Why tennis is struggling for players

Yep. Kids do not exercise like they used to. Part of the problem. Also it has just lost popularity and doubt it will ever come back. For me, I lost interest watching when the players(especially women) started the new cool thing some years ago of yelling out grunts. Wounder how tennis got along for a hundred years without grunts. There is absolutely no reason for it and is just a habit.

You have some valid points that you brought up in your writings but I think the main factor isn't just there is more sport options but I think parents are becoming complacent. Parents idea of recreation for their children used to be sports and outdoor activities. This type of idea has shifted into technology. Now they are too lazy to commit that much time to their children so now Children are brought up playing video games or being on social media for their main source of recreation, it's cheap and it's easy. This has lead to an increasing rate of childhood obesity and mental illness. Children need sport, it prepares them for the real world, competition, desire to succeed, it helps release dopamine and dopamine. But saying this I should indicate that the parents aren't fully at fault because of the rapid pace of society, there isn't much time to spend with their children. The traditional way was that we used to be able to support families with one source of income but now it's a struggle even doing that. It's a bleak future I see for sports. Technology has not just ruined the way we communicate it has ruined our next generation. I don't condemn technology it's great for learning and information but that should be it's sole purpose. No video games and no social media. You'll see an huge increase in all sports and a better society.

Jordan may have started in the NBA in 1984 but he was pretty much unknown in Australia until 1989 when the ABC and then Channel 10 started showing highlights of the NBA. I don't think tennis was at a peak in Australia in the 1980s and 90s. Tennis courts have been disappearing in Sydney since the early 80s and Australia had only 2 grand slam champions (Cash 1 and Rafter 2) from 1978 to 2001. Rafter was very popular with the general public but Cash was too busy abusing journalists and umpires to have any long term popularity (apart from his Wimbledon year in 1987). Tennis has fallen away as a participation sport in Australia since tennis became open in the late 1960s and the long line of Aussie champions ended with Newcombe. I think the Australian Open is more popular now than ever - each year they set attendance records - partly due to Hewitt and partly due to all time greats like Federer, Nadal and Djokovic. But I agree that it appears that fewer people play tennis now than say 40 years ago. There are still a number of tennis courts in my area but they always seem to be empty.

There's many reasons that tennis is struggling for players - agree with a lot of what you've written - there are many more sports these days, developer issues, but there are also many other reasons. Simple ones like Saturday trading - this was a traditional spot for mixed comps, but now that many kids (and adults) now work this day, numbers have dropped. There is also the problem of not adapting to today's faster pasted society. Many of the older players like to have a tea break, have a bit of a chat between sets, dragging out comps to 4-5 hours when 2 - 2 and a half hours should be the maximum. Tennis Australia I think took it's eyes off the ball, so to speak, when it was going great guns for so many years and neglected the grass roots base. They have, over the past few years, tried to change this situation and have introduced new tennis leagues that will hopefully push people into playing the the local clubs and associations. All the kids used to chase points around all the tournaments and the local comps got neglected. By reducing the tournaments to holiday times, the local comps have a chance to get the better people to play and increase competitiveness. The cost is also quite prohibitive - lessons start at around $80, rackets are expensive, court hire isn't cheap. Some councils view courts as money making opportunities and therefore rents are far more than say bowling greens. Add to this that now the whole world plays and many are a lot hungrier for success than some players here who are happy to make a few million rather than put in the hard slog and effort to get to the top. Finally, for now, success makes success - have a few top players, couple of grand slams and the players will want to emulate their heroes.

oztag, touch footy? how many kids in sydney really play AFL? jordan had been huge since 1985

I don't think lack of courts is a big issue. I see plenty of vastly under utilised courts around the place, quite often belonging to a church tennis club...

Mate, there aren't more choices. Oztag and touch have been around for ages and are played midweek Also AFL and basketball have been around for decades too Basketball was massive 25 years ago