Tennis, anyone? The now famous drawing-room comedy line was delivered back in the '20s by a young actor named Humphrey Bogart. He projected an image of white-flanneled, upper-crust tennis player that lingers to this day. Yet in the last few years millions of Americans of every age, class and color have taken up the game. The number of outdoor courts is increasing at the rate of 4,600 a year, and indoor facilities have doubled since 1969 to more than 500. By all accounts, tennis is the fastest growing participant sport of the 1970s.
There are two major reasons for the phenomenal spurt of growth. One is the new glamour of big-time tournament tennis, which is partly the result of an infusion of big money into the pro circuits and vastly increased television exposure. Equally important is the enduring national concern for physical fitness and the fact that tennis gets you there faster. Or so its devotees claim, even though orthopedists are doing a big business these days treating tennis elbows, ankles, knees and backs.
On Rooftops. Despite such problems, tennis buffs are spending $267 million a year on paraphernalia ranging from $25 tennis shoes to $385 tennis cannons that fire practice balls. In big cities and affluent suburbs reserved playing space is also costly. The newly organized Love 40 Club, built atop a midtown Manhattan skyscraper and covered during the winter with a bubble, will charge 200 to 300 tennis addicts an average of $1,500 a year for a weekly hour on one of the club's courts. Love 40 is open from 7 a.m. to midnight.
Not surprisingly, tennis has become a popular lure in new housing developments. "For every potential customer who talked about golf we found three who wanted to talk tennis," said Jack Gaines, developer of a 9,000-unit condominium subdivision called Inverrary on the outskirts of Fort Lauderdale, Fla. He put in 20 courts. There will be 48 outdoor and two indoor courts and 106 plush town houses at Lakeway World of Tennis, now abuilding near Austin, Texas. When not actually playing, Lakeway residents can watch closed-circuit television broadcasts of instructional films and professional matches. Or swim in a huge pool shaped like a tennis racket with strings painted across the bottom and a handle painted on the concrete deck.