Dear Southwest Conference Attendees,
On behalf of USTA Southwest, I’m excited to welcome you to the 2025 Southwest Tennis Conference. This joint conference of both the USTA Southwest and the Racquet Sports Professional Association is a long-standing commitment by our two organizations to work together for the future growth of our sport.
This is an exciting time for tennis, both nationally and within the Southwest. Tennis participation is on an incredible upswing, and the numbers bear out the hard work both of our organizations have put in, with more players than ever before showing up to the courts. Nationally, we’ve reached an all-time high of 25.7 million players (660,000 of those from the Southwest), and USTA membership in the Southwest hit an all-time high of over 15,000 at the end of 2024, a nearly 25% increase in a five-year span. We had 15.5 million tennis play occasions in the Southwest alone last year!
The USTA Southwest is excited to build upon both this trend and the continued excitement for our sport. We have an extremely ambitious goal of reaching 35 million tennis players nationally by 2035. This goal is certainly achievable with a joint effort from both of our organizations working together as we always have. One key item from the recent US Tennis Participation Report for 2024 that struck me was that player retention is the biggest factor in player growth in our Southwest Section. We showed an 86% retention rate of all players in our area, the highest number in the country. This growth is largely due to positive player experience, and quality coaching is critical to player satisfaction and a player’s desire to keep playing. Coaches are the most important resource we have in growing tennis. The partnership between our organizations is vital to the vibrant health of tennis in the Southwest.
As we gather this weekend, I look forward to insightful discussions, and new opportunities to work with you all and hear about your passion for our sport. We at USTA Southwest are excited to continue working side by side with such a dedicated group of professionals. Let’s make new friends and connect with old ones. Most of all, let’s keep it fun on the courts!
Sincerely,
Jana Perpich
USTA Southwest Section President
“Growing tennis to inspire healthier people and communities everywhere”