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‘Craziest flics’, ‘best drip’ and ‘best kicks’. This is French Open coverage — TikTok style. These social media posts (covering pictures, style and shoes at the Grand Slam tennis tournament) produced by media group Overtime are part of an attempt to chase the holy grail of modern sports — an active and engaged Gen Z fan base.
“最疯狂的片段”、“最佳穿搭”和“最佳球鞋”。这是法国网球公开赛的报道——但是TikTok风格。媒体集团Overtime制作的这些社交媒体帖子（涵盖这场网球大满贯赛事中的照片、时尚和球鞋）是追逐现代体育圣杯的一部分——一个活跃和积极参与的Z世代粉丝群。
The so-called TikTok generation have shorter attention spans and less money, but they are the future of viewership.
所谓TikTok一代的注意力持续时间较短，收入也较少，但他们是收视率的未来。
Tennis, with its traditionally older crowds and outgoing generation of icons including Rafael Nadal and Serena Williams, faces a particularly steep challenge: finding the stars of the future and making them resonate with a new generation of viewers.
传统上，网球运动的观众年龄偏大，包括拉斐尔•纳达尔(Rafael Nadal)和塞雷娜•威廉姆斯(Serena Williams)在内的一代偶像即将离去，网球运动面临的挑战尤为严峻：寻找未来之星，并让他们与新一代观众产生共鸣。
The answer lies with the current crop of Gen Z players. Carlos Alcaraz and Jannik Sinner are already big names based on their burgeoning rivalry and Grand Slam titles, while Ben Shelton and Jack Draper are also making waves.
答案就在当前的Z世代球员身上。卡洛斯•阿尔卡拉斯(Carlos Alcaraz)和扬尼克•辛纳(Jannik Sinner)已经是大牌选手，他们之间竞争不断，屡次夺得大满贯冠军，而本•谢尔顿(Ben Shelton)和杰克•德雷珀(Jack Draper)也在崛起。
On the women’s tour, Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff, Iga Świątek and Emma Raducanu are all Grand Slam champions and have big online followings, but success does not always translate into household name status. For that, the sport is looking to social media.
在女子巡回赛中，阿丽娜•萨巴伦卡(Aryna Sabalenka)、可可•高芙(Coco Gauff)、伊加•斯维亚特克(Iga Świątek)和埃玛•拉杜卡努(Emma Raducanu)都是大满贯冠军，在网上拥有众多粉丝，但成功并不总能转化为家喻户晓的地位。为此，这项运动将目光投向了社交媒体。
In February, the ATP (men’s tour) partnered with Overtime, whose backers include Serena Williams’s husband, Reddit founder Alexis Ohanian. Overtime creates original sports content for its 100mn followers on social media, of whom more than 80 per cent are under 35 years old.
今年2月，ATP（男子巡回赛）与Overtime合作，后者的投资者包括塞雷娜•威廉姆斯的丈夫、Reddit创始人亚历克西斯•奥哈尼安(Alexis Ohanian)。Overtime为其1亿社交媒体粉丝提供原创体育内容，其中80%以上的粉丝年龄在35岁以下。
The format is simple: Overtime’s presenter is given access to top players, filming videos asking them questions like: “I’m breaking up with my girlfriend, what should my message to her say? What’s the best pizza topping? Which cartoon is your favourite?” It is not deep or meaningful, but they are clips meant to generate engagement with younger audiences.
形式很简单：Overtime的主持人可以接触到顶级球员，拍摄视频，问他们一些问题，比如：“我要和女朋友分手了，我应该给她发什么信息？最好的披萨配料是什么？你最喜欢哪部动画片？”这并不深刻或有意义，但这些小视频的目的在于吸引年轻观众。
“The way we all grew up consuming content was in this very linear fashion: sit on the couch, turn on TV. I think young people are consuming sports in a very different way, right?” Overtime president Farzeen Ghorashy says. “They’re picking up their iPhone, using Instagram, YouTube and TikTok. We’ve just taken a very arms up approach to distributing content that lives on all those platforms.”
“我们成长过程中消费内容的方式都是非常线性的：坐在沙发上，打开电视。我认为年轻人消费体育的方式非常不同，对吗？”Overtime总裁法泽恩•戈拉希(Farzeen Ghorashy)说。“他们拿起iPhone，使用Instagram、YouTube和TikTok。我们只是采取了一种非常配合的方式来传播这些平台上流行的内容。”
Overtime launched its tennis pages in February and gained 28,000 followers across Instagram, TikTok and YouTube in the first three months. They are not huge numbers but, according to Overtime, 42 per cent are under the age of 25.
Overtime于2月推出了网球页面，前三个月在Instagram、TikTok和YouTube上获得了28000名粉丝。这不是一个很大的数字，但根据Overtime的数据，42%的粉丝年龄在25岁以下。
Ghorashy hopes Overtime will gain similar access to the women’s tour. WTA chief brand officer Sarah Swanson says it is open to such partnerships.
