coach talks to her between sets like she will be sent to face a firing squad if she loses. A lot of athletes are psychologically damaged but tennis seems to have an unusually large number of them.
I remember when tennis got a whole lot of attention in the US, back when Connors and Evert were playing. There was a huge boom in the sport on the ground-level, too— more clubs, more public courts, more ordinary people taking lessons and playing it. Then the craze started to fizzle out, especially in areas where the sport can’t be played year round.
Not long after that there was the jogging craze. Then the biking craze. And so it goes.
There will always be those who play tennis, who run, who bike, but Big Fads come and go with the wind.
As for tennis as a spectator sport, I think its decline has pretty much coincided with the explosion in TV choice. Back in the Connors-McEnroe era, major tournaments were covered by one of only three channels. This automatically gave the sport importance and attention. It was out there, in our faces, so to speak. Now you have to go looking for it, you have to be reminded.
Mens’ tennis where they try to just blast serves past each other is very boring to watch. Maybe new equipment has made the ball too hot for the size of the tennis court.
The US had that tennis craze about the same time as the chess craze and the ESP craze (remember zener cards). I suspect the recent US golf craze is declining as well.
The tennis courts at the apartment are fairly busy. Its not soemthing people watch on tv. Watch for a rise in interest in swimming. Yes swimming.
Perhaps your article ought to be titled “Why have Americans lost interest in MEN’S tennis?”
A) Women’s tennis has been far more interesting for the past 30 years
B) Federer (boring) was preceded by Sampras (boring); thank God for Nadal
C) The networks do a horrible job covering the major tournaments
D) Most of the top guys have so many endorsement deals that they don’t have or make time to give back to the sport
E) If Nadal stays healthy, men’s tennis will become more popular again
In general, why do I watch less tennis than I did years ago? The frightful shrieking and grunting…some players are so ridiculous it amounts to cheating. And yes, I mean you, Sharapova.
My wife recently took me to the Atlanta Athletic Club where we watched John Isner play. Let’s just say that it wasn’t the most exciting round of tennis ever played.
I gave up watching tennis in the 70′s when Chris Evert married John Lloyd. Two dreams ended that day.
It was that girl Seles who went “Aaaaeeeeoough!” every time she hit it that drove people away. How can anyone watch something with someone screaming “Aaaaaaeeeeough”! every three seconds.
Tennis will regain some popularity when we get some top American male tennis players.
But keep in mind, the decrease in popularity (as measured by TV viewership) has affected ALL sports. For hockey and horse racing (especially the latter, which has not had a triple crown winner in 32+ years), it has been particularly devastating.
But even football — notice how Monday Night Football has been relegated to cable? How Major League Baseball has no more national televised Saturday game of the week? (I grew up on watching Curt Gowdy, Tony Kubek and PeeWee Reese on NBC.) Hockey? Not only is it not on network sports, it’s no longer even on the major sports cable outlets.
They have all been devastated by the vast choices in electronic entertainment — beyond broadcast/basic cable, you know have expanded cable, satellite TV, video games/Nintendo/EA Sports, internet, DVDs, fantasy sports, etc.
The fractionating of the entertainment market place has caused the audience for all sports to decline, and for tennis has been hurt like everyone else.
The problem with tennis is that it’s boring to watch. It can be fun to play and the athletes who compete are as athletic as in any sport. But pro tennis, especially at the top level, is just yawn inducing. The ball is hard to see. Power serves dominate and make for limited action on the court. Repetitive ball bouncing and body swaying before each serve, continuous rest breaks and other delays create a sport where action makes up a very small percentage of the time.
In other words, boring. Sorry, but it is.
I lost a lot of interest in professional tennis when the top players diverged from (what for 80 years was considered to be) correct stroke technique. Some say it’s due to changes in racket technology; some say it’s due to slower court surfaces, and some say it’s due to better training.
The reason doesn’t really matter. It has become yet another avenue for today’s society to say, “We know better than our elders.”
I played tennis as a young man and enjoyed but as a spectator sport it leaves a lot to be desired. It’s like soccer in that it takes forever to declare someone a winner. Make tennis a one hour sport with a half time and find a way to end a tie and you have a game to watch. Same with soccer. Halve the field length and width, let them use their hands and make it one hour. Imagine the level of play if the players knew they only had to perform for one hour.
