Is enough being done to attract Black youth to tennis?

On Aug. 23, a plethora of pre-teens and teenagers will converge at the United States Tennis Association (USTA) Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, Queens, for Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day, in conjunction with the start of the U.S. Open Tennis tournament’s qualifying matches and Fan Week. 

The venue and event are named in honor of two of America’s greatest players and social pioneers: King, an unwavering advocate for women achieving equality and equity in sports, and Ashe, a civil and human rights activist who passed away from AIDS-related pneumonia in 1993, the only Black man to win Wimbledon, the U.S. Open, and the Australian Open, as well as three of the sport’s aptly named Majors, also titled Grand Slams, with the French Open the fourth.

Many of the youth who attend the free annual Arthur Ashe Kids’ Day, which began the year of his death, are Black. Yet, it may be a fleeting experience, particularly for those from inner-city communities. While tennis is a globally popular sport and growing in the United States, according to the 2026 U.S. Tennis Participation Report, an independent study conducted by the Physical Activity Council published this past February provided empirical evidence that the numbers pertaining to youth are stagnant in urban communities of sizeable or majority Black populations.

The report asserted that overall, there was a 1.6 million increase in tennis participation, overwhelmingly comprising women at 1.1 million, and an all-time high of 27.4 million people who played the sport in 2025. African Americans playing tennis in the United States increased by more than 450,000, a surge of 14%.  

However, despite the encouraging statistics put forth by the aforementioned study, relatively few Black youth were playing tennis during random visits to courts in the Bronx and Manhattan by Amsterdam News journalists in early- and mid-August, including to Crotona Park and the famed Frederick Johnson Tennis Courts in Harlem, also known as “The Jungle.”  

Still, organizations such as the New York Junior Tennis & Learning (NYJTL), based in Long Island City, N.Y., have brought many Black youth into the tennis fold through various initiatives. 

“We have programs that encourage [Black youth] to play and learn about the history of Black players in the sport,” Sachi Kurup, director of communications for NYJTL, told the AmNews. “We have activities and events at spaces such as the Cary Leeds Center, where we have current and retired professional players, players from HBCUs (Historically Black Colleges and Universities), and coaches engage and interact with our youth.” 

The Cary Leeds Center for Tennis & Learning, a 22-court facility in Crotona Park in the South Bronx, opened in 2015 as a public-private partnership and is the base of operations for NYJTL’s hands-on tennis development of its participants. 

While attracting inner-city youth to tennis can be a challenging endeavor, sustaining their interest is a much more exacting undertaking. 

“We try to be very creative in how we get our kids to explore [tennis] and build their passion for the sport,” said Kelsey Smalls, community school director of the NYJTL’s ACES Afterschool Program at the Eagle Academy for Young Men in the Bronx.

Smalls, a longtime youth football coach on the middle, junior high, and high school levels, emphasized that within the five boroughs of New York City and urban communities across the country, basketball and football have magnetic pulls on aspiring athletes. 

“We have had kids in our programs that were playing tennis when the rackets seemed to be as big as they were,” Smalls said in jest to the AmNews. “But you could see that at 11, 12 years old, they already showed great athletic potential. At that age, without a lot of lessons or prior exposure to tennis, they were really good — but they were also playing basketball and/or football, which most of their friends were playing. Eventually, they stopped playing tennis and focused on those sports. We encourage and embolden them to play all sports, but when they aren’t around older dudes that look like them that are playing tennis and consistently mentoring them in tennis, naturally they pursue sports that have more cultural appeal.”

Smalls has coached several players who have gone on to play Division I football and basketball. One NYJTL alum, Malachi Smith, was a key member of the University of Connecticut’s men’s basketball squad that reached the NCAA men’s DI finals this past April, losing to Michigan in the championship game. 

“Basketball and football have an aura and swag that tennis can’t match. Kids can relate to LeBron James, Anthony Edwards, Lamar Jackson. Most can’t name the top Black tennis players, like Coco Gauff and Frances Tiafoe. I think it’s critical to get Black kids to start playing early, at four and five years old, to have a better chance to keep them playing long-term,” Smalls concluded.  

Conversely, some Black youth who grew up around tennis never pick up the sport or drift away from it. 

“My mom was a very good player, growing up in Mali,” said Karamoko Tounkara, a rising senior at Eagle. “She still has some of her rackets and plays — not as much as she used to, but she still goes out to the courts. I never played a lot or took it seriously. Soccer is my game.”  

Traci Green, the Sheila Kelly Palandjian Head Coach for Harvard University’s women’s team, subscribes to Smalls’s theory of the need for role models. Women’s tennis role models are crucial in letting kids know they are welcome in the sport of tennis. Now entering her 20th season at Harvard, she is highly aware of her far-reaching platform.

“I’ve always been someone who enjoys giving back and growing the game,” said Green, who is also president of the Black Women in Sport Foundation. “Trying to provide opportunities for folks who are interested in playing the sport that I love dearly … I do try to mentor as many folks as I can. That’s something I feel is super-important.”

Venus and Serena Williams have undoubtedly had an impact on the sport and potential participants. On the scene for almost three decades, their presence has been decisive. Green said the fact that other Black pros have followed them shows that the sisters were not an anomaly. Kids taking up tennis currently look at today’s young professional players.

“I do think we’re seeing more Black kids interested in tennis and seeing the sport as a place where they belong,” said Green. “Representation matters. When young players see folks like Coco [Gauff], [Frances] Tiafoe, Ben Shelton, and other Black players competing on the biggest stages, that definitely makes it feel more real, more possible. I see a lot of excitement with young players seeing pros who look like them on the large stages. They believe there is more of a pathway for them than there was in the past.”

