Home Court Advantage: How Florida Became the Spiritual Home of Racquet Sports

RacquetX returned to Fort Lauderdale for its third edition and its founder says the Sunshine State was always the only place it could truly belong.

There is a moment, Robyn Duda says, when an event stops feeling like something you are building and starts feeling like something that already exists, something inevitable. For RacquetX, North America's premier festival of racquet sports, that moment arrived earlier this month.

"After three years, we hit the vision that I had when we first started talking about this," says Duda, co-founder and the driving force behind the event, which took over the Broward County Convention Center in Fort Lauderdale for its biggest edition yet earlier this onth. "This feels like what was in my head when I visualised what RacquetX should look like. It [year three] feels like we hit our stride."

That stride has been found, emphatically, in Florida. And for anyone who has watched the Sunshine State's relationship with racquet sports deepen over the past decade, the pairing makes perfect sense.

The Geography of a Movement

Ask Duda why Florida, and the answer comes quickly. "Florida has the most concentration of clubs," she says. "And on the business side of the event, that's critical."

The state's infrastructure, its international airports, year-round climate and dense network of facilities stretching from Miami through Boca Raton, Delray Beach and beyond, makes it uniquely suited to host an event designed to bring an entire industry together under one roof.

The move to Broward County this year was itself strategic. "We thought it might be easier for more people to be able to enjoy RacquetX being up here," Duda explains. "There's a huge community in and around Boca and Delray, and we're close to Fort Lauderdale." The tennis community, historically concentrated slightly north of Miami, is now firmly within reach.

"Florida has the most concentration of clubs. And on the business side of the event, that's critical."

It is a telling detail. RacquetX has always understood that Florida's racquet sports culture is not a monolith but a layered, regionally-varied ecosystem, and the event has consciously positioned itself to serve all of it. Tennis players from the Palm Beach corridor. Padel converts from Miami. Pickleball enthusiasts from across the state. All of them, Duda believes, are part of the same story.

Bringing the Fans In

This year, RacquetX made a significant investment in the spectator experience. A new decorating partnership with LaBella and Production introduced proper stadium seating and a center court district to the event floor for the first time.

"I always wanted to have some kind of stadium seating and a cool lounge area on the floor," she says. "To make that come to life much sooner than I expected was really amazing." The practical effect is significant: for the first time, RacquetX is not just a place where racquet sports professionals do business but it is a place where fans can watch elite competition unfold in front of them.

"That just changes the dynamic a bit," Duda reflects. "You're not just playing or participating but you can also be a fan. And I think we were missing that fandom piece up until this year’s edition."

For a state where the relationship between sport and spectatorship runs deep, and where tennis culture has been built as much on watching as on playing, this feels like a natural evolution.

Taking It on the Road

Beyond Fort Lauderdale, RacquetX has been quietly expanding its footprint across the country through its City Series, which is a program of smaller, regional events that Duda describes as equal parts brand-building and market research.

"The goal was brand awareness," she says. "But I also look at it as research and going into the field to understand what clubs want and need on a regional level." Five cities were visited this year. Every event sold out. "Things can be siloed in different areas," she adds. "And we cross many different parts of the market."

"We want really healthy growth, not forced growth."

The next frontier is international. A London edition of the City Series is planned for June as it’s wedged, as Duda puts it, before the FIFA World Cup and before the holy grail of professional tennis, Wimbledon. "We want to see what kind of reception we get to our brand in the UK," she says. It is a characteristically measured step from a founder who is clear about her philosophy.

"We want to pace ourselves," she says. "We want really healthy growth, not forced growth."

The View from Year Three

As the dust on RacquetX 2026 settles, Duda is already looking ahead. The 2027 dates have already been officially announced (April 9 - 11), and the team already has a floor plan drawn up. The event, she suggests, is no longer finding its feet, it is running.

"When we opened the doors in year one, the milestone was simply that people showed up," she says, smiling. "Now, we have surpassed our attendee numbers from last year. The sales team hit the revenue goal. And we’ve started gathering sponsors for next year."

For Florida's racquet sports community of tennis players, padel enthusiasts, pickleball converts and everyone in between, RacquetX has become something more than an event. It has become, as Duda always intended, a home court.