Can tennis keep the momentum going post-pandemic?

As many know and have cautiously heralded, tennis and golf have seen spikes in their club-level and amateur participant numbers during the COVID-19 pandemic to date.

As reported by Matthew Futterman and Bill Pennington for The New York Times, amidst a multitude of other outlets, while the average age of a non-professional tennis player is 32 in the United States, leaders in the organized sport have relished its rise from around mid-2020 to present.

The Times put it this way: "Data from the Physical Activity Council’s recent participation report, which monitors activity in more than 100 sports and activities, showed tennis participation rose 22 percent in 2020, with 21.6 million Americans saying they played the sport at least once. That included nearly 3 million new players and 3.8 million Americans who returned to the sport after a significant hiatus, a 40 percent increase from the previous year."

As to how tennis coaches, ambassadors, and facility owners will find a way to hold captive its tennis-playing audience, even grow it further, remains to be seen. Meeting players "where they are," not expecting to develop league champs but rather to get people to plainly enjoy the sport, remains key.

For one tennis-club owner, it's inviting food trucks to make the rounds. For another, it's the classic word-of-mouth factor, seeking to drive socially distanced friend-finding and -making. So many feel their social lives are in dire straits compared to pre-pandemic existences.

Still others have their ways of staying not just "afloat" but focused, from April 2020 to present.

What's more: They're not establishing an "us versus them" approach to pickleball. One who wields the "weapon of choice" for one may be quite likely to do it with the other. In the so-called before-times to now: Racquet sports unite.

Read the full story to learn more, and sound off on Twitter to @Tennisand myself at @jonscott9 as to what you'd do to grow the game in our largely post-coronavirus "new world order," in 2021 and beyond.

Keep this in mind, all the same: We're not out of the proverbial "woods" yet. See below, and stay smart and safe out there.