Eugene Allen was an 8-year-old Black boy growing up in southwest London when he first started to nurse hopes of one day playing professional tennis. It was 1997, and there were no Black men ranked in the top 100 on the ATP Tour. Venus Williams had just made her U.S. Open debut that year, and she and Chanda Rubin were the only Black women ranked in the top 50 in the world; Serena Williams was at No. 99.
About 10 years later, Allen put down his rackets to focus on his education. The costs of the game — coaching sessions, travel to tournaments, equipment — were piling up. His family could no longer afford to help him prepare for the pro circuit.
“I kind of fell out of love with it,” he said. “There was almost a resentment.”
Now, Allen is the center of an online community focusing exclusively on Black tennis players worldwide, at a time when there are more pros and juniors on tour than ever before. As of July 1, there were five Black men ranked in the top 50: Ben Shelton (No. 14), Felix Auger-Aliassime (No. 17), Frances Tiafoe (No. 29), Gael Monfils (No. 33) and Arthur Fils (No. 34). On the WTA Tour, there were four women: Coco Gauff (No. 2), Jasmine Paolini (No. 7), Madison Keys (No. 13) and Sloane Stephens (No. 50).
Since 2019, Allen has run Black Spin Global, a digital media brand that encompasses a podcast, blog and social media accounts where he and Lucy Tezangi delve deep into the tennis universe. “It’s not just, ‘Oh, they won,’” she said. “It’s match updates, breaking news, coach updates, player updates and so on.”
Allen, 35, was lured back to the sport in the mid-2010s, when both Williams sisters were routinely ranked in the top 20 and James Blake, Monfils and Jo-Wilfried Tsonga were fan favorites breaking through on the men’s tour.
Since leaving high-level competition, Allen had majored in journalism and taken jobs at The Daily Mail Online and The Telegraph, while writing freelance soccer articles. He founded Pitching It Black, a website dedicated to covering Black soccer players in Europe, in 2016 and thought, what if he did something similar for tennis?
Black Spin Global started as a social media brand, with Allen regularly posting to Twitter (now known as X) and Instagram accounts. Those early posts got the attention of Tezangi, a 27-year-old digital marketer who grew up casually playing tennis in Newham, in East London, and remained a fan. She reshared so much of his content that Allen eventually asked if she would host a podcast with him.
She said no.
Convinced that her online passion would carry over into the studio, Allen kept pressing.
“In all honesty, Eugene just didn’t want to accept no as an answer,” Tezangi said. “And that motivated me to give it a try. I saw the vision from early, the potential it had.”
It took them some time to find their rhythm. They started in February 2020 with an episode previewing the BNP Paribas Open, held in Indian Wells, Calif. And then the pandemic hit.
Though that tournament and a host of others were canceled, Black Spin Global kept posting and broadcasting, keeping fans up-to-date on how players were dealing with the lockdowns and when the tours hoped to resume. As play restarted without fans in attendance, Black Spin Global offered a conversational way into the game, with Allen leaning into more straight news and analysis and Tezangi sharing unbridled fan-centered opinions about the ins and outs of the game.
In a March episode, Tezangi gleefully advocated the departure of Toni Nadal (Rafael Nadal’s uncle and former coach) from Auger-Aliassime’s camp. (Some fans speculated about his devotion to the player. In tennis, the unofficial ethos on team life is simple: Either you’re all in, or you stay out.) Pointing out that Auger-Aliassime had a quite good clay court season without him, Tezangi was effusive about his exit.
Allen at first tried to gently reel her in with questions about the rest of the player’s coaching orbit. But then he co-signed her enthusiasm.
They have found a small, committed audience, averaging about 200 to 300 podcast listens per episode. Tezangi refers to their followers as family and makes a point of engaging them online, taking snap polls and asking for their opinions.
The pair take a deliberately positive approach to their coverage, which players have appreciated.
“I love what they’re doing,” said Tiafoe, who has been a guest on the show. “They’re super-relaxed, personable guys. They made me feel at home when I was speaking to them.”
Christopher Eubanks (No. 62) has also been on the podcast, as well as coaches and family members of rising talents, including Michael Parks, the father of No. 121-ranked Alycia Parks, 23.
In that respect, Black Spin Global has provided a needed forum for listeners and those working inside the sport.
“Tennis is traditionally a predominantly white sport, and you don’t see a lot of people who look like us competing, and I think there are even fewer journalists covering the sport at the tournaments,” said Jarmere Jenkins, a coach and retired tennis professional who has worked with Serena Williams, Gauff and Ons Jabeur. He has appeared multiple times on the podcast.
“I wish they had been around when Serena and Venus burst onto the scene,” Jenkins said, noting the often hostile response to their rise. “I can’t help but think what it would have been like to have an advocate like Black Spin Global in their corner.”
Tumaini Carayol, who covers tennis for The Guardian, has also been a repeat guest on the show.
“It has been particularly impressive to see the connections they have made with the players and their teams in a short space of time,” Carayol said. He added, “It is clear that many players and other people within the sport really value having a platform that shines a light on the journeys of Black players.”
Tiafoe added: “Everyone wants to feel love and stuff, and they do a great job with that.”
Allen and Tezangi have gotten more opportunities to cover matches live from the sport’s most hallowed venues. Britain’s Lawn Tennis Association credentialed Black Spin Global to cover three lower-level tournaments on site and the pair is reporting from Wimbledon for the second consecutive year. They plan to cover the U.S. Open from New York when the tournament begins in August.
Jenkins sees a bright future ahead. “I think it’s brilliant that we have this platform for us, by us,” he said, “and that little Black boys and girls have a social media presence they can go to and keep up with their favorite players.”
The post The Tennis Podcast that Champions, and Hosts, Black Pros appeared first on New York Times.
