Recent issues
Heat
Extreme heat is increasingly affecting tennis tournaments, the most recent being Wimbledon in July 2025. The locality of Wimbledon saw temperatures crossing 30ºC during the day, which was quite unusual for a place that doesn’t see summer temperatures above 25ºC on average.
Some of the casualties this time:
Ons Jabeur had to retire from her first-round match at Wimbledon due to heat.
A spectator fainted during a Wimbledon match between Carlos Alcaraz and Fabio Fognini, causing the game to be halted for around 20 minutes.
If such incidents keep happening, it will cause logistical issues since these are new factors to be considered during tournament planning.
Travel
It's no secret that global tennis tournaments involve a lot of travel for players and fans alike. Unfortunately, all that jetting around adds to greenhouse gas emissions.
Materials
Courts are built well, albeit not very sustainably. They require a lot of materials to build and maintain. The courts are often repainted before the start of tournaments. Here are the three most popular court surfaces and what they consist of:
Hard tennis courts are made of a concrete/asphalt base and coated with acrylic/polyurethane. The majority of professional tournaments are played on this surface. The synthetic materials used in coating break down into microplastics and persist in the environment long-term. These courts are often treated with polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which usually lead to health and ecological risks.
Clay tennis courts use clay from crushed stone, bricks, shale, or other unbound material. They require a lot of maintenance in irrigation, rolling, and brushing. Such materials can place a lot of stress on the environment due to their non-reusable nature.
Grass tennis courts are made of a thick layer of clay, silt, and sand. The top layer is natural grass. These courts also need a drainage pipe installed to avoid water accumulation. They require the most maintenance of all surfaces. The popularity of grass courts has been declining over the years due to the maintenance and costs involved.
On to the tennis rackets and balls, the main players of the game:
Tennis rackets are made of multiple materials. Handles are covered with grips made from leather or rubber. The frame is built using graphite, carbon fibre, or composites that can include fibreglass and Kevlar. The strings are made from polyester, nylon, synthetic, or natural gut (not a vegan option!).
Tennis balls are made of a rubber compound with a felt covering. They can take up to 400 years to decompose.
These compound items are challenging to recycle and often end up in landfills.
Consumption
Pro tennis players often go through 30-60 tennis rackets in a year. Two-week-long Grand Slam tournaments often end up using around 55,000 tennis balls. Over 125 million tennis balls are discarded every year in the US. Not to mention the waste generated by spectators at tennis tournaments. Additionally, lighting, HVAC systems, displays, broadcasting, and transportation consume a lot of energy, adding to the consumption problem. :(
Players in support of sustainability
Historically, there have not been many players vocal about environmental problems, but this is changing, and they have enormous audiences through social media to influence change.
Infosys built an app in collaboration with the ATP to help players track their carbon footprint and give them the option to offset it by investing in environmental projects. Over 200 players signed up for this program in the first year, including notable names like Dominic Thiem, Ben Shelton, and Cameron Norrie, with the latter two receiving prize money for their environmental sustainability initiatives. This has helped improve awareness among players of the impact their profession has on the environment.
The ATP published its first sustainability report in 2024 and have set ambitious targets to cut emissions by 50% by 2030 and reach net-zero by 2040.
Wimbledon 2025 and its sustainability performance
Wimbledon 2025 was surprisingly much more sustainable than ever. A key initiative was the implementation of a system of refillable cups and tons of refill stations. Customers could pay a security deposit for a cup, use it, and then return it for their deposit back. Furthermore, used tennis balls are now either donated or repurposed, and racket strings are collected for recycling.
Beyond waste reduction, they focused on biodiversity and renewable energy. Efforts were also made to decarbonize buildings and shift to renewable energy sources, mainly from solar panels on-site. They also used electric vehicles for transportation, further reducing their environmental footprint.
Wimbledon’s initiatives to improve sustainability
The 55,000 balls used at Wimbledon are used to build homes for harvest mice. Just look at this picture:
A harvest mouse pokes its head out of an old tennis ball
So cute, I can’t even.
Wimbledon is a signatory of the UN Sport for Climate Action Framework. They have committed to reaching a zero-waste status by 2030. This is exciting to see since their destination isn’t very far away.
A startup, Dropp, has recycled approximately 330,000 used tennis balls into soft flooring, shoe soles, and sports surfaces. Another startup, SoundBounce, is using old balls to build soundproofing material.
Additional Solutions
Planning tournaments to allow players to travel progressively around the world instead of making large jumps, to reduce travel emissions.
Collaborating with other sports to create efficiencies in travel and common environmental agendas.
Using chartered planes for multiple players instead of numerous private jets for each player.
Using electric vehicles for on-site movement.
Utilizing alternative materials to build courts, like recycled rubber from old tennis balls or reusable and low-carbon clay for clay tournaments.
Integrating renewable energies for on-site energy requirements.
Educating players and fans on sustainable nutrition.
Encourage fans to bring reusable water bottles, bags, and containers to minimize the use of single-use plastics.
Build partnerships with eco-friendly brands and organizations.
Conclusions
While tennis is a delightful sport, it has faced significant environmental challenges due to its global nature and resource demands. Fortunately, many tennis associations and tournaments have recognised the issue and are actively taking steps towards a more sustainable future. The collective involvement of players, fans, and organizations is essential to achieving a truly sustainable tennis ecosystem.
It will be interesting to see how these solutions play out, as tennis has the potential to become a leader in sustainability in the global sports landscape.