For the second straight year, the sport of tennis saw significant growth in participation and equipment sales in the U.S. in 2021.
After recreational players took to the sport in record numbers at the start of the pandemic, the groundswell continued last year as more players hit the courts through the country.
According to the Physical Activity Council’s (PAC) participation report produced by Sports Marketing Surveys, which monitors more than 120 different sports and activities, more than 22.6 million people took to the courts in 2021, up approximately 1 million players and 4.5% from 2020.
Source: USTA
Every year over 300 million tennis balls are manufactured globally, with over 125 million of them used in the US and over 100 thousand balls used specifically for the US Open alone
which results in over 125 million tennis balls being sent to US landfills each year