My wife a huge fan for years, so I have tried in vain to learn to watch the tube with her. I really have never enjoyed it much, except for a couple of classic matches between McEnroe and Borg – when was that ’84? The Wimbledon final between Federer and Nadal was the exception to the rule.
Who ruined the women’s tennis for me was the William’s sisters. And when one of the idiot sister’s recently decided it was hip to wear a thong for the bottom half, it pushed me over the edge. I’d as soon as stared at a horse’s ass for two hours.
For thee, but not for me.
The problem with tennis now is the extra-ordinary level of play in the top ranks. People who watch the sport, and then try to play simply can’t do it at a comparable level. And if it is something that you can’t possibly do, why watch it.
Nor is it all that entertaining… a ball going, mostly, back and forth over a net. There are a very limited number of permutations in ongoing play, and usually, a point is scored when one or the other of the players makes a mistake. Or an ace. How fun is that?
It was never interesting and I never watched, so don’t blame me.
Tennis and baseball games both put me to sleep. Women’s tennis is more interesting than men’s because he women are often good to look at, and they actually volley the ball instead of relying on just a big serve.
I love golf and football. Golf, because it mirrors life. It is about redemption. Football, because it’s about war. The closest thing one can get to watching a military battle.
Love football.
I wonder why someone is always comparing American tastes to Europe or the worlds preference for soccer ? We are what we are.
I grew up playing baseball and pond hockey. I still love hockey on the HD big screen . It is better than being on the ice. same for pro football. But tennis,polo and soccer , nah.
One really intriguing foreign sport though is the Afghan sport( I think ) where some guy tries to get a bloody goat carcass from one end of an arena to the other on horseback . It smacks a little of Roman chariot racing and has quite a bit of nasty action.
It’s all the reasons you listed in the opening of the column.
When I was in high school, tennis was the sport played by the rich pansies who couldn’t make the cut in football, basketball, or baseball.
You specifically mention the Mike and Mike Show on ESPN.
Even the old TV commercial for ESPN’s Mike and Mike Show used this idea about tennis.
In the ad, the smaller, wimpier Mike Greenberg shows up to breakfast wearing his old college tennis outfit, in contrast to Golic’s Notre Dame football jersey, or one of his NFL jerseys.
In the commercial, Mike Golic snorts because Greenberg looks totally ridiculous in his old tennis stuff precisely because it’s tennis stuff, not football stuff.
And Golic is totally and completely right.
america has lost interest in tennis because there are no cute american female tennis players, and the other females switched to shorts instead of panties!
To watch it is boring. There are few if any compelling stories, and the tennis players just don’t seem very approachable. Nodomokong Suh graduated from U. Nebraska, gave 600,000 dollars to fund scholarships at the Engineering college, and was a blast to watch play football. So far, he is off to a good start in Detroit. A good man, a great athlete, and a compelling personal story. Compare him to all the current tennis players and they simply come a cropper. In the 70′s and early 80′s, there were more compelling figures that could atleast keep your attention during the two minute blurb on sports center.
To play it is problematic. You have to have access to a court when you have time. You have to have partners/opponents who are on the same schedule. To get better, you have to play people better than you are, but not too much better or you get blown off the court. The problem here is that for the better player, the game with you is dull and they don’t want to do this more than once or twice because they want to better their game. The cost of the gear, club membership, lessons, and the hassle of finding a group of people who are the right level, are going to be fun to play with, and who are on the same work schedule as you makes it not as much fun as other social outlets.
If you have to play to really appreciate the game on TV, then you build fewer and fewer players thus fewer TV fans.
Reasons that watching tennis is boring:
a) Incessant second serves.
After interminable time going through OCD superstitions pre-serve, a ball gets sent towards the net. Oops, do over. Repeat.
b) Grunting on hits.
Please!
Tennis is boring because of the rackets.
With oversized graphite frames, an average weekend player can generate a 80mph serve. A pro easily serves over 120 mph.
Originally synthetic and metal rackets were designed for the older weekend warrior who weren’t strong enough to keep up. But because of sponsorship, more and more players started using synthetic rackets and the game has suffered.
