With 2022 coming to an end, the USTA National Campus is celebrating another successful year of serving local tennis players in Lake Nona and beyond. This year also marked the campus’ fifth anniversary after opening its doors in 2017, and there were a number of events and initiatives throughout the year to celebrate the campus’ impact on the local community.
Following two years that were limited by the pandemic, the campus truly returned to full strength in 2022, seeing strong numbers across all major metrics, including overall visitors, number of events, and programming.
In 2022, the USTA National Campus saw more than 250,000 visitors walk through the Welcome Center doors. This includes players, spectators, or simply those wanting to see what the world’s largest tennis facility is all about.
Many of those visitors were a part of the more than 170 events held at the campus in 2022, including local, regional, nationwide and international tennis events. The events span every level of tennis, including junior events, high school tennis, college tennis, professional events, USTA League matches, adaptive tennis and everything in between.
Springtime at the campus was dominated by college tennis, including hosting all of UCF’s home matches as well as the 2022 NCAA Division III National Championships. The campus also hosted multiple USTA Pro Circuit events featuring some of the top professional players in the world.
Other major events hosted in 2022 included the USTA Boys’ 12s National Clay Court Championships, the Tennis On Campus and Junior Team Tennis National Championships, various USTA League National Championships, and, just last month, the National Adaptive Championships.
Local players who enjoyed USTA National Campus programming were a part of more than 2,000 players who participated in programming weekly. The USTA National Campus offers more than 130 different programs for all ages and abilities.
This year also saw the growth of the USTA National Campus’ complimentary racquet sports programming as pickleball and padel both saw growth. Last year, the campus added four pickleball and four padel courts, providing the local community with access to both of those emerging racquet sports.
One program that was new in 2022 was the “Let’s Tennis Lake Nona” campaign, which kicked off at a special US Open watch party held at Boxi Park on Labor Day. The program was designed to attract new and novice players, allowing them to participate in a number of entry-level adult clinics for a flat flee.
In total, nearly 100 local players entered the program accounting for more than 1,000 individual sessions. The program will return in 2023 with the goal of attracting more local players to the sport for a lifetime.
The trends at the USTA National Campus mirrored those nationally for the sport of tennis, which experienced another year of incredible growth nationwide. Since the beginning of the pandemic, millions of Americans have picked up a tennis racquet for the first time or returned to the sport. If you’re one of them (or want to be), the USTA National Campus is the perfect place to fulfill all of your tennis needs in the coming year.
