Inspiring More People to Play Tennis Is the Vision
of New USTA SoCal President Cynthia Neiman

The World’s Healthiest Sport Has An Opportunity for Even Greater Growth

It’s a warm Sunday morning in Southern California.  The setting is a newly refurbished public tennis facility.  On Court One, there gathers a regular foursome that’s been playing with one another for nearly 20 years.  Combined age: 308.  On Court Two, a pair of 40-something attorneys meet for their weekly match.  On Court Three, two people in their 20s are beginning their first date with a half-court rally.  On Court Four, three teenagers, who want to try out for their high school tennis team, are drilling.  Court Five is a teaching court.  The instructor began the day with a private lesson for a 10-year-old and is now conducting a clinic for six people who’ve never played before.  Once that’s over, she’ll give a lesson to a 50-year-old who’s trying to change his forehand, followed by a family of four that started the game a few months ago and now wants to learn the nuances of doubles.  And on Court Six, eight people are engaged in a 90-minute Liveball session.  

The way new USTA Southern California president of the board Cynthia Neiman sees it, those six courts represent an ideal tennis community – different people at different ages, skill levels and intentions all playing a game and belonging to a community that has deep roots in this region and its base of 2.5 million tennis players.  And even better news for all: Science has recently proven that tennis carries tremendous benefits.  According to the Copenhagen City Heart Study, which for 25 years followed more than 8,500 people, tennis is the world’s healthiest sport.  The study concluded that a tennis player will live nearly a decade longer than a typical life expectancy.  No other sport matches this data point.  

Tennis is the World’s Healthiest Sport – Then What?

“The health benefits of tennis are impressive because of all the pieces that come together in one sport: cardio, skill-building, problem-solving, resilience, teamwork, and a strong social connection,” says Neiman, a lifelong player who still competes on USTA league teams.  “These attributes all represent an opportunity to grow the game in new ways because tennis is truly a lifetime sport.”  

In 2024, the USTA announced “35 by ‘35” – a goal of 35 million tennis players in America by the year 2035.  Currently, there are 25 million.  A Bain study revealed that another 25 million are interested in trying tennis.  But as Neiman points out, many who’ve yet to play believe that tennis is extremely difficult, perceived barriers posed by everything from difficulty learning how to hit the ball to a heavy focus on competition and challenges finding hitting partners and available courts.  All of that can be daunting.  “So how do we get people to pick up a racquet and enjoy tennis by focusing on how fun it is?” asks Neiman.  “We can accomplish this with great facilities, lots of instructional options, and as many different programs serving as many different age groups and abilities as possible.”    

Neiman has been a marketing professional for 40 years.  A common misperception holds that a person who works in marketing is focused on catchy advertisements and eye-catching design.  But this description captures only one tiny part of the job.  While Neiman has certainly created and directed many ad campaigns and design efforts, she’s also highly skilled in one of the foundations of a successful marketing effort: leaning heavily on consumer insights of specific target audiences to develop the product or service they want and describing it in a way that is builds a deep, emotional connection.

Having learned as far back as childhood the famous phrase that “retail is detail,” Neiman has made a living listening to consumers and creating compelling marketing programs and environments that most resonates with them. Neiman learned these skills from some of the best brands in the world, such as global furniture retailer IKEA, toy giant Mattel, and innovative baby products manufacturer Munchkin.  For the past seven years, Neiman combined her consumer products marketing expertise with her connection to children and families as the chief marketing & experience officer at Children’s Hospital of Orange County (CHOC, now a part of Rady Children’s Health, the 5th largest pediatric healthcare system in the county). Neiman’s career marketing to children and families and her more recent healthcare background serve (pun intended) as the perfect springboard to reaching many of health-conscious target audiences interested in tennis.

As one example, in 2020 Neiman created “Family Tennis,” a six-week program that jointly introduced parents and children to the game at facilities in Long Beach, Costa Mesa, and Griffith Park.  “Family Tennis” had many distinct and creative elements, including a “Word of the Day” focused on such developmental concepts as teamwork, responsibility, and sportsmanship.  “Cynthia understands what it takes to make tennis accessible to as wide a range of people as possible,” says Marty Woods, who ran Griffith Park’s “Family Tennis” program.  According to Neiman, “‘Family Tennis’ was a fun way to bring families together, make memories, and enjoy the sport.  This is how you grow the game.”    

A New Approach to Participation

Such programs as “Family Tennis” also fit into a nationwide paradigm shift.  “People have traditionally joined the section so they can compete in leagues and tournaments,” says Chris Lewis, a USTA SoCal board member who is also the first vice president of the USTA.  “But these days, the USTA and all the sections are putting more of an emphasis on getting people to play.  There are so many ways to engage with tennis.  It doesn’t have to be competitive.  It can be purely about exercise and enjoyment.”  

