The most interesting thing about racket sports right now is not so much which of them is growing fastest but how differently countries are choosing their racket sport identity.
Lets look at the numbers.
In Spain, padel has already overtaken tennis: 12.5% of the population plays padel and only 8.3% plays tennis
Meanwhile in the United States, pickleball participation has exploded to an estimated 19–36 million players, potentially putting it level with tennis participation …..depending on the methodology used.
But then, zooming out globally, you realise tennis still quietly dominates almost everywhere else.
- Italy still has around 6 million tennis players (10.2% penetration).
- The UK sits at roughly 7.2%.
- Sweden at 9.5%.
- China already has an estimated 20–30 million tennis players despite relatively low penetration rates overall.
And that’s the point: tennis still rules the rackets world
Padel and pickleball may be growing aggressively, but tennis remains the only truly global racket ecosystem. It has the deepest infrastructure, strongest coaching pathways, biggest event ecosystem and most established aspirational value.
At the same time, the newer sports are exposing weaknesses tennis ignored for years. Consumers increasingly want things like easier onboarding, more social play, lower intimidation, and formats that fit modern urban lifestyles.
That is exactly why padel is thriving in dense urban markets like Spain and the UAE. And why pickleball is exploding in the US among both younger professionals and older recreational players.
The facilities performing best are no longer obsessed with defending one sport against another. They’re building multi-racket ecosystems instead. Commercially, that will makes increasing sense because different sports solve different participation problems:
Tennis delivers prestige and aspiration
Padel delivers social engagement
Pickleball delivers accessibility
The clubs that understand this shift early will probably dominate the next decade, whilst the ones still treating racket sports as a zero-sum war may struggle.
(Originally published on LinkedIn)
