The 2026 Tennis Resorts Online rankings just dropped and, every year, I find myself scrolling through them with two completely different reactions:
“Some of these resorts absolutely deserve their place.”
…followed shortly afterwards by:
“Can the global racket resort landscape really be this US-centric?”
This year’s Top 100 once again consists overwhelmingly of US-based properties. That surprised me, not because the American resorts are weak — many are exceptional — but because I’ve spent years visiting, consulting with and observing racket sport destinations across Europe, the Middle East and parts of Asia that would comfortably rival many of the names on the list.
The TRO rankings are largely driven by guest reviews. In many ways, that’s a strength. Guest satisfaction matters enormously. A technically brilliant tennis program means little if guests leave unhappy, frustrated or disconnected from the overall experience.
But review-based systems also have blind spots.
Large domestic customer bases naturally generate more reviews for a US-centric website. Resorts with strong hospitality and entertainment ecosystems often create more emotionally positive feedback loops. And, whether we like it or not, some operators are simply better at encouraging satisfied guests to leave reviews than others.
That doesn’t make the rankings wrong.
It just means they may measure “guest happiness” more accurately than they measure pure racket sports quality… and those are obviously not always the same thing.
I’ve personally experienced resorts with extraordinary coaching depth, world-class clay court culture and incredibly strong player development environments that rarely appear in these conversations at all. Some lacked polished marketing. Some catered more to serious players than vacationers. Some simply didn’t have the same review-generating machine behind them. And some had never heard of TRO.
What’s also fascinating is how much the modern racket resort model itself is changing: data suggests that 65% of racket sports participants now play multiple racket disciplines, while 37% of US facilities already offer hybrid padel/pickleball/tennis environments.
The market is clearly shifting toward broader lifestyle and social ecosystems rather than pure tennis-only destinations. That evolution matters because today’s leading resorts are no longer competing solely on court quality, coaching and accommodation.
The differentiators nowadays are:
– atmosphere
– wellness
– sociability
– flexibility
– experience design
– community energy
Perhaps that is what these rankings increasingly reflect.
Not necessarily the “best” tennis resorts in the purest traditional sense…
…but the resorts most aligned with how modern consumers now define a great racket sports experience.
And – honestly – thats probably an important distinction for the entire industry to think about.
(Originally published on LinkedIn)
