What’s left of tennis journalism is struggling to keep up

A once thriving field is now fragmented and poorly resourced. The sport it covers is worth billions.

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Every August, Michael Lewis goes on a pilgrimage. He boards the Long Island Rail Road from his home in Port Washington, New York, and rides to one of the tennis world’s holiest sites: Flushing, Queens, the home of the US Open. “I still get excited every time I walk into the Open,” Lewis said. “I just love the thrill.” 

Lewis has been a tennis reporter, his dream job, since 2013. Freelancing for regional and local publications, he’s carved out a niche writing about up-and-coming pros for their hometown papers: Tommy Paul for North Carolina’s Daily Reflector, Coco Gauff for the Palm Beach Post. But he’ll be the first to tell you he doesn’t do it for the money — fifty or seventy-five dollars is about what he charges for an article. In recent years, he has made most of his income ghostwriting books. “This is all a labor of love for me,” he said. 

There was a time when Lewis would have been one small piece in a cadre of media figures covering a sport that is played by more than twenty-five million people in the U.S. and worth billions worldwide.

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