Is Tennis Back to Being Niche, Or Does It have A Storytelling Issue these days?

I'm not sure tennis understands or cares about how it's losing cultural relevancy, or how much its storytelling has gone bland.

Welcome back! Happy to see you here again. Also happy to see all of you who joined since TSS moved to Substack! It’s a long one today (I refuse to give up on your attention span), so please open it in your browser because this email is gonna get cut, or get ready to scroll. Join me and my musings about tennis's cultural relevance, also give me your opinion on my take on Novak Djokovic’s current stretch, and please stand with me on the tennis fashion hill I’m willing to die on this week.

What else have I been up to? Booking a tennis reporting trip to Madrid for the clay season and ranting about the ridiculous fares of flights in Europe right now.

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Is Tennis Back to Being Niche, or Does It have A Storytelling Issue these days?

Photo by Etienne Girardet on Unsplash

I have to confess something. I’m jealous. I’m trying not to, but I still am. I’m jealous of the cultural relevancy the WNBA gained while tennis just sat there. I’m jealous when I see all these NBA features (and all the NBA fashion statements, as usual) or football features or whatever other sport I don’t follow but can’t help notice gets some original and widespread coverage. I’m jealous when I notice that all the fun and original collaborations go to everything but tennis. Actually, it seems that everything socially or commercially mattering in sports more and more goes to everything but tennis. Tennis is back to being a niche.

Oh yes, we’re going to get the stars coming to see matches here and there, and we’re going to get a Vogue cover here and there and invitations to the Oscars. And tennis players will go and watch some NBA matches and mingle. But even Zendaya doing a tennis movie and coming to Indian Wells to mingle with tennis players, Tom Holland in tow, didn’t move the tennis needle. Nobody watches tennis anymore to see where sports are culturally or financially going. I will repeat it again: Tennis is the ONLY sport that bombed on Netflix. Break Point didn’t put tennis into the mainstream world like Drive To Survive did for Formula One. I’d even argue that it sent tennis backward. Nobody showed up for that show. Absolute pop culture crickets. 100% a red flag. Don’t come at me saying tennis was the fashion trend of 2024 with the tenniscore for the girlies. Please, if that how tennis peaks now?… I think Jannik Sinner’s Gucci bag at that Wimbledon was still a better flex._.

The irony is that tennis players are among the richest athletes in the world and that female players have long set the bar for equal prize money and how to land big deals and get a spot on the best-paid list and the most influential list. And yet, since last year, women’s tennis - and I’d argue tennis as a whole - has been owned by the WNBA. Owned. Oh, sure, tennis players are still way, way richer than the WNBA ones. But are they now as culturally important? Are they making a difference? Are they bringing fans to the game by the hundreds, thousands, millions? Are they out there being discussed as trendsetters and inspirational icons by people who, a few months ago, didn’t even know where to go to see a WNBA match?

And yet, sure, I know, attendance at big tennis events is booming. Amazing. Okay they’ve also added more days to add more people. But outside of the events, please tell me how tennis right now is having any kind of impact in the sports discourse, any kind of viral and/or groundbreaking moment. I’m waiting. While I wait, I’d also argue that the Battle of the Sexes is starting to feel isolated in those groundbreaking moments. What ceiling is the sport still breaking?

Let’s get this straight: I think tennis DNA is one of the best storytelling engines in professional sports. You have people coming from nothing that end up millionaires and cultural icons. They create a dream that’s going through entire generations of athletes. At the Olympics, they’re rockstars. They turn heads. Female players have led the way for eons. Tennis has come a long way from its image of a sport for the preppy rich kids only. Tennis has drama potential like no other soap opera or TV reality show, okay. Athletes from all backgrounds stuck (sometimes with their partners, parents and agents) in a worldwide traveling bubble with high stakes, high pressure and fighting for millions worth of prize money and endorsements. Please, do you see that pitch??

Great. Fine. But what if all of this is still mostly based on yesteryear? What if now, in today’s world, we’re having a problem?

