The 2014 holiday shopping season was a welcomed boost to tennis racquet sales in the pro/specialty retail market this year. From October to December, traditionally peak "shopping" season in the U.S., tennis racquet unit sales increased 4% over the same period last year.

The TIA recently released two of its annual  market intelligence reports—the Late Season Court Activity Monitor and the TIA Consumer Study, highlighting important trends in the tennis industry in 2014.

Shoppers across the nation showed strong support for local independent businesses, including tennis retailers, on Small Business Saturday. About 88 million consumers “Shopped Small” on Nov. 29, up 14.9 percent from a year ago, according to the results from the Small Business Saturday Consumer Insights Survey, released by the National Federation of Independent  Business (NFIB) and American Express.

The recently released 2014 TIA Tennis Participation Study shows gains in the total number of tennis players, but also a growing interest for playing tennis among Americans. The report is derived from the annual Physical Activity Council (PAC) Participation Report, the nation's largest single-source sports study, which looks at participation for more than 120 sports and activities.

The tennis marketplace experienced some challenges through the first half of 2014, however, Q3 wholesale shipment results point to a brighter conclusion for the second half of the year.

Tennis is the only traditional participation sport to be ranked in the Top 10 in terms of participation growth, out of nearly 120 sports and activities surveyed in the recently released Physical Activity Council (PAC) 2014 Participation Report. In the U.S., tennis grew by 658,000 players, or 4%, in the last year, to bring total tennis participation to 17.68 million players, according to PAC data.

With many parts of the country finally recovering from the prolonged winter season, pro/specialty retailers saw a 1% uptick in their unit sales for the month of May as compared to the same period in 2013.

As many parts of the country begin to recover from what was a substantially extended winter season and the first signs of spring began to show, racquet unit sales in the pro/specialty retail channels increased 2% in April.

Tennis participation in the United States is up 4% in 2013 according to the latest Physical Activity Council (PAC) Participation Report, to a total of 17.68 million players. The report also indicated a rise in frequent tennis players (those who play 21+ times per year) of 5% in 2013, to 5.48 million.

The TIA will soon be publishing the fourth edition of its annual State of the Industry report, which analyzes data from the previous year collected through the nearly 80 TIA surveys and research studies and synthesizes this information into a singular easy-to-read report which narrates the story of the tennis industry.