Texas has long held a love affair with the sport of tennis. It may not be as deep a love as it has for football, but it’s still pretty strong with devoted players and followers in Houston, Austin, Dallas, San Antonio and many other places around the state.
With National Tennis Week just concluded July 1, BetTexas.com took a break from covering Texas sports betting issues to look at which states are the most interested in tennis.
BetTexas.com utilized four combined data points to develop the ranking of the 50 U.S States from most to least into tennis. We utilized Google Trend’s five-year search interest of the term, “Tennis,” the Google Trend’s five-year search interest of the term, “Tennis Courts Near Me,” and then awarded five bonus points for the states that have a Top 25 city for players or courts listed on Global Tennis Network.
Most Tennis Loving States
Although there are no Texas betting apps, national operators are preparing for a big two weeks of tennis wagering with Wimbledon kicking off Monday.
Novak Djokovic is the men’s favorite at -175, while Iga Swiatek is the women’s favorite at +220.
Texas in Top 3 When it Comes to Tennis
Texas ranks No. 3 after crunching the numbers, just behind tennis hotbeds in Florida and California. When looking deeper in the data from the Global Tennis Network, the Texas cities ranked in the Top 25 for players are Austin at No. 3 with 1,098, Houston at No. 9 with 844 and Dallas at No. 20 with 439.
On the Top 25 list of courts, Houston ranks No. 1 with 219, followed by Dallas at No. 6 with 135, San Antonio at No. 10 with 122 and Austin at No. 14 with 97 courts. Even El Paso ranks in the Top 25 with 73 courts.
While Florida and California have some of the well-known tennis academies in the country and the world, there are young players from all over who travel to Texas to hone their games and prepare for professional and college careers. According to MyTennisHQ.com, the five best academies in Texas are the San Antonio Tennis Academy at the Alamo Heights Tennis Center, the Houston Tennis Academy at Club Westside, Academy of Tennis Training at Brookhaven in Farmers Branch, the John Newcombe Tennis Ranch near New Braunfels, and the Austin Tennis Academy.
Of course, Texas has helped tennis make history, especially in the women’s game. The first Virginia Slims tournament with the “Original 9” of Billie Jean King, Rosie Casals, Nancy Richey, Peaches Bartkowicz, Kristy Pigeon, Valerie Ziegenfuss, Julie Heldman, Kerry Melville and Judy Tegart Dalton was held at the Houston Racquet Club in 1970. They created the women’s tour that exists today.
And of course one of the biggest spectacles in all of sports happened in Texas three years later when King beat Bobby Riggs in the “Battle of the Sexes” at the Houston Astrodome in front of 50 million viewers in the United States and 90 million worldwide.
So while Texas may be gearing up for another season of high school, college and pro football (although there is no BetMGM Sportsbook Texas, nationally the operator has the Dallas Cowboys at +1600 to win the Super Bowl), there are thousands of Texans looking for a place to play and a place to get better on the tennis court.