Neiman is very excited about the “Taking it to the Streets” program, an effort to create pop-up tennis events at shopping center parking lots, local running events, and more.  “We need to be in those non-traditional places where people aren’t playing or haven’t played,” says USTA SoCal executive director Trevor Kronemann.  “We have always been good at reaching the converted, with leagues and tournaments.  Now’s our opportunity to reach those who have an interest in tennis, but have never picked up a racquet.”      

“Taking it to the Streets” dovetails perfectly with a dynamic initiative taking place in the section’s San Diego district.  Under the leadership of district president and new USTA SoCal executive committee member Jeff Greenwald and San Diego-based teaching pro Matt Previdi, hundreds of San Diego adults are being introduced to tennis by initially playing with an orange ball – a ball with less compression than the customary yellow ball.  Known as an “adult progression” program, this effort involves playing tennis inside the service lines and giving the players a chance to rapidly gain technical and tactical proficiency.  From there, players progress to playing with green-dot balls and, eventually, yellow balls.  “This is precisely the kind of program that greatly grows the game,” says Greenwald.  As of this writing, six facilities throughout the San Diego area are actively participating in this program, with many more soon to get into the mix.    

Another priority on the path to building the best possible tennis community is to increase the quality of the region’s 12,000 tennis courts, many of which need resurfacing, new nets, refurbished lights, windscreens, benches, as well as the best possible cadre of instructors who concurrently teach and create dynamic tennis environments.  In the years to come, the section would also like to add several thousand more courts.  “But first,” says Kronemann, “let’s make our current facilities as dynamic and active as possible.  Let’s energize them.”  Neiman concurs.  “I’m all about grass-roots tennis and making playable, good-looking courts as accessible as possible for everyone,” she says.   

A Life in Tennis, A Career Spent Creating Experiences

Neiman’s view of what tennis can be has been greatly shaped both by her professional career in marketing and a lifetime spent in tennis. Growing up in Tarzana, Neiman began to play tennis in the ‘70s.  These were the tennis boom years, when participation tripled.  “You’d go to the park and hang out all day,” says Neiman, as she recalled hours spent with peers and adults alike, as well as many a weekend playing junior tournaments all over Southern California.  So enthralled was Neiman by one of that decade’s superstars, Swedish tennis superstar Bjorn Borg, that she spent the summer of 1974 studying in Sweden and lived with a family who all played tennis.  Winner of the LA City High School girls doubles title in 1975, Neiman spent the next year playing on the boys’ tennis team at Birmingham High.  

Alongside the tennis, Neiman was inspired by her father Ben, who worked for such retailers as the May Company and influenced her desire to pursue a career in marketing.  Tennis remained a passion.  As an academic scholarship student at UCLA, Neiman earned a spot on the women’s team as a walk-on and spent summers teaching at a tennis camp run by then UCLA men’s coach Glenn Bassett.  

Upon graduating from UCLA with a degree in economics, Neiman’s work life focused on creating compelling experiences for consumers.  In the late ‘80s, after earning an MBA at Vanderbilt, Neiman saw that IKEA, the iconic Swedish furniture retailer, was about to launch itself in Southern California.  Eager to be on the ground floor, Neiman’s ace-in-the-hole was that, thanks to that summer in Sweden and a year of taking Swedish classes at UCLA, she could speak the language.

Away from tennis for a decade as she built a career and raised children, Neiman returned to the game in the late ‘90s, playing with friends and on league teams at Braemar Country Club in Tarzana.  Years later, she began to provide marketing and communications advice for Woods, a fellow Braemar member, and the Executive Director of the non-profit Pete Brown Junior Tennis Program that he runs in South Central Los Angeles.  In 2020, Neiman joined the USTA SoCal board and was subsequently deeply involved in the marketing and planning of the SoCal Pro Series, a circuit of events for young professionals that was launched in 2022.  “She brings an incredibly fresh perspective to our sport,” says current board member and former USTA SoCal executive director Bob Kramer.  

“Tennis has given me so much,” says Neiman. “No matter where I’ve lived in the world, I’ve always made my friends through tennis. Our sport is the healthiest sport in the world and Southern California has such an important legacy and has long offered so many ways to enjoy it.  Our mission now as a board, a staff, and a section is to continually build on our momentum and create even more ways for people of all ages and stages to sample and enjoy tennis to create their own amazing tennis memories that have been a cornerstone of my life.”