tenuous

TENNIS: Courting new players in tenuous economic climate
Jordan Aldred has the sights on her tennis career set high. Really high if you consider she’s entering her sophomore year at Niagara-Wheat field High School and has never played the game competitively.

“My plan is to play through college. I don’t know if that’ll work out, but I’d like to try,” Aldred said this week while working out on the N-W courts in preparation for the school’s upcoming tryouts. “But I have a lot of goals for college, so who knows? I think I’ll keep doing it no matter what. Even if I don’t make the team, I think I’ll keep practicing and I’ll try to make the team next year. It’s fun.”

Aldred, 14, isn’t alone in her new found passion for the game. Tennis has emerged as a surprising winner in the recent economic downturn, a sport that can played at little cost and with outstanding health benefits. A survey released by the U.S. Tennis Association said that almost 27 million Americans played tennis in 2008 — the largest number in 15 years — and six million tried it for the first time.

“I think it goes in a cycle,” said Kristen Janese, the Niagara-Wheat field varsity girls tennis coach, and a longtime advocate of the game. “When I started coaching 14 years ago, there was a huge group of kids. Then it calmed down quite a bit when the more extreme sports got the TV coverage and they got popular. The coverage of tennis and the motivation to play dropped a little, but I feel like seeing Venus and Serena Williams on TV helps, at least on the women’s side.”

Janese has noticed a surprising trend in first-timers who understand the game’s nuances, in part because of the Wii Sports craze. Tennis is one of the games that comes with most Nintendo Wii systems, and that helps introduce facets of the game that she typically needs to teach newbies.

“More of the younger kids are coming in already knowing how to keep score and they already have an idea how to swing the racket,” Janese said. “It’s kind of exciting.”

So between understanding the game’s rules, and having equipment at their disposal, more newcomers are willing to give the game a try.

“Everyone has tennis shoes,” said Kurt Kamperman, the United States Tennis Association’s CEO of community tennis. “It helps that there are low-cost, no-cost public courts in almost every city, and you don’t need a lot to get started.”

It also doesn’t eat up an entire afternoon.

“In this economy, to spend 4-5 hours playing a round of golf, it’s a challenge,” Kamperman said, “where in 90 minutes, you can get to the courts, get a good workout in and you’re back home.”

While golf’s TV ratings have increased in the Tiger Woods era, the number of actual golfers has flattened over the past few years (down 1.4 million players since 2005, to 28.6 million). Meanwhile, tennis is regaining popularity and is the fifth-fastest-growing sporting activity this decade behind pilates, the elliptical machine, lacrosse and, stretching.

Summertime in Western New York means plenty of available public courts, but tennis is not free: A high-quality racket can cost $100 or more, but that’s still less than a new set of irons or a new driver, and industry leaders are conscious about keeping the price of a can of balls at less than $3.

“It’s affordable. You only need a racket and a can of balls to get out there and play,” Janese said. “There’s a place for everybody. There’s singles, couples, doubles, boys, girls, fathers, mothers, sons, daughters. It’s just a place where the family can get together and get excited to be out doing something. And with every conversation that talks about sports you have to talk about staying physically fit. This helps.”

The family aspect is one that wasn’t lost on Aldred and her companions warming up at N-W on Thursday. Barbara Dafoe, 15, and her sister Ellie, 12, said they started playing with their father and were eager to tryout for the team after seeing the results.

“We just started playing,” Barbara said. “It looks boring on TV, but it’s fun to play.”

Janese made the trip to Toronto last week to watch some of the Rogers Cup women’s tournament and she plans on watching plenty of coverage on the upcoming U.S. Open, which qualifying starts this Tuesday at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center.

Yet the movement is at the grassroots level, on courts like those at Niagara-Wheat field, where players continue to come out for the sport in larger numbers.

“I’ve seen an increase each year I’ve been here,” said Janese, who played at N-W and has been the coach there for four years after stints at Canisius College and Sacred Heart. “Every time we start thinking tennis is dying it starts growing again.”

And that will bring those like Alexa Bax, 15, back to the pavement.

“It was really fun,” said Bax, who was playing for the first time. “I have plenty of things to work on. I thought it was just hitting the ball back and forth, but there’s a lot more to it. But I recently found tennis more interesting than I ever had before and I just wanted to try it.”