Actually, the tennis industry is slowly fighting back from a prolonged slump in popularity. San Diego racquet manufacturer ProKennex is riding it out and preparing for the next up cycle. It's too great a game. And there are still roughly 17 million tennis players in the U.S. and millions more around the world. Gilbert concedes that tennis is far from out of the woods.
Professional tennis is entertainment, and some within the industry have forgotten that.
We need the drama of great rivalries that we once had. We need charismatic personalities. A tennis version of Tiger Woods would certainly help. Three years ago, ProKennex believed it had developed the breakthrough technology that would propel it past market leaders Wilson and Prince, but the tennis slump has left that goal unrealized. Today, the tennis business is close to half of what it was five years ago.