Tennis storytelling needs a pick-me-up

It’s all about the cast, but it’s also all about the stories. And let me tell you that these days, the stories are rare. Not because they don’t exist but because, for some reason, this sport sits on them. What are we doing instead, other than promoting the sport and getting these inspiring stories out? Promoting tennis players with influencers techniques. Is it working? Can you year? What? Crickets. It’s just not how they will impact the sports world culturally and not how they will build lasting legacies in today’s business world either.

The truth is that tennis storytelling needs a pick-me-up. We got it so good for so long that complacency took over. And so today most coverage options and interesting features to dig into have seriously dried up. It’s repetitive. It’s boring. It’s not cutting through the noise. For a lot of reasons: Less money to get media on the ground throughout the season, less access to players and their staff, less access to people running the sport, editors focused on the buzz and not the original angles, the demographic covering tennis not being historically diverse and not really being prone to ruffle some feathers, social media being seen as a better way for players to build and control their image, etc.

I’m sorry, but you don’t keep growing in that sport by just covering backhand and forehands, nor by shooting one more fun video of players sharing their vanilla takes on their fellow players or answering vanilla questions on a golf cart. Or by banking on players’ partners to turn the Tour into something like the Housewives of… They’ve tried all of this and? Crickets.

Yes, tennis has always been a niche, but it was a golden niche. You can culturally matter by sending into the world icon after icon who seduce every brand and every generation, turning Anna Wintour into a regular tennis fixture, getting Michael Jordan to collab on a shoe.

Why do you need to overhaul the whole coverage when, every decade, a few Avengers come along and break the sport’s boundaries? When nearly every week brings narratives to write on and to be excited about writing on. Well, because I don’t feel that tennis traditions and legacy are going to be able to keep holding the fort for long before tennis is looked at like the cool auntie of professional sports. Cute and all, but are we really listening to her? I’ve had that talk/rant many times lately, and more often than I’d like to admit, someone tells me, “Sure, but your sport is a niche,” when I ask why tennis doesn’t get the exposure that you’d think its legacy and its stars deserve. I raised both eyebrows, offended again. Then I’m also told it’s because Europeans rule tennis and not US players. Is Leo Messi from the US? David Beckham? The entire Big 4? Please. Like, surely tennis should matter way more than it does now in the global professional landscape. No? NO? Am I delusional?

And so I’m back at the WNBA as the most recent mirror of tennis issues to stay relevant. Sure, they suddenly got Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese to light it all up. But, even I know that the WNBA had a long streak of incredible players turned icons. So why now? Because they had a shot at meeting the moment, and they went all in. They took risks, they showed personalities, and they put the swag on. And, to my dismay, I think tennis has lost its swag. And so its street cred. Coco Gauff here, though, gets points for trying because this one gets it. Gauff understands that today, you don’t grow your platform by refusing to engage with what’s happening in the world, that you need to show up to matter.

When I read how we’re losing ground on pickleball, I’m sorry, but my heart bleeds. I look at Substack’s sports board and have to scroll all over to find tennis conversations. I’ve subscribed to many top newsletters about professional sports and sports business: Tennis barely gets in occasionally. The ones about culture and entertainment? Same. Like, where the hell are we?? Only to be found in some über-privileged circles? Are we back to the elitist tag despite it all? Is anybody out there cares at all about what we’re doing? How is this supposed to be good for the money bag and growing the sport?

I’d argue that nowadays tennis is undersold and so undervalued. And if it stays like this, then yes, it’ll stay niche. Paradoxical for a sport that’s historically been so culturally relevant. As players keep asking for more money, comparing their situation to the NBA and the golf (apples and oranges to the max, but hey), the sport should also look inwards: is it selling itself to the pop culture in a way to expand, or is it chasing the wrong trends and trying to stay in a weird in-between? If yes, then it has to let its players know that they probably reached the ceiling. If it wants to get NBA-like money, it’s going to need NBA-like coverage, and it’s going to require a complete overhaul of the structure and the culture. Would it be worth it? Would it even be possible?

