In much of the world, tennis is already plenty popular. In the UK for instance it’s the primary individual sport, and an article at Pledge Sports ranked it as the sixth most popular sport in the world not too long ago. That said, it’s still stronger in certain regions than others. That same article mentioned that the sport is growing at a serious speed in Asia, which could result in a long-term boost that would see it climb higher on the list.
In part this could be a natural evolution based on a few stars breaking through. Particularly in professional men’s tennis of late we’ve seen a few players from the Far East making their impact felt at the highest levels. 28-year-old Kei Nishikori from Japan was one of the fastest risers in the game a few years ago and is still capable of top-10 level play when healthy. And 21-year-old Hyeon Chung out of South Korea exploded onto the scene earlier this year in a run to the Australian Open (where he lost to the great Roger Federer). Meanwhile if you look at the juniors rankings, Chun Hsin Tseng of Chinese Taipei and Uisung Park of South Korea are in the top 10. If Far East players continue to trickle toward the high end of the rankings like this, it follows that there will be more interest in the sport in this part of the world.
Another factor that might just help to boost tennis popularity in the Far East, however, is the arrival and improvement of virtual reality. China, Japan, and Korea all rank as some of the nations that play the most video games, and it follows that VR gaming is probably going to be very big throughout the region. And when you really think about all the exciting things you could get up to in virtual reality, tennis has to be near the top of the list.
Actually, tennis emerged in a virtual form that may be of interest to a different kind of gamer back in 2016. An online developer called Playtech produced a virtual tennis simulator that effectively amounts to watching a fake match. With games starting every few minutes, it’s a concept aimed at bettors who want to wager on sports but don’t feel like waiting for the real thing – sort of like eSports, without the actual gamers controlling players. It’s believed that this kind of virtual sporting activity has fairly lucrative potential, and with tennis leading the way we could see a lot of Far East gamers getting on board.
In more traditional virtual reality, the path was laid for tennis games years ago with the Nintendo Wii. While Wii Sports was sort of a hit-or-miss concept that had as many critics as it had supporters, it still showed us that a few sports – tennis included – could be a lot of fun to play with nothing more than a motion sensor controller. Virtual reality has the potential to upgrade this experience significantly, such that gamers can feel as if they’re actually on a court, perhaps competing against a professional player in a well-known arena. Such a game could increase general interest in playing tennis, and could also educate gamers about professionals, tournaments, and venues around the world.
To say VR and other games are definitely going to boost tennis in the Far East is still probably a stretch. But it’s certainly easy to imagine there being a substantial impact, particularly given that the East is already liking tennis more and more.
