Tennis Prose




Apr/20

5

Ghetto Courts Stay Open

A source told me he heard that there are some public courts actually open and not locked up in Bradenton/Sarasota. I will not name them for fear an authority my read this article and then proceed to lock them up.

I have heard about these courts before but never actually saw them. Though I have driven by the area a few blocks away on many occasions. Bradenton maps are not a perfect grid because of all the water ways and canals and giant apartment complexes. Attila Savolt told me when I interviewed him for Facing Federer that he used these courts for some of his lessons, this was about seven years ago.

Finally, desperate, because every darn court is now locked up here, I took my Bintelli 50cc scooter for a run yesterday to some closed courts and then downtown Sarasota and then I would try to find these secret open courts on the way back. First stop was to Longboat Key Public Tennis Center. The courts are closed and the nets are down but the gates to the courts are still open. So I did some sprint drills, spider sprints on the clay court to try to maintain my stamina and speed and rhythm. I also did some shadow tennis on a baseline and hit some serves, before finishing with shadowboxing and punching non stop for as long as I could. Good mini workout but not as rewarding as playing a couple of sets.

After that I scootered to downtown Sarasota for lunch at Whole Foods. I’m addicted to Whole Foods right now, especially the wraps and sandwiches and the raspberry oat bars and Tazo Berry drink.

Now the 15 mile trip back. And a drive by the currently in construction home of Marcelo Rios, being build on Bayshore Drive on Sarasota Bay. Progress is slow now but the outline of the mansion is impressive – three levels, concrete foundation, right on the water across the bay from Longboat Key.

One of my tennis friends lives by the future home of Rios and told me about it in January. He said he saw Rios one day there looking at his property and jokingly asked Rios if he ever wanted to hit. Rios looked at the guy in his 60s, a national level player, and smiled. Rios added that he expected the house to be finished in a month. He said this in early January. It’s now early April and construction looks barely advanced since January.

Next about eight miles north off of Tamiami Trail, or 41, I tried locating the secret open courts but had a hard time because there are two streets in the area of the same number, east west and south north. Confused, I asked some Hispanic kids who were done playing basketball at the small park where I ended up and the one leader said he knew about the courts, “they’re in a different park over that way. It’s in the ghetto.” The nice kid offered to show me the courts if I gave him a ride but I declined, confident I could find them on my own.

Following his finger point I finally found the courts five minutes later, in a small unnamed park next to a light blue water tower ball type structure and a small waste treatment plant. It was indeed aptly described by the lad and well beneath the standard one might expect a former ATP top 50 player like Attila Savolt to be coaching on. The less than aesthetic optics of these dirty and faded green courts did not bother me. I just want to play tennis again after a three day hiatus.

Two pickle ballers were there playing and they said they saw two players using the tennis courts the day before. I expected more players to be here. There’s four courts in all and also a wall totally fenced in on the sides and on top. I never saw a wall totally fenced in before.

To be honest, these are poor quality courts with no benches, no water fountain, no bathroom and a smelly odor in the air, but beggers can’t be choosers at this point. An older guy came to the wall to hit but declined to hit with me on a court because he said, “I can’t move.”

He could not move much faster than a turtle but still he hit on the wall. Some people just will not stop playing tennis no matter what.

I’m going to return to play here next week with two ranked juniors in Florida who I started training with again last week at my home courts which were suddenly locked up on Thursday because the association wants to follow the Governor’s order to shutdown.

My friend in Indian Wells told me his private development courts were locked up yesterday and it’s a misdemeanor $1000 fine if anyone gets caught playing. I don’t know what the punishment would be to be caught by police playing on these courts but the tennis addict that I am, I will take that chance. Stay tuned…

No tags

10 comments

  • jg · April 6, 2020 at 1:13 pm

    The minute you find a court that happens to be unlocked, its locked the next day–from what Ive heard its not the tennis but everyone doing other things on the courts, there were 2 courts here that were open, then the next day a trainer held a morning “boot camp” on them and that was it. Ive heard finding someone with a private court is the only way to go.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 6, 2020 at 2:54 pm

    Jg these courts are still open. Found the glitch in the matrix. Jeaniusius just texted me she found Sarasota courts open too.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 6, 2020 at 7:09 pm

    I saw two courts on 34th street a short walk from IMG and both were being used by two female juniors and a coach. And the other was two good hackers. So people are playing on courts. Also I saw two seniors playing on a clay court on Longboat key with no nets. They had their ball basket and were doing drills. I asked to join, I was dying to hit, and for the first time I ever I hit on a court with no net. One guy said just hit every ball past the service line. Also did volleys and serves too. Good 30 min practice. People just refuse to be shutdown by this virus, they have to play tennis. The other open courts I mentioned in this article are also still open, the two pickleballers were there again and two tennis players were on another court. Tennis is destroying this virus or whatever it is down here. Stock market surge today. F the virus and whoever wants this lockdown to last all year.

  • Sam · April 7, 2020 at 3:06 pm

    “I don’t know what the punishment would be to be caught by police playing on these courts . . .”

    They’ll take your picture and then splash the photo all over the Web and the local paper with the headline: “Dude Is Looking SO Ghetto!!!”

    Scoop, after that, your reputation may never recover!!

    Something tells me that Alexa will still stick by you, though. πŸ˜‰

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 7, 2020 at 7:00 pm

    Police have driven by yet the courts remain open. Pretty neat to see Andrei Cherkasov there today.

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 7, 2020 at 8:13 pm

    A friend sent me this quick video which I feel readers may want to look at because it may be important truth and I want to share it to possibly help our readers. It suggests the pandemic is a fake set up pandemic, a prelude to the second real pandemic which will be triggered by the 5G technology. This makes a lot of sense. Something is very suspicious about what is going on now.
    https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-sJFHXn0PJ/?igshid=n29ehd0hgmrp

  • Sie · April 28, 2020 at 9:35 am

    I read your article about the court situation and the following paragraph caught my eye: “He could not move much faster than a turtle but still he hit on the wall. Some people just will not stop playing tennis no matter what.”

    So it is indeed, tennis is a real game of life :). I did write about it couple of months ago in my blog: https://www.tenniskit24.com/tennis/tennis-is-a-real-game-of-life/.

    However, in the current world, a wall could be definitely the easiest choice for hitting. Take care!

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 28, 2020 at 9:49 am

    Nice article Sie, thanks for sharing. I agree fully the power of tennis is immeasurable how it can bring joy and benefits and friendships to life. Why no byline on that article? Welcome to http://www.tennis-prose.com.

  • Sie Aarma-Kivi · April 28, 2020 at 10:37 am

    Thanks! I have agreed with my team that in the Tenniskit24 blog, we do not use bylines. Its a family behind this website, including parents as long-term recreational players and one of the daughters participating as a junior pro at Tennis Europe Junior Tour. I write this blog from our personal experience with tennis as a sport and artificial grass tennis court construction, which has been our family business for 20 years.
    You are very welcome to follow TennisKit24 on Twitter and Facebook. In case you would be interested in a guest post, let me know, and I will propose a couple of thoughts πŸ™‚

  • Scoop Malinowski · April 28, 2020 at 5:44 pm

    Sie, sure you can share a guest post. I know a player who has a artificial grass court in his property. And another who is considering a home court. Thanks for connecting with us.

<<

>>

Find it!

Copyright 2010
Tennis-Prose.com
To top