Players want more money. The sport needs more money. Sure, so what do you do?

So yes, sometimes I look at other sports where it seems you can read ten features and twenty blogs per day, and I wonder WTF is wrong with tennis. Do I know anything specific about the NBA season? Absolutely not. Am I clicking on this piece, for example? Absolutely, yes. The athletes and their sports that are currently culturally mattering are the ones who are in your face about it. They should be a tennis wake-up call.

Another example: Indian Wells had a great idea with launching the Champions Luncheon to start this 2025 edition, with Iga Swiatek and Carlos Alcaraz (2024 winners). I clicked here so fast, and then it got me mad. “Swiatek and Alcaraz were on hand at Porta Via - a California-style bistro and bar with over 30 years of culinary excellence in the Coachella Valley – inside Stadium 1 to introduce a pair of new signature dishes that honor their championship runs of last March.” And the rest is all about them talking about food. I kid you not. Maria Sharapova appearing with Pink for a party at Indian Wells beat that in one picture. She’s not playing anymore.

Venus Williams turned heads in Paris for the Fashion Week, where Lacoste had her in Roland-Garros with Academy Awards winner Adrien Brody and their new ambassador Taylor Zakhar Perez. That, my friend, is how you put tennis out there in the pop culture.

Look at what these tennis brands that need tennis players to sell their products and their legacy do. They mix them with the culture. And to be mixed with the culture, you need to be culturally relevant. Coco Gauff taking a stand for gun laws is culturally relevant. Iga Swiatek taking a stand for Ukraine is culturally relevant. Right now, in tennis, who else is out there defending anything they’re believing in? Except the Ukrainian players, obviously, for heartbreaking reasons.

If you’re culturally relevant, why isn’t culture talking about you?

Venus Williams is a huge part of the reason why female players got equal prize money in the Grand Slam events. She and Serena aren’t still icons today only because of how many trophies they won. They’re culturally mattering. Roger Federer? The same, in a very different way. Look at him running his ON empire now. Look how he still connects to people. Would you tell him that he’s niche? Oh no. And what did ON do to grow lately? Hiring Zendaya. They just felt tennis players wouldn’t be enough. And so that tennis wouldn’t be enough.

If you’re culturally relevant, why isn’t culture talking about you? How come Maria and Serena are still out there more than you? Tennis and social justice have often crossed each other's path, and it would be self-sabotage not to keep building on it.

Right now, tennis has stopped taking advantage of its incredible diversity. Its champions are coming from everywhere, each and every one of them is a success story to cover. Yes, we have the billionaires' babies, too, but they have to work like anybody else out there. The mix of them all is a fascinating story in itself! Again, the stories are all there, but somehow tennis is refusing to engage with them. It’s high time to get gritty, quirky and sassy again, to stop caring so much about a clean image that was supposed to attract everybody because it’s riskless but that, in the end, is washing out the sport. The WNBA ain’t playing preppy, and they’ve culturally owned tennis so bad that soon enough tennis could look at them also owning the sponsors’ money.

It’s also a job for the brands involved in the game: Where are the campaigns that were talked about all over the sports world, like Head with Djokovic and Sharapova? Lindt and Federer? Armani and Nadal? Gucci is trying to get back to this with Sinner, Vuitton has put its money on Alcaraz, and Lancôme is on Swiatek and Zheng Qinwen. The luxury brands are still banking on tennis players, which is a very good sign. But Dior, which signed Zheng, also didn’t seem to last long with Emma Raducan or Felix Auger-Aliassime, which is a pity but confirms that these brands aren’t all-in yet. Not enough to stay if the results don’t keep coming. Yet, please, what are Venus Williams’ results today? Yep, none, but she’s a cultural icon.

What’s wrong with going back to the vanilla niche, you’re asking?

