History
The magazine was established in May 1965, published out of Chicago with a regional focus. Asher Birnbaum of Skokie, IL was the founder, editor and publisher. The tennis boom of the 1970s resulted in a rapid expansion of the magazine, both in scope and circulation. In addition to top tennis stars, celebrities like Johnny Carson and Farrah Fawcett appeared on the cover. It was owned by Golf Digest / Tennis Magazine and sold to the New York Times Company.
Miller Publishing bought the magazine in 1997 from The New York Times Company. It brought on two retired champions as part owners and contributors: first Chris Evert in 2000, who served as publisher for a time, then Pete Sampras in 2003. In the early 2010s the circulation was 600,000 subscriptions, the majority of which were purchased by the United States Tennis Association (USTA) for its members.
In 2014, publisher and USTA board member Jeff Williams purchased controlling interest in Tennis Media Company, owner of the magazine and its offshoot website. In 2017, Sinclair Broadcast Group, owner of Tennis Channel, acquired Tennis Media Company for $8 million, seeking to build synergies between the properties.
In 2022, the magazine ceased its print run after 57 years. The November/December issue was its last print publication. It continued to publish news, analysis and feature articles on the website Tennis.com until 2026, when the website's editorial arm was shut down. Its final online feature article was published on 8 June, after which it pivoted to focus on reporting match scores and tournament information.
Content
Aside from articles about the most recent events and most active players, the magazine also included the recent rankings for both ATP and WTA, as well as brief summaries of the future tournaments, their participants and the past winners.
Chris Evert had her own personal section in the magazine—usually the first page—which was called "Chrissie's Page". Besides Evert and Sampras, other famous players and coaches also contributed to the magazine: Paul Annacone was the Senior Instruction Editor and Brad Gilbert was the Touring Instruction Editor.
During the magazine's final print run in 2022, its senior writing and editing team included long-established contributors such as Peter Bodo, Joel Drucker and Steve Tignor. They all continued to write articles for Tennis.com until its editorial arm was axed.
Legacy
When the magazine was founded, its contributors wanted to bring tennis to mainstream public recognition in the United States. Its inaugural edition recorded the complaint that "Tennis remains a step child of the sports pages; doomed to occasional agate-type recording of tournament scores." They provided coverage of both local tennis, such as junior tournaments in Milwaukee, and rising international stars.
Their vision of tennis becoming more popular was prescient. During the American tennis boom of the 1970s, the magazine soon became the vanguard of American tennis journalism. David Shaftel, the editor of Racquet Magazine, later recalled reading Tennis Magazine throughout the 1980s, and observed that tennis was "so much ... in the culture then".
The magazine's reach was evidenced by the interest of tennis stars such as Arthur Ashe in the 1970s, and the personal involvement of stars Evert and Sampras in the 2000s. As the publication aged, it continued to thrive on new reporting, as well preserving and republishing its early—now historical—interviews with tennis stars. Several of the sport's most prominent modern journalists, such as Bodo and Tignor, made their careers at the magazine.
In his eulogy of the magazine, Owen Lewis for Defector.com described Tennis as "the standard-bearing publication about the game for decades".
