Tennis and Television: the Impact of the Media on a Traditional Sport

[UNSW, 2010]

The game of tennis has changed astonishingly little since the 1920s. The rules of the game, scoring system, dimensions of the court, equipment used, and the eligibility of certain players have all stayed remarkably consistent throughout the years. But the role of television in the development of the sport has contributed to rule changes, the implementation of a code of conduct, and an increased popularity in the sport.

            The world of competitive tennis has, since 1968, enjoyed both amateurs and professionals as participants. It was in that year that the Open Era of the sport began, with the abolishment of the rules of amateurism. Finally, all players—professionals included—were permitted to compete and make a living by playing tennis (Tennis Theme 2009).

That same year, Joseph F. Cullman III, the United States Lawn Tennis Association (USLTA) tournament chairman, negotiated the first television contract for the U.S. Open. He used his influence as a tobacco executive to negotiate with CBS on his own terms; the five-year contract gave CBS exclusive rights to broadcast the U.S. Open, and was worth $100,000. "The U.S. Open wasn't on TV at all in those days," Cullman remembers. "The opportunity of changing the world of tennis from a country-club, white-shoe sport to something that would appeal to the public appealed to me…it was a very good move for tennis" (Goldman 1997).

Television introduced the public not only to the tennis stars of the 1970s, but to the tennis personalities, as well. Instead of simply reading about a close match or an angry outburst by a player, fans could now see it for themselves. They could see the sweat dripping from a player’s face, watch the anger build as frustrations escalated beyond reason, and hear the outcries to referees or linesmen. People always enjoy conflict, and tennis stars of the 1970s often gave them just that. Fans were able to get to know players better, develop passion and hatred for stars, and become anxious to follow their every match—all from the comfort of their own homes.

Television was a major factor in one of the major regulatory additions to the game in 1975—the Code of Conduct. A newspaper article of the time observes the shift in player conduct, and the effects that television was having on the game: “Misbehaviour by players of the ‘gentlemanly sport’ seems to be on the rise,” a journalist noted in 1976. But misbehaviour was exactly the sort of thing that viewers wanted, and television networks actively sought “colourful” tennis personalities to boost ratings. Ilie Nastase, a Romanian tennis star, was cited as the most “flagrant violator of the rules” and is said to have provoked the International Press Telecommunications Council (IPTC) to issue the code (Hermon 1976). Tennis stars in the 1970s began acting outside propriety’s lines; players such as Nastase, Jimmy Connors and John McEnroe broke the barriers of the well-mannered tennis tradition by acting out on the court (Goldman 1997).

Because of the increased attention that these players received on television, more fans were attracted to the sport. Television brought worldwide notoriety to the athlete (and to the sport), enticed sponsors into large investments, and inflated the dollar value of tournaments (Hermon 1976).

Even before the Code of Conduct was implemented, increased television coverage of tennis helped to impose a rule change in 1972. Until then, white balls were used on the court. But audiences were increasingly watching on televisions instead of live; before the age of high definition, large-screen plasmas, it was extremely difficult to follow a little white speck on a tiny box. Yellow balls were given a two-year experimentation period, and officially used starting from 1972 (International Tennis Federation 2010).

The correlation between television and the rising popularity of tennis is clear. In the late 1970s, as television was more and more becoming a part of American culture, more than six million Americans turned their televisions to the finals at Wimbledon and to the U.S. Open, according to Nielson. By 1981, when McEnroe and Austin won U.S. Open titles, CBS had an average rating for six telecasts of 5.8; just one year ago the U.S. Open had drawn averages of only 1.8 over nine telecasts.

Kurt Kamperman, the United States Tennis Association chief executive for community tennis, notes that tennis, golf and bowling were the only “individual” sports on television in the 1970s. “Tennis appealed to those who were active,” he says. “The TV coverage helped drive them to the sport.”

In 1979, ESPN was launched, the first all-sports cable network. Within one week of its inception, the first tennis match was broadcast; the following year, Wimbledon achieved a 6.4 average rating on NBC—a record best. 

But as television became more popular, it was increasingly difficult for the tennis world to keep up. The 1980s brought a multitude of options for channel-surfers, with the advent of new television shows, music television and more. Viewers began to watch other things, and in 1983 the Wimbledon and French Open ratings dropped. The U.S. Open still retained a rating average of 5.0 on CBS, but was down to 3.6 by 1987 (Niebuhr 2005).

            While the rules and regulations of tennis have more or less remained the same, the tennis racket has changed considerably over the past quarter century. Developments in design have drastically increased the speed of the game. As early as 1977, the International Tennis Federation (ITF) began to keep a close watch on new methods of stringing rackets, as double-strung rackets developed and caused controversy within the industry (International Tennis Federation 2010). By 1981, a Federal appeals court had upheld the United States Tennis Association’s (USTA) ban on the “spaghetti” rackets. These rackets were of normal size but were double strung, with ten main strings and five cross strings. The USTA contested that any player using this equipment had the potential to put thirty to sixty percent more “spin” on the ball, and that it was therefore unpredictable in play (Spaghetti-racket ban 1981). Today, rackets are lighter and stiffer, and have head sizes much larger than they were twenty-five years ago. Furthermore, the area which encompasses the “sweet spot” is bigger and thus every shot has more potential to be more powerful (International Tennis Federation 2010).