Yet, I hear you. You’re like, “Hmmm what’s the issue of being a niche? It’s comfy in there, let them have their peace. They don’t need to be the NBA or WNBA. Tennis is doing just fine right now, we’re cool, we’re making great money.” If it ain’t broken, don’t fix it, they say. And, sure, absolutely. But where is this money coming from? Today’s game? If yes, indeed, please keep going. But what if it’s really coming from the expectations created by the last two decades? And what happens if it doesn’t deliver? What happens to tennis when it’s only owned by private equity and Saudi Arabia? I don’t know.

What I know is that tennis is currently not taking advantage of its DNA and that its coverage is becoming the background white noise of professional sports. I’m convinced that if you stop evolving, at some point, you start regressing. Players are asking both Tours for more money, top players are trying to become their own empire,s and what you’ll hear all day long is how the Tour is focused on bringing in Gen Z and the likes. Well, these generations are not following anything unless they can find personalities they can stick to. Do you know what tennis is bad at putting out there right now? Personalities. People with things to say. People showing they’re culturally connected. So good luck with Gen Z, really. No wonder tennis is still clutching at its stars of the previous decades as if its life depends on it: they checked and still check all the boxes.

Tennis is at a crossroads for professional sports relevancy. A lasting cultural impact is different than going for a series of stunts to make the buzz. It’s the difference between being the story and being the footnote. Tennis cannot afford, financially and culturally, to be the footnote. And it’d be such a missed opportunity not to try again to be the story. You want to stay niche, fine, but to keep being a successful one, you’ll need relevancy. Why not try to be groundbreaking when you can? Why not setting the trends instead of following them? Especially in this day and age, where that’s what it takes to grow to the next stage. People are going from crisis to crisis these days: they need both escapism and meaning to keep engaging and spending. Right now, I fear tennis is at risk of stopping giving both.

A special shout-out should be given here to Wimbledon. The Storytelling Guru. They get it like nobody else did and does. The world is changing, but they keep adjusting without losing what makes them unique. A masterclass in branding. It’s the only place where the casting doesn’t matter more than the event. Not because Wimbledon is better than any other event, but because the story built around it is the GOAT. They chase no trends, they bow to nobody, and everybody flocks to them. Everybody, when it’s Wimbledon time, talks about them. From Vogue to your dentist. As they say, if you build it, they will come.

Please pay consulting fees to Wimbledon

Wimbledon doesn’t share its tempo, doesn’t share its vibe with the rest of the tennis world: I even feel they keep trying to widen the gap. Another red flag for tennis because Wimbledon knows what’s up. They’re not trying to pretend they’re the sport of the people like football; they’re owning their privilege but in a way that makes people dream of being there, believe that they can join the club.

It’s the Chosen One myth all over again. Destined For Greatness. Please tell me who better than tennis has this in its DNA in the professional sport. If we push the envelope a bit, it’s an individual sport that can bring you from the street to the Met Gala. And you’re telling me we cannot sell this more? Not cover this better? One of the only professional sports to have the world as a stage, from Dubai to Shenzhen, passing by Rome, NYC, or Acapulco? All the stories it is sitting on that people would love and that we’d love to cover… Too few get out these days, and it makes no sense.

So, really, tennis: What’s your story? That’s all we miss right now, and yet that’s all we need. What do you have to say? What are you willing to fight for? What do you think? What do you have to give? What do you want? Who are you?

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Novak Djokovic Needs To Figure Out How He Wants To Bow Out

I feel the time has come to worry about Novak Djokovic’s tennis. And that the time has come for him to decide how he wants to bow out of the game, even if it’s only in two or three years or…ten. The last one standing of the Big 4 has a massive advantage right now compared to Roger Federer, Rafael Nadal, and Andy Murray: He’s not injured. The three others have been defeated by their bodies and so didn’t have a shot at ending their unreal careers the way they really wanted to. For now, it seems Djokovic can. Choosing how you leave is a privilege in this sport, so he shouldn’t take it for granted. I wouldn’t say that if Novak looked like he was having fun out there or if he was currently giving signs that his game can get No. 25.

