{"id":81147,"date":"2025-08-19T12:12:10","date_gmt":"2025-08-19T12:12:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/81147\/"},"modified":"2025-08-19T12:12:10","modified_gmt":"2025-08-19T12:12:10","slug":"atp-tour-partners-with-tiktok-but-can-tennis-embrace-the-irreverence-that-the-platform-loves","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/81147\/","title":{"rendered":"ATP Tour partners with TikTok, but can tennis embrace the irreverence that the platform loves?"},"content":{"rendered":"

Seven million people have watched 24-time Grand Slam champion Novak Djokovic<\/a> dancing to \u201cUptown Funk\u201d by Bruno Mars. Almost 11 million have followed rising star Ben Shelton<\/a> behind the curtain of a commercial shoot. And millions more will watch Carlos Alcaraz doing just about anything \u2014 all on their phone screens.<\/p>\n

The stars of men\u2019s tennis are already giving their fans windows into their careers on TikTok, and the ATP Tour has now signed a strategic content partnership with the social media giant. Players will receive guidance on how to get maximum engagement, while some will collaborate with established tennis creators on the platform. The tour\u2019s own account, which has just under 600,000 followers, will also be bolstered.<\/p>\n

With just 20 of the ATP top 100 on the platform, the tour intends for more of its players to receive the exposure to casual fans that TikTok can bring. Tennis\u2019 most dedicated fans know the intricacies of the sport from top to bottom, but for people who love a Grand Slam but don\u2019t know what a 250-level event is, the sport\u2019s fragmented media landscape<\/a> and limited embrace of stepping stones into its lore has acted as a barrier to entry.<\/p>\n

\u201cTennis culture is really having this extended moment,\u201d said Kat Marquez, TikTok\u2019s lead, North America sports league partnerships, in a video interview on Monday.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhether it\u2019s the fashion associated with it or some of the food elements, there are so many beautiful points that add a unique richness to the sport that I think are uniquely highlighted on TikTok.\u201d<\/p>\n

Andrew Walker, the ATP\u2019s senior vice president of brand and marketing, said in a video interview that \u201ca lot of research shows there\u2019s a significant portion of casual tennis fans who we have an opportunity to do a better job of connecting with.<\/p>\n

\u201cMany of those tennis fans are in the Gen Z or millennial age brackets. So a platform like TikTok gives us an opportunity,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

The partnership follows a similar one with Overtime, the sports media company aimed at Gen Z and Millennial fans. Its interviews have become a fixture on the circuit, asking tennis stars offbeat questions that get them out of their comfort zone. But the question that hangs over this partnership is the same one that looms over tennis\u2019 relationship with TikTok \u2014 and social media \u2014 at large: Can a sport as precious about media rights and highlights as tennis fully embrace the irreverent visual language and spirit of remixing and remaking that makes its output so compelling?<\/p>\n

Tennis has embraced TikTok as the platform has grown, with a 30 percent increase in the performance of content related to the sport in 2025 so far. The ATP has recently leaned into some of its vernacular, casting Flavio Cobolli, the rising Italian talent, as \u201cadmin\u201d in videos on other platforms. The mythical \u201cadmin\u201d is the person who runs an account, and the videos see Cobolli cajoling his fellow stars into being on camera, or just logging on for duty.<\/p>\n

But tennis still lags behind sports such as golf and soccer, with 1.8 million tagged videos compared to 7.1 million and 16.2 million respectively. And even more fundamentally, tennis is yet to fully figure out how to mesh a long-form sport, whose momentum and match action cannot be encapsulated by 30 seconds, with the way the platform thrives on user-generated content (UGC) and remixing.<\/p>\n

The best tennis TikToks<\/a>, of which the U.S. Open\u2019s account is one, make tennis fit the forms of the platform, rather than the other way around.<\/p>\n

And for now, the biggest TikTok stars in the sport are WTA Tour players \u2014 world No. 1 Aryna Sabalenka and world No. 3 Coco Gauff. They embrace the platform, posting dances and offbeat monologues to camera and participating in trends. After Sabalenka at first failed to fully credit Gauff for beating her at the French Open in June, they buried the hatchet with a dance at Wimbledon.<\/p>\n

The ATP started conversations over a formal partnership a few months ago with TikTok executives in Italy \u2014 such a hotbed for tennis currently and the host for the ATP Finals in November, the men\u2019s tour\u2019s flagship event. One of the appeals for tennis and for TikTok is the almost-yearlong global season, which offers the possibility to construct narratives and storylines \u2014 lore \u2014 around players and rivalries over an extended period.<\/p>\n

The Overtime partnership, which has so far seen 60 million views since February, is bringing in an audience mostly composed of people under 35. The ATP wants to continue this trend on TikTok, showing off the players\u2019 personalities in a bid to drive interest in the tour. At this year\u2019s Tour Finals, creators from the eight nations where the Masters 1,000 events (the rung below the Grand Slams and the biggest ATP tournaments) are held will join the players to make videos.<\/p>\n

Both organizations think the partnership will lead to a greater engagement of the casual fan, who might not need to know every result, but is interested in tennis\u2019 wider cultural footprint. When the U.S. Open gets underway this week, users will get a combination of official highlights, jokey videos like the Djokovic one, and behind-the-scenes content like Shelton\u2019s commercial.<\/p>\n

The ATP has produced irreverent content before, like the hit video featuring Djokovic, Alcaraz and Andy Murray that portrayed the tennis circuit as a scripted reality show<\/a>, and Walker is confident that it can do so again. But the sport as a whole, especially when it comes to rights to match footage, is still limited. Tournaments and the tours can post footage and remix it, but some events do not let individual players post footage of their own matches due to media contracts.<\/p>\n

Another wrinkle is the absence of the WTA Tour. Marquez said TikTok was and is open to a partnership with the WTA, which did not comment on the possibility. Walker said discussions remain ongoing over a possible commercial merger between the ATP and WTA Tours, which the WTA confirmed.<\/p>\n

Ultimately, this partnership is the latest example of tennis attempting to capture a younger audience, as well as fans who might recognize the likes of Djokovic and Alcaraz as general sports or TikTok stars first, and learn about the intricacies of their tennis prowess second. While the long-parroted view that the average tennis viewer is in their 60s has some basis in reality on traditional television, it is also a simplistic view of how and why tennis needs to evolve its viewership. It is not just about age, but about the balance between the level of knowledge of the sport and the ease of beginning to understand it.<\/p>\n

In a news release to be issued Tuesday, Rollo Goldstaub, TikTok\u2019s global head of sports partnerships, said that Alcaraz, Shelton, Djokovic and others are \u201cconnecting with growing fan bases by showing their real personalities in captivating content that has turned the sport into a cultural phenomenon that blends competition with entertainment.\u201d<\/p>\n

He added that the new partnership \u201cencourages more players to share their stories, further igniting tennis\u2019 cultural movement on TikTok.\u201d<\/p>\n

Where this leads to will become apparent in the coming years. There is no doubt that TikTok loves tennis, but the sport is still on its way to embracing some of the chaos that makes it such a compelling introduction to a sport more familiar with order.<\/p>\n

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