First recognized by President Gerald R. Ford in 1976, National Tennis Week is held annually during the last week of June. Running this year from June 25th to July 1st, tennis week is dedicated to promoting and celebrating the sport of tennis.
In honor of National Tennis Week, FloridaBet.com briefly stepped away from Florida sports betting updates and conducted a study to determine which states in the US love tennis the most. Four factors were considered and a point system was constructed to rank all 50 states accordingly.
America’s Most Tennis Loving States
The first two data points scored are based on search engine interest for the terms “Tennis” and “Tennis Courts Near Me.” An additional 5 bonus points were given to states for each city that fell into in the Top 25 most players listed on the Global Tennis Network. Likewise, 5 points were given to each state for every city inside the Top 25 most tennis courts.
After crunching the numbers, here are the results.
Florida Loves Tennis Most
Game, set, match. When it comes to loving tennis, Florida wins big.
The Sunshine State has five cities in the Top 25 of Global Tennis Network’s listing of cities with the most tennis courts. Likewise, five cities rank within the Top 25 in terms of most active players. Clearly, it’s a paradise for tennis players — both casuals and pros.
It’s also a great place to watch tennis. Every year since 1985, Florida has hosted the Miami Open, one of the world’s top tournaments for men and women pros. This year’s event was held at the Hard Rock Stadium from March 19th to April 2nd.
On the women’s singles side, two-time Wimbledon winner Petra Kvitová took home the championship, defeating 10th seed Elena Rybakina in straight sets. It’s been a come-back year for Kvitová. The Czechian has risen all the way back up to the 9th-ranked tennis player in the world after capturing her second tournament win of the WTA season last week in Berlin.
For the men, the Miami Open singles champion was the red-hot Russian Daniil Medvedev. The 2021 US Open winner now has five wins on the season and is currently ranked 3rd in the world.
Florida also hosted the Delray Beach Open tournament from February 13th to 19th. Part of the ATP World Tour 250 series, the men’s singles championship was won by Taylor Fritz, currently the top American in the world rankings.
While the best tennis players from around the globe may travel to Florida each year to compete, the state has produced several homegrown stars as well.
And one name shines above them all.
Born in Fort Lauderdale, Chris Evert is generally considered to be the greatest female tennis player of the 1970s and 80s. Over the better part of two decades, Evert won 157 singles tournaments, including 18 major titles, boasting a winning percentage of 90%. She was ranked the world number one female tennis player for 260 weeks (or exactly 5 full years).
Incredibly, despite her dominant performance on the court, Evert’s career earnings were just $8.9 million. For what it’s worth, the total purse for the WTA portion of the Miami Open event earlier this year was $8.6 million.
As the home to a number of tennis academies, Florida has also played a pivotal role in developing world-class talent. Some of the tennis pros that trained in Florida en route to becoming household names include Andre Agassi, Maria Sharapova, and of course Venus and Serena Williams.
Whether you’re looking for a casual match on a sunny day, or basking in the greatest of the world’s best players from the bleachers, it’s clear Florida is America’s unofficial tennis capital.
Once sports betting comes to the Sunshine State, Tennis will definitely be a popular sport for Floridians to bet on and we already have all the best Florida sportsbook apps for you to read about.
Author
Jeff Parker is an entertainment writer for FloridaBet.com. A writer for film, television and the internet, Jeff is a life long movie buff, with a Masters Degree in Popular Culture. He lives in Halifax, Nova Scotia, where he works full time as documentary filmmaker and producer.