The Black Women in Sport Foundation has programming that provides opportunities for people to try what would be considered nontraditional sports, including tennis. While opportunities are growing, Green is honest that there are still people who think tennis isn’t for them. “Uplifting and growing the game and helping others stay in the game involves access, improving coaching, and taking a lot of the financial burden out of the game,” she said. “All of these things work in concert to grow the sport and help folks continue to play it.”

The USTA Foundation works year-round to increase access to tennis. Last year, it launched the Community Impact Hub initiative, which is projected to reach more than 630,000 young people and families, implement new youth tennis programming in more than 570 schools, refurbish at least 160 tennis courts, and recruit more than 2,000 new coaches in participating communities by the end of 2027. Some programs will use red balls — tennis balls used in beginner programs — that allow small courts to be set up in school gyms and operate year-round.

NYJTL is among the 10 community-based organizations that are part of the USTA Foundation’s National Junior Tennis & Learning (NJTL) network. There are immersive, free USTA activations this month, including the U.S. Open Experience at Hudson Yards and the first-ever traveling U.S. Open Ice Cream Truck, which brought free ice cream and other U.S. Open surprises to public courts in each of the five boroughs.

To ramp up enthusiasm for the U.S. Open and get people interested in tennis in a new, fun way, the U.S. Open’s YouTube channel is presenting a five-episode competition series, “Rally the Boroughs,” which began on August 15, with new episodes dropping each Saturday through September 12. It basically turned NYC into a tennis-themed playground as three teams of tennis enthusiasts race through all five boroughs, solving clues, taking on unique challenges, and even doing tennis challenges. Tennis-loving couple Ashley Cummings and Sean Cort represent Harlem.

“I started playing as a child with my dad,” said Cummings, a registered nurse working for a healthcare tech company and doing per diem work in hospitals who is also creator of Natural ASH® body butter. Tennis was a recreational hobby for Cummings, but a few years ago, she became more serious and started working with a trainer, as well as playing consistently.

Cort was also introduced to the sport by his father. He played a lot growing up in Brooklyn and Harlem, but at Cardinal Hayes High School in the Bronx, he switched to football because there was no tennis team. He played football through college, but his love of tennis remained.  

“With the birth of our son, Andrew, who’s 4, I’ve picked up tennis immensely,” said Cort, an entrepreneur (Belchez NYC) and creative strategist. “Andrew hits every day. We’re doing something tennis-related every single day. It rekindled my love for tennis. I’m so happy that Ashley also plays.”

After hearing about a casting call for a competition show involving tennis, Cummings and Cort applied with a video that included their son, showing they are a tennis-loving family. Selected for the show, it was game on. While they cannot divulge details about the episodes, they do say they hope the show will inspire kids and adults to pick up a racket and give tennis a try.

“Young Black children, Black families, will see us as parents taking the time together playing tennis, and how it helps the health of a family,” said Cummings. “Also, introducing the sport to our child at a young age helps his development along with school. I hope it creates a positive and fun outlook for somebody else to say, ‘Let me start playing tennis. It’s a total body workout. It’s great for my health and for my mind.’ You never know where it will take you.”

Cort noted that “tennis is easily accessible. I want to be one of the many people that sing the praises of tennis and introduce tennis early on to my son and his friends. People should know they don’t need to be at a country club. Tennis can’t be elitist; tennis cannot just be a white sport, because the lifeline of any sport needs diversity.”

Growing up in Brooklyn, Howard University senior Imani Jean lived across the street from two tennis courts. Her tennis journey began at age seven when her mother heard about an introductory opportunity run by the USTA. In her early years in the sport, she availed herself of various programs in the city, including NYJTL and the Harlem Junior Tennis and Education Program. At 13, she began regularly traveling to Maryland to train at the Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC).

Jean understands that she and her Howard teammates inspire kids to see themselves in the sport. “They see how much fun we have on the court,” she said. “My teammates and I are always high energy. Our matches can inspire youngsters to at least try tennis. Maybe even find a USTA free program.”

Howard’s tennis players volunteer at events in the Washington, D.C., area and this week’s Arthur Ashe Kids Day. Associate head coach Zach Tobias said this event is an important experience for the student-athletes, enabling them to see their role in inspiring the next generation of young players.

“We feel it’s a great inspiration for young people to see and be able to talk [about] what they want to be,” said Tobias. “It’s very rare that you see that level of representation and quite frankly, that matters for young people.”

At the upcoming HBCU National Tennis Championships (September 17–20 in Atlanta), there will be question-and-answer sessions. “We encourage our players to share their stories, as well as our stories as coaches in tennis,” Tobias said. “The kids and parents come up and say, ‘We’ve never seen a team that looks like you competing and playing at this level.’”

Tobias has experience in working with programs that provide youth opportunities, including the Prince George’s Tennis & Education Foundation (PRTEF). He managed PGTEF’s junior outreach program, which has introduced thousands of Prince George’s County youth to tennis through a partnership with the county’s public schools.

“The legacy of those NJTLs, as well as the community tennis associations, has definitely been instrumental at the grassroots level [in] getting kids involved in tennis and even developing them into high-performance players,” said Tobias. “USTA is doing a great job with their USTA coaching platform, trying to expand the resources to different communities. The developmental pathways are in a great space right now.”