Technology has also played an important role in the development of tennis. Electronic sensors are often used to make judgements on line calls. In 2006, players were given the right to challenge any line call made by electronic review at the Miami Masters Series tournament. That same year, this policy was implemented for the first Grand Slam at the US Open (20^th Century). This technology is necessary because of television coverage. Viewers need to be able to see for themselves, up close, exactly where the ball hits the court. Prior to the use of electronic sensors, it was up to the linesman to make judgements on whether a ball was in or outside the line.

The game of tennis has been played around the world since its invention in the late nineteenth century (then called lawn tennis). But in recent decades, especially, the sport has enjoyed participation by the masses. The United States Tennis Association didn’t start collecting data on the number of people playing until the 1980s, but even then, there were an estimated 35 million Americans playing the sport (Reusse 2000).

In 2009, it was found that the number of people who play tennis around the world has increased dramatically. In the United States, participation was up 43 percent between 2000 and 2008, and more people turned to the tennis court in 2008 than at any point in time in the past fifteen years, according to the Tennis Industry Association.

Britain, as well, has seen an increase in tennis participants. Sport England, in a survey conducted between October 2007 and 2008, found that the number of people over the age of sixteen who played tennis at least once a month grew to 939,500—an increase of a staggering 65,500 from the year before. Furthermore, the number of people under the age of eighteen that compete in at least six tournaments a year has more than doubled over the past year, from 11,000 in 2008 to 22,500 in 2009.

Even in Asia, tennis is on the rise. According to the Chinese Tennis Association, six million people played the sport at least twice a week in 2008, more than three times the 1.8 million people that played just two years earlier.

This worldwide increase in the popularity of tennis can be attributed to a number of factors: a new way of teaching the sport to beginners, the use of slower balls and its increasing accessibility and affordability. With television widespread throughout all developed countries, it is hard to accredit the television with the popularity of tennis in the past decade. In America, especially, with most televisions equipped with dozens of channels, it has had little impact on the sport’s recent growth.

David Miley, director of tennis development at the ITF, says that it’s important for young players to be actively engaged in the sport from the very first day they are exposed to it. “We’ve made a conscious effort to reposition our sport,” he says.

In 2005, three different kinds of tennis balls were introduced, all of different compressions. The red, orange and green balls, which are 75, 70 and 25 percent slower than the standard, yellow professional balls, allow beginners to more easily keep a rally going for longer periods of time. More than thirty nations are behind the ITF’s endorsement of these newer, slower balls.

John Callaghan, professor of sport at the University of Southern California and an expert on the role of sports in society, says that tennis in particular is played more around the world because it is less expensive to play than many other non-team sports, such as golf. For instance, there is often access to public courts, for which membership is not a prerequisite (as access to a golf course might be). Furthermore, unlike golf, necessary equipment is limited to a racket and a few balls, which can usually cost under $200. In Britain, the average cost of a tennis club membership is $3.65 for adults and $1.30 for those under eighteen. Britain has over 11,000 club courts and 10,000 public courts, many of which are free to use (Tennis popularity 2009).

            Yet tennis hasn’t always enjoyed such popularity on the courts of the professionals; fifty years ago—before the onset of television—the sport was just beginning to gain live audiences. In 1966, the U.S. Open attracted a mere 25,000 people. In the 1968 U.S. Open, only 62,000 out of a possible 168,000 watched Arthur Ashe defeat Tom Okker (Goldman 1997). In 1969, a feeble 3,708 people watched Rod Laver capture the men’s final, after rain delayed the tournament (Leading the Way 2002).  Then, as the 1970s progressed and television began to set into the homes of Americans, the tennis craze began. By 1978, the attendance of the U.S. Open was over 275,000, a new tournament record.

In 1996, a U.S. Open another record was broken, with 506,012 paying their way into Flushing Meadow (Goldman 1997). By 2001, a record 142 countries participated in the Davis Cup (International Tennis Federation 2010) and the 2009 U.S. Open experienced yet another all-time attendance high of 721,059. This makes it the highest-attended annual sporting event in the world (U.S. Open 2009). 

In Australia, tennis is currently the most popular sport viewed by Australians, overpowering cricket, swimming and even all of the varieties of football. In fact, tennis hasn’t been this popular in Australia for seventeen years, and the Australian Open Tennis Championship is the third most popular sports event in the country. According to the 2007-2008 Sweeney Sports Report, 57% of Australians  (about six in ten) have an interest in tennis. This has resulted in similar increases in the number of people attending tennis events, watching matches on television or reading about it in print media (B&T Marketing 2008).  

So what lays ahead for the sport of tennis? In the states, Andy Roddick remains the only man seeded in the top 16 at Wimbledon. This is the first time since 1968 that there aren’t at least two Americans placed that high. Furthermore, the only contestable women in professional tennis (Serena and Venus Williams, Lindsay Davenport and Jennifer Capriati) are considered fairly old in athletic standards (Niebuhr 2005).

Because of the lack of representation on the professional level, it will be harder to get American followers to tune in. The heyday of American tennis has come and gone, and the United States will need to see the development of big name superstars in the next decade if the sport is to thrive there as it once did. In addition, there are a multitude of options, sports and otherwise, for kids to choose from. Sport, music, dance, art and other various activities are all on the table—not to mention the ever-expanding multitude of computer and television entertainment available in almost every child’s home. 

As far as Australia goes, the future of tennis is bright. As big of a sporting nation that it is, it’s quite incredulous that tennis comes out on top. With the sport on the major networks for just four weeks of the year, Australians will be keen to tune in when the world watches their corner of the globe (which doesn’t happen often) as the Australian Open attracts athletes and audiences from all over the world.

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