Tsitsipas reveals the surprising top 10 countries with the most tennis players

Stefanos Tsitsipas is very active on social networks. The Greek, eliminated in the first round of the Australian Open by Alex Michelsen, is preparing for next week's tournament in Rotterdam.

On his official X account (formerly Twitter), the former world number 3 has published the top 10 countries with the most tennis players in the world.

In first place is the USA, with almost 24 million players (just 7% of the total tennis-playing population).

Next in line is China, with over 22.5 million players (just 1.5% of the Chinese population).

The world's most populous country, India, completes the podium with 9.4 million players (i.e. less than 1% of the population), which already represents a significant gap with the USA and China. In the top 100, only Sumit Nagal currently represents India.

In fourth place is France, with over 4 million players. This means that 6% of the French population plays tennis.

The French nation is also well represented in the ATP top 100 with 10 players, although only three Frenchwomen are currently in the top 100 on the women's side.

Japan (3%), Germany (4%), Great Britain (4%), Australia (9%), Canada (5%) and Spain (4%), nations strongly represented in Grand Slam tournaments for both men and women, complete the top 10.

In the case of the latter, the Iberian nation has seen the rise of padel, another racket sport that is increasingly competing with tennis.

Despite the exploits of Nadal and the new generation embodied by Alcaraz, Spain is only in 10th position in this ranking.

Italy, where interest in tennis is growing rapidly thanks to the performances of world number 1 Jannik Sinner, has yet to feature in such a ranking.

The Czech Republic, which boasts a number of talented men's players including Lehecka, Mensik and Machac, as well as Muchova, Krejcikova, Pliskova and Noskova among its top-ranked women, is not included either.

The same applies to Russia, the world's 9th most populous country, which has two players in the top 10 with Medvedev and Rublev, while Khachanov is in the top 20. On the women's side, Kalinskaya, Kasatkina, Shnaider, Pavlyuchenkova and Andreeva are also well positioned and in the top 30.

It should be noted, however, that Tsitsipas quoted the figures without specifying whether they referred to regular or occasional players, and that only the Greek has the source of these statistics.