Tennis matches are now nothing more than a running match. Most points are no more than 3 strokes. No more net games and no more long rallies. No more strategy. No more finesse. Just all power.
Because it’s now nothing more than a series of sprints, the players now look like sprinters. They are over 6 feet tall with long massively muscled legs and arms.
People don’t realize that equipment can change the entire nature of a game.
Imagine if baseball allowed the pro’s to use aluminum bats? There would regularly be 40 run games and most pro would hit 500+ homeruns, but there would be no fielding and no strategy. All the game would be is “Just go up to the plate and connect.” Oh and pitchers and in-fielders getting killed by line drives.
When was the last time you watched a match?? Last nite’s smackdown with Tipsaveric and Roddick had many rallies with more than 3/4 hits. That was probably Roddick’s undoing, unfortunately. I’ve been a fan of Tipsaveric for years, and he never seems to have it all together at the same time. He was athletic in the purest sense last night.
I am often asked if I play tennis, and my answer very quickly is an unqualified “no”. Not because I don’t LIKE it, but because it takes so much talent to do it at a level that makes it meaningful, I don’t have the interest in putting in the time. The reason I am asked is because my son played Divison I NCAA tennis for 4 years at First singles,and continues on a semi-pro basis. He started late in life and surprised us all! Watching him work and work and work put my in a very unresponsive “frame” of mind when it came to taking it up as a sport. It, like golf, is a skill- sport with very highly refined skills involved. It takes a lot of effort to get to the point where you can win. We played soccer for ten years and it is a lot fun and relatively easy to have access to being successful, especially if you have talented friends on your team. But with tennis, it’s all YOU…no hiding. That must be one of the reasons it is considered an “elite” sport… because it is by definition. ON the other hand,at the highest level, it is a chess game with 4 legs. As an aside, we (USA) have had some wonderful players in recent decades, but the quality of instruction, while expensive, is highly unsystematic and not consistent with the relative size of our population. It is CERTAINLY not consistent with the money we spend!!! Yikes. We have the tennis channel and we thoroughly enjoy it. Any thoughts on who will win the Open? My pocketbook says Nadal, but my heart says Murray. We’ll see!!
Nice to find an article about my favorite sport at PJM! And to learn a couple of its writers play the game.
I’ve loved it since Borg and Chrissie Evert played, but it’s The Mighty Fed who captures my interest for the most part now.
Thank you for writing about this amazing sport, and the athleticism it requires to play at the top of the game. I do think if you’ve tried to play the game in any serious way, the viewing of the sport changes. You realize what it takes to make the shots look “boring” to the non-tennis fan.
As Federer might say, “It’s a pity” that tennis doesn’t capture a wider audience in the U.S.
One of the best female players of all times was suspended for cocaine use. 6 argentinean male players , some among the top ten were suspended for doping
Maybe the hitch is that the top players (on the male side, anyway) are way too well behaved by contemporary standards?so you did not know about Agassi´s memoirs?
http://sports.espn.go.com/sports/tennis/news/story?id=4600027
BTW: nobody told the Ukrainian player that you dont wear dark colors amid a heat wave?
There’s a huge cultural element missing from the article. The tennis boom of 1973 to 1980/81 coincided almost exactly at the same time as the Disco craze. Everyone was playing tennis no matter how untalented or old or physically unfit — just like everyone was into Disco, or so it seemed. The tennis boom was launched by three players especially — Billy Jean King, whose defeat of Bobby Riggs in Sept. 1973, led the way. But Jimmy Connors and Chris Evert brought thousands of new players to the game. I was astounded to see the already popular club I then belonged to double its membership in only a few months during the Connors-Evert tennis onslaught and romance of 1974. It’s fair to say that tennis as a popular participatory sport died when Bjorn Borg retired in 1981, shortly after John McEnroe finally defeated him at Wimbledon. All we can do is wait for the next dance craze I suppose.
I only watch ladies’ tennis for the articles.
“Why Have Americans Lost Interest in Tennis?”
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They should ask someone who cares. [either of them]
I like women`s tennis and only because they have great legs. Otherwise, there is no reason to watch….