戈拉希希望Overtime能够在女子巡回赛期间获得类似的机会。女子网球选手协会(WTA)首席品牌官莎拉•斯旺森(Sarah Swanson)表示，它对这种合作关系持开放态度。
First though, she has spent 18 months bolstering the WTA’s in-house operation, launching a rebrand and doubling the size of the content team. As recently as March 2024, the WTA’s TikTok page was inactive, but it has gained more than 750,000 followers since it started actively using it again.
首先，她花了18个月的时间来加强WTA的内部运营，推出了品牌重塑，并将内容团队的规模扩大了一倍。就在2024年3月，WTA的TikTok页面还处于非活动状态，但自再次开始积极更新以来，它已经吸引了超过75万粉丝。
“That’s the future of fandom,” Swanson says. “You can’t market to your existing fans. You have to market to different fans in the places that they consume with the things they’re going to care about.” It seems to be working, as last year the WTA reported reaching a 1.1bn global audience across broadcasting and streaming. Two-thirds of that audience are under 45.
“这就是粉丝文化的未来，”斯旺森说，“你不能向现有的粉丝进行营销。你必须在不同粉丝消费的地方，向他们推销他们关心的东西。”这种营销方式似乎奏效了，去年，WTA的广播和流媒体覆盖了全球11亿观众。其中三分之二的观众年龄在45岁以下。
But there have been signs of tennis failing to cut through too. Netflix docu-series Break Point (which ran in 2023 and 2024) failed to have the impact of the Formula 1 and golf equivalents.
但也有迹象表明，网球运动的影响力并不突出。Netflix纪录片《突破点》(Break Point)（于2023年和2024年播出）的影响力不及一级方程式赛车和高尔夫球的影片。
Ghorashy says the series lacked behind the scenes moments, while tennis content creator Eliza Wastcoat calls it a “missed opportunity”, saying the series did not delve deep enough, particularly beyond the top 10 players.
戈拉希表示，该纪录片缺乏幕后内容，而网球内容创作者伊丽莎•瓦斯特科特(Eliza Wastcoat)称其为“错失的机会”，并表示该影片不够深入，特别是没有探讨前10名之外的球员。
Wastcoat’s Instagram page, @itselizasworld, has built up nearly 50,000 followers through tennis fashion reviews and news round-ups. She thinks tennis has been slow to develop organic online content. The WTA and ATP have improved recently, Wastcoat says, but they have been playing catch-up and tennis remains “at least five or six years behind other sports in terms of their organisation, how the sport is structured, and how easy it is to follow and the investment in social media”.
瓦斯特科特的Instagram账号 @itselizasworld通过网球时尚评论和新闻综述积累了近5万名粉丝。她认为，网球运动在开发有机网络内容方面进展缓慢。瓦斯特科特说，WTA和ATP最近有所改善，但它们一直在追赶，网球“在组织、运动结构、关注的便捷性以及社交媒体投资方面，仍然比其他运动落后至少五六年”。
Tennis organisations also have to deal with a fragmented structure, with tournaments broadcast across multiple channels. That can make it expensive and confusing for fans. “I actually think that it’s not the sport of tennis, the length of it, that’s the problem,” Wastcoat says. “It’s [viewers] not knowing who these people are and being able to connect with them as individuals.”
网球组织还必须应对分散的结构，因为不同的比赛在多个频道上播出。这可能会让粉丝们觉得费用高而且感到困惑。瓦斯特科特说：“实际上，我认为问题不在于网球运动本身和比赛时长。问题是（观众）不知道这些人是谁，也无法与他们个人产生联系。”
And yet, there is cause for optimism. The younger generation are becoming more well-known — Alcaraz released his own Netflix series in May, and brands are flocking to collaborate with the likes of Swiatek and Gauff.
然而，我们有理由感到乐观。年轻一代正变得越来越出名——阿尔卡拉斯于5月发布了自己的Netflix影片，品牌纷纷与斯维亚特克、高芙等选手合作。
“I think there was a transition post-Serena and post-Venus, but . . . we’ve got stars again,” Swanson says. “Coco is a superstar. Aryna is a superstar. They are so social forward, it’s really authentic and natural for both of them.”
“我认为在塞雷娜和维纳斯之后有一个过渡期，但是……我们又有了明星，”斯旺森说。“可可是超级明星。阿丽娜也是。他们都在社交媒体最前线冲浪，这对他们俩来说都是真实而自然的。”
Ghorashy says players are ready to show more of who they are: “Over the last couple of decades, players [were] praised for not showing their personalities as much on the court.
戈拉希说，选手们已经准备好更多地展示自己：“在过去的几十年里，选手们会因为不在球场上过多展示个性而受到赞誉。”
“I think that there might be a new wave of younger players that thrive off being authentic, showing personality. It’s . . . about what is everyone in the ecosystem doing to promote them and make them shine.”
“我认为可能会有新一波的年轻选手，他们靠真实、展现个性而走红。这要考虑……生态系统中的每个人都在做什么，才能推广选手并让他们发光。”