- March 28, 2024
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Grab your tennis rackets, Winter Parkers. Your local tennis center is new and improved.
Winter Park will celebrate the reopening of the Winter Park Tennis Center with a ceremony Saturday, Sept. 29, starting a new chapter for the facility at 1075 Azalea Lane.
The event marks the completion of several renovations to the tennis center, including eight new hard courts, a new pro shop and check-in area, updated locker rooms and restrooms, new LED lighting, the addition of brick pavers and new sidewalks, enhanced landscaping, the installation of a new fence and custom-designed windscreen, and shaded bleachers and patio spaces for a more enjoyable spectator experience.
The event also will include open court play, lite bites and fun activities.
“We’re very excited to be able to present a quality facility to our residents — it’s like a world-class tennis facility,” Winter Park Assistant Director of Communications Craig O’Neil said. “We’re happy to really improve it.”
It’s been about 20 years since the eight hard courts — sitting alongside the center’s eight soft courts — were completely redone and not just patched, so it’s a welcomed change, Recreation and Family Services Manager Cathleen Daus said.
“We had held a bunch of public meetings that were very well attended by members of the community and members of the tennis center — we had nothing but positive feedback as they watched the renovation take place on half the facility,” Daus said. “I would say everyone is really excited to get out there on those new courts and start playing.”
One significant choice made with the new hard courts was to reconfigure them, allowing for better playability, entrance and lighting. The soft court received some attention too, with some new surfacing put down and new wind screens.
Tennis players also will now be able to play on the city’s first outdoor pickleball court — a sport that was only playable indoors at the Winter Park Community Center.
The mindset behind many of the changes was to give local tennis players a high-end experience they should expect in Winter Park, Daus said.
“The first thing we wanted to do was kind of turn it into a country-club atmosphere,” she said. “What you pay for recreation in city facilities is obviously a lot lower than a country club, but we want the people to experience that kind of feel. Customer service, our new staff, our new tennis center manager — they’re going to focus on making sure the communication is top notch, that every person that comes to the facility knows what is going on and what is available.”
The facility has a long history in the city, giving residents a place to play for the last 94 years. Winter Park has a passionate tennis community that’s been itching to play on the new surfaces — which saw a soft opening Sept. 10, Daus said.
“When we closed down to start construction in May, we actually decided to leave the eight soft courts open, because the facility’s almost divided exactly in half by the pro shop,” Daus said.
“It’s hot in May, June, July, August and even now,” she said. “It can get up to 112 degrees and every single court filled starting at 7 a.m. all day long. We did have to close for two whole weeks as we got the big concrete bores and the roof and all that stuff done, and every single member was chomping at the bit to get back in there and play. People who get out there and play will play every day — some twice a day.”
Daus said the soft courts will be redone in the next year or two, as well.