NEW YORKThe scroller’s favorite tennis player may be the most recent well-known influencer on TikTok’s “For You” tab. The ATP, at least, hopes so.
The men’s professional tennis governing body revealed on Tuesday that it will collaborate with TikTok to enhance tennis content creation and increase user engagement.
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There are two parts to the collaboration. According to a news release, one of its stated objectives is player involvement, with the aim of assisting more ATP players in developing fan bases on the platform and providing tennis enthusiasts with unique access to the sport behind the scenes.
The establishment of the Tennis Creator Network, an effort that will assist current non-athlete creators in producing TikTok content during ATP tour events, is its second objective.
According to a press release from Andrew Walker, senior vice president of brand and marketing for the ATP, “This strategic content partnership with TikTok builds on current trends with our audiences, places ATP at the forefront of the intersection of culture and sport, and creates discoverable content that cuts through for both players and tournaments.”
Only 20 of the top 100 ATP players are active on TikTok at the moment. On the platform, a few of those 20 have emerged as bonafide stars. Looking at the top three, Carlos Alcaraz has 1.1 million followers, Novak Djokovic has 666,000, and Ben Shelton has 448,000. They post videos of themselves learning calligraphy and mowing the lawn, as well as behind-the-scenes glimpses at competitions.
There are around 600,000 followers on the ATP TikTok account.
The collaboration recognizes a groundbreaking trend in sports media: athletes producing frank, behind-the-scenes footage. It is becoming more and more popular and viral, showing up everywhere from podcast studios to TikTok accounts.
After live streaming the entire WNBA All-Star weekend, complete with parties, in July, two Minnesota Lynx players known as “The Studbudz,” Courtney Williams and Natisha Hiedeman, accumulated hundreds of thousands of views and followers. The pair has now capitalized on the momentum to gain greater fame and official goods.
Athlete-hosted podcasts, which feature an hour of informal discussion with famous athletes, have also frequently made headlines. The obvious one is New Heights with Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, but programs like Sophie Cunningham’s Show Me Something on the Indiana Fever have increased viewer engagement in a similar way because their hosts provide frank commentary on life outside of the game.
With this collaboration, the ATP hopes to capitalize on the rise in behind-the-scenes content.
Rollo Goldstaub, head of global sports partnerships at TikTok, stated in the release that it “further ignites the tennis cultural movement on TikTok by encouraging more players to share their stories.”
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https://apnews.com/hub/tennis is the AP tennis website.