And so, I’m wondering if starting to think about the end could be used as fuel to get back on track. He has Andy Murray by his side, who went through this last year: it’s a precious experience right there. We all tended to think these guys were tennis immortals, but Djokovic is the last one to prove us wrong. His legacy, in an ideal world, would deserve a last hero stretch, but we’ve seen how hard it is to get. Yet Novak looked very good at the Olympics - his Holy Grail - and in Melbourne this year before getting hurt. I wonder how much his body is really able to go through these days, too. And how much Novak talking over and over about how he wasn’t motivated for anything else other than a few events outside the Majors has sent him into a weird space. At his level - of game and of perfectionism - it’s either you do it 200% or you don’t at all. Turning the fire on and off on demand? Doesn’t sound like the Djoker.

Maybe this loss in Indian Wells will be a blessing in disguise as it could push Djokovic to sit down and plan what he has refused to do for some time now: how he intends to deal with the last stretch. Be it the next few months or the next few years. He has the luxury of being able to plan it right now, so he really should do it. His career deserves it, too.

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BUSINESS/MEDIA

Photo by Tamanna Rumee on Unsplash

• The chatter started last year, and it seems it has now reached a new level. The ATP and WTA 1000 events in Miami and Madrid could soon be sold by Endeavor (previously known in tennis as IMG: it’s more complicated than that, but let’s simplify so everybody follows along). Why do they sell these two historic events for the company? Well, it seems Endeavor has decided WME entertainment agency was its love child, and so IMG (now owned by TKO) was going to be the one to get sold to get the money back. Miami and Madrid are iconic tennis properties and so represent one of the most valuable assets.
  
  Anyway, it seems the situation isn’t a “If” anymore but a “When” these two tournaments will be sold. Who’s ready to empty their pockets a bit (or a lot) to get them? Well, CVC Partners (who bought a stake in WTA Ventures, the commercial side of the WTA, for $150 million in 2023) raised their hands real quick. How much is the private equity firm putting on the table? 1 billion. Yes, you read that right. And who else is fighting for Madrid and Miami? Well, that’s when things get funny. The other interested part is… Ari Emanuel. Why is it funny? Because he’s Endeavor’s CEO. Saudi Arabia is said to be interested in the two events, too. So, basically, either nothing will change, or everything will change.
  

• You know who could care less about all of this? Roger Federer. Why? Because he’s ON cloud 9 (you got it? Nah, I feel no shame), or more, ON cloud 27%. That’s how much his ON brand’s revenue has grown in the last four months. In terms of sales, reports say it means over $3 billion. So, are you ON it?
  

• Iga Swiatek and Oshee (a Polish beverage and nutrition company) have upped their partnership. Now, you can call her “Main Partner,” thank you very much. What will change? Well, ON will have to share the space, first of all: “Another key element of the increased relationship is moving the Oshee brand logo onto Swiatke’s match outfits and press conference sweatshirts,” says Forbes. What else? Expect to find Swiatek’s special lines of products in retail worldwide, too. Another specificity of that deal is that it includes Iga’s team, “including coach Wim Fissette, sports psychologist Daria Abramowicz, physiotherapist Maciej Ryszczuk and hitting partner Tomasz Maczek.”
  

• Talking about deals, Sportfive announced it facilitated one between Jasmine Paolini and Amazfit, a smart wearables brand.
  

• Andy Murray found a way to get banned in Australia? Not really, but also kinda. Why? Because it was So Shocking. Do you know that Uber Eats commercial featuring Andy trying to escape being kidnapped? Well, the Australian watchdog pulled it off the air forever after people complained about the risks it was taking in normalizing kidnapping/violence.
  

