Fashion, film and TikTok: Tennis is experiencing a resurgence

It’s not Zendaya’s fault you can’t stop thinking about tennis.

It’s not Zendaya’s fault you can’t stop thinking about tennis. Her magnetic performance in “Challengers,” a movie about a ménage à trois that happens to have tennis in the background, might seem to have thrust the sport into the spotlight, but it’s becoming more popular in the past few years that it’s hard to escape. The sport is surging on a global scale, with its biggest names fronting luxe fashion campaigns from Louis Vuitton to Loewe and stars gracing the cover of Vogue. Of course, there’s a TikTok angle, with the rise of #tenniscore videos garnering tens of millions of views, and yes, even that buzzy film, which was number one at the box office in its debut weekend. In a world of megawatt sports stars, ESPN went with tennis and chose 23-time grand slam winner Serena Williams to host this year’s ESPY Awards, airing on ABC in July, perhaps as a testament that the sport is actually a draw again. Tennis had its heydey in the 1970s and 80s but a resurgence began at the height of Covid-19 when it was one of the few activities people could play safely while socially distanced. Its popularity has only grown since, as there’s a changing of the guard among the top-ranked players that it’s attracting new eyes and corporate interests, like fashion and Hollywood, fueling a boon. Not only are people just watching it, they’re actually hitting the courts: The United States Tennis Association (USTA) said that nearly 24 million people are currently playing tennis, marking four consecutive years of growth.