Lyndsey Murphy drops his racket, wipes his brow and looks out over the new courts at the David Park Tennis Center with sheer content.
Murphy, 46, once the youngest tennis professional in his home country of England at age 25, is now tennis director at the newly renovated club just west of I-95 in Hollywood.
Murphy, fellow Davis Park pro Howard Hamilton and promotional manager Kathy Breeding have endured quite a few battles. They fought city hall, builders and neighbors in order to get the state-of-the-art center.
“It’s been a long time coming, almost four years now, but it’s worth every setback if we can get and keep people, especially youngsters, interested in tennis,” said the former Jamaican Davis Cup coach.
There is a $250,000 art-deco style clubhouse/pro-shop, and another $450,000 poured into the latest tennis court technology.
“We have three basic hard courts, three regular clay and six clay-hydro courts, including the stadium center court that we are very excited and proud of,” said Murphy.
“Hydro-courts are like having a swimming pool under the court. Each court is controlled by six cells that are responsible for continually watering a specific area of the court from underneath,” said Murphy.
“This technology allows us to use the courts instead of sitting around waiting for them to be watered or, in turn, waiting for them to dry.”
And waiting is something Murphy, Hamilton and Breeding are not in the habit of doing.
Since moving into the new facility two months ago, the three have begun tennis programs for the young and old, the experienced and the inexperienced.
The center’s beginner classes for children, Murphy said. He also has reintroduced a lot of parents to tennis and has sparked the formation of several adult leagues at the center.
“Those four ladies playing doubles right there, for instance,” said Murphy, pointing, “They initially got their kids into tennis, realized that it’s not only a lot of fun, but also good for their health. They have been playing here ever since.”
Murphy has also begun to attract some of South Florida’s top local talent with impressive credentials that include being a four-time Wimbledon qualifier and winning the Caribbean Open doubles title in 1971.
He now has three junior players in his fold, 15-year-old Kenneth Wasserman and the brother/sister combination of Alex and Jessica Lehnoff. All three are ranked in the top 20 in the nation.
“These are literally three of the best junior players in the country practicing here; they all have a good chance of becoming professional players or at least solid college players,” said Murphy.
With the new courts and new facilties finally in place, Murphy and his staff are able to focus on what they’ve been trying to accomplish for a long time.
“We want to make this tennis facility one of the best in South Florida,” he said. “Whether it’s the casual adult looking for a weekend game or the up-and-coming junior player from up North who’s looking for a place to train, we want to cater to all of them. These new courts and facilities allow us to do just that.”
For more information on the center’s facilities and programs call 967-4237 from 8 a.m. to 9 p.m. Monday through Thursday; 8 a.m. to 8 p.m. Fridays and 7:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends.