• Everybody stays calm. I repeat, stay calm. It’s happening. What? Leonard DiCaprio, a long-time tennis fan (and a Roger Federer fan), is now a Rolex testimonee. And so? You’re asking?! If we don’t get some Leo x Tennis campaigns that put his Fiat campaigns to the corner (I have a cousin who bought that car just because of him, true story), I’m gonna be so mad. Like, no way, nobody is trying to pull out the Leo x Roger campaign. No freaking way. I’m here for all of it. One thing about me: I’m a massive Leo fan. Like, from the Basketball Diaries era. We’re an OG here; deal with it. Back in the day, DiCaprio was working with Tag Heuer at the same time as Lewis Hamilton and Maria Sharapova, but this is as close we got from a Leo x Maria collaboration.

MENS SANA IN CORPORE SANO

OUT:

• Marketa Vondrousova’s shoulder. The 2023 Wimbledon champion has announced she was taking a break from the sport due to recurring shoulder issues despite undergoing surgery in August. She couldn’t play at the US Open and Australian Open. In 2022, Vondrousova - a Roland-Garros finalist in 2019 and silver medalist at the Olympics in 2021 - was out of competition for months due to a left wrist stress fracture.

• Nick Kyrgios. Are we surprised, though?
  

IN: PIF WTA maternity fund. A fantastic initiative for female players and a logical step following the protected ranking system that’s been applied to them already. Also, ahead of International Women’s Day on March 8, “the WTA Foundation’s Global Women’s Health Fund announces a new partnership with UNICEF, to help close the women’s health gap through better health and nutrition resources for women and children worldwide,” a statement said regarding a campaign for prenatal vitamins. Again, very good.

And now, could we also get actions like a reproductive rights fund or do like the WNBA and advocate for the pill? Or even join Megan Rapinoe’s action with “Sport Your Period?” I’m just thinking it would be - again - a missed opportunity for women’s tennis in this day and age not to be out there standing for women’s rights when women’s bodies are under attack. Surely the WTA doesn’t think that its athletes are only about motherhood. Again, it demands taking some stands and risks, but it’s how the women’s tour has been created. So…

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SOME BREAK POINTS…

• Alexander Zverev has made history in Indian Wells. Since the event's inauguration in 1976, Alexander Zverev has indeed become the first top seed to lose their opening Men's Singles match at the Indian Wells Open after winning the first set. It’s the least of his issues, as his season has taken a turn for the worse since his Australian Open final. His dreams of taking over Sinner on the throne have gone through the window. We’ll soon see if he killed his Roland-Garros dream or even his season by deciding to play in South America for a clay swing in February.

• Jenson Brooksby took out Felix Auger-Aliassime, seemingly out of nowhere. The Canadian played three finals this year, but the desert played a bad trick on him.

• Coco Gauff has me worried about her serve again, as she hit 21 DF. But she’s pushing through so… Let’s wait and see.

• Stefanos Tsitsipas swears he’s a new man, and for now, it looks like it could be.

• Iga Swiatek’s topspin is doing absolute carnage on these Indian Wells courts, which also bodes well for when she meets the clay again. Seems she’s getting some needed confidence back out there. Wim Fissette might be relieved.

PLAY HARD, TRAIN HARD, DRESS THE PART

Please, first of all, have a look at baby Learner Tien here in Indian Wells with his sister, Justice, and Grigor Dimitrov. If it’s not winning whatever “cutest” tennis contest…

Then, can this version of Iga Swiatek (from her IG, shot for the WTA by Blair Caldwell, who worked with Beyoncé) get a round of applause? Yes, absolutely. She’s still refusing to engage in the dress and heels wardrobe and just rocks her own vibe. IMO, that’s how she should keep going to set her personal brand, as it looks very authentic and unique. We love a queen who sets her own trends.

Finally, another of the tennis hills I’m willing to die on: Could sponsors finally give their players proper kits for when it’s cold out there, so we stop ending with someone looking like this? The amount of money some brands put on players and yet let them out there with no chance not to look like a mess… Do you think tennis fans are buying this merch? Wouldn’t they buy cute “for the cold” tennis outfits? Please. PLEASE.

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