For the first time in 17 years, tennis was the top-ranked sport in terms of the percentage of Australians who had either attended an event, watched the sport on television or read about it in a newspaper in the last year. Tennis got a 57-per-cent rating, swimming was in second place with 55 per cent, while cricket languished in third, after losing six percentage points in the last year. The survey suggested that interest in cricket has dipped since Australia’s loss to England in the Ashes tour in 2005.
Sweeney Sports general manager Todd Deacon attributed the surge in the popularity of tennis to Tennis Australia’s marketing efforts:
“People are more actively involved in following the sport and I think part of that has been not just the Australian Open but they are getting big names to the lead-up tournaments.
“You get big names and you will get big crowds, and there will be greater interest.”
Golf is another struggling sport according to the survey, with just 23 per cent of Australians having attended an event or followed it on television or in the newspapers – an 8-per-cent drop. This placed it behind fishing, basketball, netball, hiking and gym workouts.
