INDUSTRY NEWS

INTENNSE Opens 2027 Player Registration, Raises Pay to as Much as $75,000

INTENNSE, the co-ed team tennis league based in Atlanta, has opened player registration for its 2027 season, and it is putting more money on the table to attract talent. The league will field eight co-ed teams of six players, for 48 roster spots in total, with selections to be made in February 2027.

Base salaries for 2027 range from $30,000 to $40,000 for a roughly two-month commitment, with men and women paid equally. Pay is tied to the selection round: first-round picks earn $40,000, second-round picks $36,000 and third-round picks $30,000.

Players can add to that through performance bonuses. Each member of a winning team earns $1,500 per regular-season victory, with more prize money available in the playoffs. More from INTENNSE

RacquetX Report: AI’s Real Payoff for Racquet Clubs Is Time Given Back to Members

Almost everyone in racquet sports is using artificial intelligence. Very few are using it to make the sports, or the clubs that host them, any better. That gap is the focus of “AI Is Becoming Core to the Experience,” the sixth of eight trend briefs in RacquetX Trends 2026, the industry event’s annual look at the forces shaping the business of tennis, pickleball and padel.

Racquet directors are increasingly running tennis, pickleball and padel on the same hours they once gave a single sport, and industry estimates cited in the report suggest up to 30% of today’s teaching pros could leave the profession within five years because of burnout and unsustainable schedules. Every hour AI pulls off the admin pile, RacquetX contends, is an hour that can go back to the court, the front desk or the member who quietly stopped booking. RacquetX

CLUBS

One Point, $5,000: CityPickle and Paddletek Turn Pickleball Into a Sudden-Death Spectacle

Most pickleball matches take time to build. At CityPickle Times Square, they lasted one rally. CityPickle and paddle maker Paddletek recently hosted the Paddletek One Point Slam, a single-elimination doubles tournament where every match was decided by a single point. The event was open to the public, and the winning team walked away with a $5,000 grand prize. Eighty players took the courts across seven courts and six rounds, with the field cut in half after every point until one championship point decided the title. The whole tournament ran about two hours.

Mouratoglou Tennis Lands in New York as Club Fit Converts Two Westchester Clubs

Patrick Mouratoglou’s tennis brand has officially arrived in New York. Club Fit’s two Westchester County clubs, in Briarcliff Manor and Jefferson Valley, have joined the global Mouratoglou Tennis Centers network, becoming the first Mouratoglou-branded locations in the state. The Briarcliff operation will now be known as Mouratoglou Tennis Center New York, while Jefferson Valley becomes Mouratoglou Tennis Center Westchester. The move extends a relationship that began in 2025, when The Pinebrook Group opened Mouratoglou Tennis Center Boston at The Thoreau Club in Concord, Mass., the brand’s first New England location. Pinebrook owns all three clubs and now operates three of the network’s more than 20 centers worldwide.

Mirasol Bets on Year-Round Play With 18,000-Square-Foot Indoor Pickleball Complex

In South Florida’s private club market, amenities have become currency, and The Country Club at Mirasol just made a significant deposit. The member-owned club in Palm Beach Gardens, Fla., has opened an 18,000-square-foot indoor pickleball complex, a facility the club says ranks among the largest dedicated indoor pickleball spaces at any country club community in the region. The building houses seven regulation-size courts in a fully climate-controlled environment, along with a spectator viewing area, a members’ lounge, dedicated retail space and stretching areas. It works alongside the six outdoor courts already in place at Mirasol’s Sports Complex, giving the club 13 courts in total.