Tennis just posted its best year on record in the United States. 27.3 million people played in 2025 — up 1.6 million from the year before, and the sixth consecutive year of growth since 2019. If your local courts feel busier than they used to, or your club suddenly has a waitlist for a slot that used to be easy to book, you're not imagining it. Tennis is in the middle of its biggest sustained boom in decades, and it's still building.
The Numbers Behind Tennis's Six-Year Run
The USTA's 2026 participation report, based on 2025 data, tells a clear story: tennis has added nearly 10 million players since 2019, a 54% increase in six years. Of the 27.3 million people who played last year, 14.5 million are "core players" — people playing 10 or more times a year — up 1.5 million from 2024. Across every player, casual and core, there were more than 616 million individual play occasions in 2025 alone.
The growth isn't just existing players hitting more balls. 4.9 million people picked up a racquet for the first time in 2025, up 9% year over year, and 20.7 million players who'd tried the sport before stuck with it, up 10% from the year before. New players and retained players are climbing together, which is the combination that turns a good year into a real trend rather than a blip.
The growth is broad-based, too. Women's participation grew by 1.1 million players, a 10% increase. Black and African American participation grew by more than 450,000 players (14%), Hispanic and Latino participation by more than 550,000 (12%), and Asian and Pacific Islander participation by more than 260,000 (10%). Tennis isn't growing in one narrow corner of the sport. It's getting broader across the board, which is exactly the kind of growth that tends to stick.
A Good Time to Notice It
The timing lines up nicely with the sport's biggest annual moment in the US: the 2026 US Open opens with qualifying and Fan Week from August 23, with the main draw starting August 30 at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows. The Open doesn't create this boom by itself — it's a six-year trend, not a two-week spike — but it's a reliable annual reminder of just how many people are picking up a racquet, and a good moment to actually go find them.
The Catch: All Those New Players Still Need Someone to Play With
You've felt this if you've ever tried it. You post in a neighborhood group asking if anyone plays tennis. A few people reply "me!" and then nothing happens — nobody wants to be the one to suggest a time, or admit they're not sure how good they actually are. Weeks later, you're still hitting against a wall.
Here's the part the participation numbers don't solve. Tennis needs two people, or four for doubles, and none of that growth helps you if you can't find a hitting partner at your own level, on your own schedule, near where you actually live. A packed public court doesn't tell you who's looking for a regular game. A full club doesn't have a sign-up sheet for "beginner, free on weeknights." Most tennis partnerships still form the old-fashioned way — through a club roster, a friend of a friend, or months of showing up at the same court and hoping someone else does too.
That's a bigger loss than it sounds. Every one of the 4.9 million people who picked up a racquet for the first time last year is a potential hitting partner for someone else in exactly the same spot. They just have no way to find each other.
How to Find a Tennis Partner or League Near You
A few places consistently turn up real players and games:
- Your local club or public courts. Most clubs keep a partner-matching board or list, even if it's just a clipboard at the front desk — ask in person, not just online. Municipal courts often post USTA league sign-up windows by season.
- USTA League and local ladder leagues. USTA League play is organized by level (NTRP rating), so you're matched with players closer to your own standard, with both singles and doubles divisions in most sections.
- Community centers and indoor facilities. Many YMCAs, community centers, and indoor tennis facilities run round-robins or drop-in social hours on a fixed weekly slot — a good option if you want a consistent group without organizing it yourself.
- Local Facebook groups and Nextdoor. Searching "[your city] tennis partner" or "[your city] hitting partner" surfaces casual players who never show up in a club directory.
- A sports coordination app like Wapp. Open the Around Me map to see actual tennis players, groups, and open sessions near you, and request to join or start your own. If you're near one of Wapp's cities, start with the local guide — London or New York City.
Starting Your Own Hitting Group or Ladder League
If nothing exists nearby, tennis is one of the easier sports to bootstrap. You need a court — most public parks have free ones, and off-peak hours are rarely booked — a rough skill match, and a handful of people willing to commit to a regular slot.
A ladder league is the simplest format for a small group: rank players in order, and anyone can challenge someone one or two spots above them to a match. Win, and you swap places. It gives casual players a reason to keep showing up without needing a full round-robin schedule or a governing body — just a shared list and an honor system.
Start with 6 to 8 players and one fixed weekly time slot. That's enough for a real rotation, small enough that everyone plays regularly, and it tends to grow on its own once word gets around that there's a standing group with open spots. In colder climates, book one indoor slot a month over the off-season so the group doesn't quietly dissolve over winter — ladder leagues live or die on the habit of showing up, and a four-month gap is usually enough to kill one.
If You're the One Organizing
Once you have a regular hitting partner or a small group, the harder problem isn't finding people anymore — it's keeping the rotation reliable enough that a court booking doesn't go to waste. A weekly hit that depends on a group text falls apart the first time someone forgets to reply. Set it up as a real recurring event instead: a fixed day and time, a clear cap on players, and a way for people to confirm with one tap instead of scrolling through old messages. Track who actually shows up, and the players who never do stop taking up a spot that a reliable new partner — one of those 4.9 million first-timers — could fill instead. A dedicated team organizing tool handles all of this automatically, so the rotation runs itself instead of depending on you to chase replies every week.
Wapp works the same way for tennis as it does for every sport on the platform: create a group, post your session, and let RSVPs and attendance track themselves. Download it free on iOS or Android — find a hitting partner who's already out there, or make sure the ones you already have never fall through the cracks again.