Tennis Headlines

FILA Celebrates 110th Anniversary With New Collections

To honor the 110th anniversary of the brand, FILA recently released two, all-new collections worn on court by select sponsored tennis players at the final Grand Slam of the season. World No. 1 Ash Barty and Americans John Isner, Reilly Opelka, and Sam Querrey donned the exclusive “110 Year Collection,” while Sofia Kenin, Karolina Pliskova, and Diego Schwartzman sported the new Wildcard Collection in New York City.

The 110 Year Collection celebrates the brand’s signature style with fashionforward designs inspired by sketches from the FILA archives. The classic line features a color palette of FILA Navy/White/Marina Blue, harkening back to the brand’s roots in tennis, which includes some of the most iconic and recognizable styles in history. All pieces in the 110 Year Collection feature a special FILA x 110 Anniversary logo, including three upgraded footwear styles that are ready to play both on and off the court.

The Wildcard Collection features modern takes on styles of the past with a color palette of rattan/dusk blue/stucco/black and moonlight. FILA sponsored athletes who wore the Wildcard Collection in New York also debuted two limited-edition styles of the Axilus 2 Energized shoe, dominated by either a white palette or a statement-making stucco colorway. See more in the Gift Guide, beginning on page 60.

Did You Know: 35 of the Top 100 Players at This year’s US Open Competed with Babolat Racquets

According to Babolat, its racquets were used by 35 of the Top 100 players in this year’s US Open. Seventeen players in the men’s draw (excluding two top players who missed the tournament due to injury) and 18 players on the women’s side are sponsored by Babolat. The French manufacturer’s data reports that its Pure Aero models are the most popular among professional players.

‘Point of Impact’ Added to Library at International Tennis Hall of Fame

Author Roy Barth’s book, “Point of Impact,” has been added to the permanent collection of the library at the International Tennis Hall of Fame in Newport, Rhode Island.

Barth’s book is his personal story woven though the history of tennis and a series of life lessons. Part One is The Game of Tennis, and Part Two is The Business of Tennis, but the lessons are the same. Tennis enthusiasts — from the casual spectator, to the game’s facilitators, to the professional-level player — will enjoy this narrative and identify with Roy’s insights, his obstacles, and his commitment to the game.

From 1969 through 1975, Barth played on the professional tennis tour where he was ranked as high as #8 in men’s singles and #2 in men’s doubles in the United States, and Top 40 in the world. He retired from the professional tennis tour in 1975 and settled in Charleston, South Carolina, where he became the resident tennis professional at the Kiawah Island Golf and Tennis Resort until his retirement from coaching in 2018. Learn more about Barth and his book at roybarth.com.

Desirae Krawcyzk Makes History at US Open

American Desirae Krawcyzk (27, Palm Desert, Calif.) made history at the US Open by winning the mixed doubles title with Joe Salisbury (GBR), defeating Marcelo Arevalo (ESA) and Giuliana Olmos (MEX), 7-5, 6-2.

With the victory, the Arizona State alum achieved the rare feat of winning three of four Grand Slam mixed doubles titles in the same year, after she won the French Open with Salisbury and Wimbledon with Neal Skupski (GBR).

She became the seventh player, male or female, who has accomplished that in the Open Era: • 2015 – Martina Hingis and Leander Paes • 1985 – Martina Navratilova • 1979 – Bob Hewitt • 1969 – Marty Riessen and Margaret Court

Meanwhile, Salisbury is the first man to win both the men’s and mixed doubles titles at the US Open since Bob Bryan in 2010.

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Slinger to Acquire Sports Tech Company PlaySight

Slinger, a leading connected sports company known for its portable ball machines, has agreed to acquire PlaySight Interactive Ltd. for $82 million. PlaySight is a pioneer and leader across sports video technology, data capture, highperformance analytics, and automated video production.

Coupled with the recent acquisitions of Foundation Tennis and GAMEFACE.AI, the acquisition of PlaySight immediately expands Slinger’s footprint in the global tennis market, significantly enhances its R&D and AI video capabilities, taps into automated production, live streaming, data and analytics, as well as media and content opportunities and accelerates its growth into new sports with a proven and industry-leading global platform. PlaySight will bring a growing, recurring revenue stream of sports clients and content subscribers to Slinger.

“Our goal is to create a full suite of ‘Watch, Play and Learn’ solutions, the three largest commercial activities in every sport,” said Mike Ballardie, CEO of Slinger. “To accomplish this, we are building a 360-degree platform of products and services to meet the needs of our tennis consumers today, and for other major sports over the next few years. With the acquisition of Foundation Tennis and the announced deals to acquire PlaySight and GameFace.AI, we now have the pieces in place to serve today’s sports consumer in a multitude of ways, from a SaaS business platform to video, streaming and production to artificial intelligence.”

Selected twice by Fast Company as one of the Most Innovative Companies in Sports, PlaySight first launched its proprietary SmartCourt™ platform in tennis, its flagship sport. Today, hundreds of thousands of athletes, coaches, and fans use PlaySight each day across all major sports, from leading tennis federations, academies, colleges, and multi-sport destination venues to NBA Champions and professional sports clubs and leagues.

“Slinger is the right company to take our technology platform to new heights in tennis and other sports,” said PlaySight Interactive Co-Founder and CEO, Chen Shachar. “We share many commonalities from the launch in tennis to the focus on consumer and sports connectivity. Mike and his team have very bold aspirations to build a leading global brand powered by AI technology, and we are thrilled to join their team and add our capabilities and experience.”

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HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

Seasons Greetings fellow ALTA members. As we were able to celebrate live tennis events returning in 2021, including our Truist Atlanta Open presented by Fiserv, more good news on the horizon is that according to the Sports Marketing Survey tennis participation continues to be growing as well!

Plans are well under way for an exciting 2022 Truist Atlanta Open presented by Fiserv, once again to be held at Atlantic Station, so please hold the dates of July 23-31. ALTA members should know that we are already underway with productive player conversations hoping to bring the best field possible to Atlanta once again. Feedback has been extremely positive on our 2021 enhancements, specifically our venue layout and stadium court design. We welcome your constructive feedback since this is the only way we can make positive changes each year.

Our ATP player field that competed in Atlanta this past summer has seen continued success in other ATP events such as Reilly Opelka and John Isner representing Team World in Laver Cup. Additionally, impressive results were seen later in the summer and fall by Jannik Sinner, Frances Tiafoe, Brandon Nakashima and Taylor Fritz, to name a few. As we like to introduce fans to the “Future of American Tennis,” each year look for more young stars coming to Atlanta next summer.

With the Holiday season upon us, there’s no better way to show your love of tennis than getting in early and giving the gift of tennis with our current Holiday Package promotion offer. We love “serving” up this deal! Not only does our holiday package include tickets, but also a tournament cap and a can of official ATP Tour Dunlop balls, all for a great price of $100! Visit www.atlantaopentennis.com for more Holiday Pack information and other tournament updates!

We are thankful for another healthy year due to our friends at OrthoAtlanta, our trusted and reliable medical partner who keep our ATP players on-court competing. They are available to help ALTA players of all ages and levels stay on-court competing as well!

Remember, tennis is a proven safe and “lifetime” sport and we hope to see you soon on the courts and July 23 -31, 2022 for the Truist Atlanta Open presented by Fiserv!

— Eddie Gonzalez Truist Atlanta Open presented by Fiserv Tournament Director gonzalez@atlantaopentennis.com

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