How Tennis Got the Blues

Cincinnati is part of a radical blue shift that has changed the look of tennis.

I’ve gotten a few texts from friends about the striking colors of this week’s ATP-WTA 1000 Cincinnati, which was a useful and welcome reminder that not every Bounces subscriber has read every Bounces story—especially since more than half of y’all signed on here within the last year.

So as I work on finishing up several fun new pre-U.S. Open stories for y’all, I decided to re-share one of my very favorite stories from last year at Bounces: on the Cincinnati Open’s switch last year to a blue-on-blue-on-blue color scheme, the latest shores which the blue wave washing across tennis has smothered in the color.

Photos of Blue, via the Cincinnati Open

I’ve been writing about the evolving color story of professional tennis for more than a decade now, and it’s just the kind of feature that I love doing: something that’s right in front of our eyes, but still overlooked. There are some fun visuals in this deep-dive story, too; I’m particularly fond of the gallery of the color palettes of hard courts across the tour.

So whether you’re new or revisiting this one, I hope you enjoy it! Thanks for reading Bounces! -Ben