by Chris Werner
International Tennis Day is on Friday 20 June 2025.
International Tennis Day is actually not just twenty-four hours long. It lasts thirty-nine hours, from the first minutes of the 20th after midnight in Sydney/Melbourne/Hobart/Ballarat to the last minutes of the 20th near midnight in Chicago/Sand Valley.
Once again all fifty real tennis courts around the world are going to celebrate ITD in grand fashion for much if not all of the thirty-nine hours. ITD banners, courtesy of the Preservation Foundation, have been distributed and many clubs are creating a theme for tournaments, exhibitions, clinics and lessons. Please reach out to the ITD Instagram account -@itennisday – where all photos will be aggregated in real time.
This year June 20th is marks the 236th anniversary of the Tennis Court Oath. We should celebrate the history the has brought us here, celebrate the sport we play together, and celebrate each other for sharing this activity.
A tennis match is a time when we choose to show up to exert some effort and enthusiasm. There are a few players at our clubs who, based on their current health and condition, take a long time to get ready, to get to the court and hit a few balls around. For wherever anyone’s game is at in their life, ITD is about a shared appreciation for sport that bond us together.
The way I look at my time on court is that there are transferable skills to life. While I may not get much better at court tennis in short order, there certainly things in life that I could attended to more diligently and court tennis helps keep that in perspective. How we choose to handle the situations we encounter makes us who we are, and tennis is a way of learning about ourselves and others though situations and events that can help us all grow, adapt, and develop. This peculiar sport is quite difficult for everyone in one way or another. Similar to the lives we all lead, there are things we all opt-in to doing and things we all have to do. Perseverance is really the winning characteristic.
International Tennis Day commemorates a time in France where a group of people decided to perservere: they gathered in Versailles and agreed to not disband. As seen in the Tennis Court Oath, the participants on the hazard end and service end collectively won together as a group. As participants in ITD, we are privileged to be able to continue to play this sport with such heritage and tradition. June 20th is a great day to celebrate.
