28 February 2025 | Tennis West

Player participation across the state is at an all-time high with strong increases across the board in the 2024/25 Summer League season as well as local tournaments. 

With the 2024/25 Summer League concluding within the next month, 998 junior and adult teams will be vying for spots in their respective league finals. This is up 78 teams from last season’s summer league. Of that, junior teams saw the biggest increase with 464 junior teams registered, up from 404 teams in the 2023/24 summer season. Adult teams also jumped up by 18 with 534 teams registered this season. 

Clubs represented across all leagues remain steady with a slight increase in junior clubs (62 clubs, up from 55 clubs in 2023/24). 

The increase in teams also saw a significant increase in players across the board. All junior and adult male and female unique players saw an increase. Junior players (aged 18 and under) rose from 2,176 in 2023/24 to 2,331 in 2024/25 and adult players (aged 18 and above) rose from 3,121 in 2023/24 to 3,317 in 2024/25. Overall unique players jumped by 347 with a total of 5,538 players playing league tennis across the entire state. 

It wasn’t just leagues that saw an increase in participation, local Tennis West sanctioned tournaments in December 2024 and January 2025 saw a significant increase in entries. Of all December and January regular and returning tournaments, every tournament saw an increase in player entries.  

The Junior Signature Event held at the State Tennis Centre saw the biggest jump, increasing player entries by 54% with 329 entries, followed by the East Fremantle Junior Tournament with a 31% increase and the Mt Lawley Open & Junior Event with an increase of 29%. 

The Busselton Open Community Event was once again the most attended event in the school holidays with 367 entries, up from 325 in 2024. 

A total of four new tournaments opened in January 2025 with the South Perth Junior (134 entries), UWA Junior Clay #1 (36 entries), Scarborough Mixed Open (80 entries) and the UWA Junior Clay #2 (27 entries). 

In total, tournament entries jumped to a total of 2,076 entries, an increase of 550 from this time last year, aided with some help from the four new tournaments. 

Tennis West Head of Competitions and Leagues Shane Smedley was thrilled to witness a rise in player participation across all levels of competitive play.  

“The key factors driving this growth include a return to the preferred league season format, and a more comprehensive Competitive Play calendar,” said Shane. 

Tennis West CEO, Olivia Birkett added “It has been pleasing to see Tennis Australia uplift prize money subsidies across the country and Western Australia has certainly benefited from that”. 

There are more tournaments coming up in March and April. Click here to see the upcoming tournaments.