Tired of getting overlooked by jocks everywhere, the USTA recently decided to fight back.
Fred Harper
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Like car marketers, however, who seldom mention the actual selling point of automobiles, tennis honchos who formulated the organization's new Welcome Center campaign have decided that their best chance lies in appealing to the non-tennis side of tennis. The promotion's new website, for instance, features a picture of Andy Roddick with a backhanded quote of support: "If you are single and looking to meet active people, I definitely would recommend playing tennis." Another section, under the heading "Tennis: How it can give you a stronger mind and body," details the collaboration between the USTA and the Cleveland Clinic Heath Center.
The sport is also trying mightily to go hip. Instead of pushing better overheads, the new promotion stresses how tennis can develop one's core strength and provide benefit to other sports, such as Pilates and skiing. Advertising inserts placed in local and national publications (including the Denver Post) have featured testimonials not from Marat Safin, but from NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon and actress Daisy Fuentes ("To stay beach-fit year-round, I hit the courts"), as well as celebrity photos (Mary-Kate and Ashley at the 2003 U.S. Open).
It was in that spirit this past weekend that a couple hundred people gathered at the south end of Washington Park for a "Tennis Rocks" rally designed to get those teetering on the fence into the game. The courts had been divided into areas for beginner and advanced play, drills and manufacturer demos. On the west side of the complex, an exhibition area had been set up, where local tennis organizations and, oddly, LaMar's Donuts were on display. (The rep explained that he knew a Colorado Tennis Association guy from way back.)
A DJ was on duty, and throughout the morning, he blasted upbeat oldies and chattered announcements at the crowd, giving away prizes from neighborhood businesses and whipping up enthusiasm for the sport. "Don't have a racquet? No problem." At one point, he addressed the Saturday-morning exercisers teeming past the courts -- though he might have been pleading for the future of tennis in general: "Hey! All you walkers, joggers, rollerbladers! Don't pass by! Come join us!"
Everyone seemed to be having fun, but the long-term effect of the day, as well as the USTA's new multimillion-dollar enticement program, won't be known for some time. Deb, a fiftyish woman on the beginner's court, says she always wanted to play tennis, and with Wash Park so close, it made sense to try. She definitely intends to keep playing, she says.
Kendra may be the bigger challenger. Seven years old, she already has a typically full plate of activities crowding her second-grade schedule: swimming, stickball, soccer, piano. Still, her mom told her she ought to try tennis, and so she gamely came here today to give it a shot.
So, is tennis fun? She nods.
Will she try it again?
"I dunno." Kendra shrugs. "Maybe."
Eric Dexheimer recently won first place in the Colorado Society of Professional Journalists' Sportswriting category for "Slide Rules," his March 20, 2003, account of four Colorado heli-skiers caught in an avalanche in British Columbia.
