Why tennis media is a fragmented mess, from Grand Slam broadcast rights to social media highlights

Alexandra Eala had the biggest week of her tennis career at the Miami Open in March. She beat three Grand Slam champions — Jelena Ostapenko, Madison Keys and Iga Świątek — on her way to the semifinals, where she had 2024 U.S. Open finalist Jessica Pegula on the ropes in what was ultimately a three-set defeat. Eala, 19, who has been making tennis history for the Philippines for most of her life, was the most surprising star of the tournament.

More surprising, for anyone familiar with the uneasy relationship between tennis and media, was how quickly she became a star on the women’s tennis tour’s YouTube, too. By the Monday after her incredible run, Eala was front and center for “Rally the World,” the WTA’s series of videos in which players declare how the sport lets them express their full selves, launched as part of a rebrand in late February.

“This is my stage to rally a nation,” Eala, who became the highest-ranked Filipino player in WTA history at the end of March, says.

Eala used the Miami Open’s teal and blue courts as her living room for most of that tournament, but the wider stage on which tennis broadcasts itself — across television, streaming and social media — is more often an exercise in restricted views and convoluted entry points. When world No. 3 Coco Gauff, who has as much star power on TikTok as she does on the tennis court, was asked about what she wanted the WTA to improve, she focused on user-generated content: the clips, highlights packages, memes and other media that players and fans make, separate from the official output of the tennis tours or rights holders. The WTA cannot create this itself, because then it wouldn’t be user-generated, but it can follow the outlines of what makes it so compelling.

“Obviously I’m someone who is on social media a lot. A lot more TikToks and following the trends that a lot of the other sports are doing, which I know that WTA has a plan in place … they ask for feedback and that was the main thing I noticed,” Gauff said in a news conference at Indian Wells.

The tension between official and unofficial content — and how the rights and deals are made that decide which is which — are at the center of tennis’ future.

If a tennis fan in the United States wants to watch the next Grand Slam, the French Open at Roland Garros, Paris, they have a few choices. They can buy in-person tickets; they can watch on television; they can watch on a streaming service; or they can watch highlights, either on those services or on a social ...