Blue Is the Tennis Color

20 years after a splash of blue touched New York, tennis in Cincinnati and beyond is now flooded in shades of blue.

MASON, Ohio — You have likely already heard about the $260 million—a nearly even split of taxpayer and private money—spent to transform the grounds of the Cincinnati Open before this year’s edition of the tournament. As I wrote about for The Second Serve over the weekend, those changes included lavish new player areas and a lovely new Italianate sunken court.

Those architectural and infrastructure changes are pretty staggering for anyone who is on site and knows what this place looked like just a year ago. But there’s also been a sudden change to how matches here looks on television: as the frequency of a dominant hue increases, the courts in Cincinnati are now part of the overwhelming blue shift on the tennis tours.

Tennis now happens on blue, most of all. (Photo by Ben Rothenberg)

To read this deep dive into the increasingly deep blue world of tennis—with thoughts from designers, many top players, and more—please subscribe to Bounces! -Ben