Matthew Willis is my favourite tennis journalist. His work mainly focuses on what the sport will look like in the future as well as analysis of professional play. He writes for the company 'The Racquet' which he founded.
This particular piece of his work was inspired by comments made by one of the world's top coaches, Patrick Mouratoglou. Having coached many top players, most notably Serena Williams, as well as founding one of the most renowned academies in the world, Patrick's stock has never been higher. If you are unfamiliar with him I would highly recommend watching some of his coaching videos, which have raised the standard when it comes to online coaching. I'll be sure to post some of those in the future.
Anyway, the bottom line is when Patrick speaks, the tennis world tends to take notice. On this occasion he made a controversial statement whilst promoting his 'Ultimate Tennis Showdown' event, an event which trialed various ideas to make tennis a more enjoyable watching experience.
“Ten years ago the average age of the tennis fan was 51 years old. Today it’s 61. In ten years it’s going to be 71, Tennis is not able to renew its fanbase. The world has evolved in the last 10-20 years but tennis has never changed. Tennis is in trouble, I want tennis to survive.”
In his piece 'The Modernisation Of Tennis' Matthew Willis evaluates whether there is any truth behind these comments and explores the many ways that Tennis may need to evolve to keep it fresh and appealing for future generations. It's one of the most eye opening, detailed and insightful articles regarding the future of tennis.