Dedicated viewers are the heartbeat of any sport. Their presence, excitement, and passion fuel the essence of any competition, pushing athletes to break boundaries. Tennis is no exception. But do the new generation viewers find it less captivating? Naomi Osaka’s coach, Patrick Mouratoglou, offers a compelling thought on how the game has evolved across generations. Curious about what he had to say?

As a prominent French coach of talented players like Marcos Baghdatis, Serena Williams, Grigor Dimitrov, Holger Rune, and Naomi Osaka, Mourtoglou has an eccentric knowledge of the sport. Often he likes to speak about his perspective on tennis highlighting the things he would like to change in the sport and how he would like to add more elements. Now, he has offered an interesting perspective on how tennis as a product is changing and transforming in the new age of social media.

In an episode of Tennis Insider Club’s podcast, the French coach said, “I think it is a critical time for tennis in general times are changing incredibly. The young generation they’ve been born with social media, streaming platforms, video games. It’s a different world. Completely different. And we have to understand that and we have to understand how these people who are now under 40 years old are going to consume, because we are selling a product. Tennis is a product.”

His words highlighted how the age of the internet and especially social media has changed the way people perceive tennis. Now, it is more like a product with various mediums like podcasts, social media, and websites – TV is not there anymore. Mouratoglou further added, “ When I was 10, there were three channels. No video games, no streaming platforms of course, and on one of those three channels during Roland Garros was only Roland Garros. So everybody was watching. It was easy. And so, everything was slow. Everything was long. There were no other options. So everybody was staying on TV.” Mouratoglou’s words shed light on how the circumstances navigated people to watch tennis because there was no much entertainment available when he was young.

However, things have changed. A wise Mourtoglou now believes, “Today you have a million opportunities. You get bored one second. You lose them. You lose the people. If we had to conceive tennis today, we have to do a completely different product if we wanted to seduce people under 40.” His opinion also highlighted how the players and the organizers need to bring change in the environment of tennis and make it more appropriate for the new generation if they want to thrive.

However, this is not the famous coach’s first revelation like that. Previously he said, he was alarmed “by the fact that the fanbase of tennis was getting older.” However, he not just pondered the challenges but also dropped a suggestion that might help the sport garner more young viewers.

Patrick Mouratoglou offered great suggestions to make tennis attractive to new-age audience

At the beginning, Serena Williams’ former coach highlights the problem. “You have a format that is more than a hundred years old and hasn’t evolved. So this creates a big gap between the generation that we want to aim at, which is the future, and the formatting itself,” he addressed showing where tennis lacks. Then he delved into the resolutions. Mouratoglou suggested “a second league with a second audience” without diminishing the value of the ATP and WTA tours. “The pitch was this one: if we had to create tennis today, knowing what we know about how people consume [content], what would it look like?”  he raised the statement to back his logic.

The French coach finally said, “The story about sport cannot be only two guys hitting a tennis ball. It has to be much more than that if you want to bring new fans onboard.” His suggestions brought a new perspective highlighting ways the sport can generate more viewers.

Patrick Mouratoglou’s experience and knowledge in tennis and business make his statements quite interesting. For a time, tennis was the game of elites limited within communities. Now it has reached a global audience and to include young people in its fraternity, the organizers and tennis enthusiasts need to bring more innovative ideas, ideas that are familiar to the new generation. Do you think his opinion makes sense for the sport?