Haviland Tennis Academy is located at 1967 Ridge Rd in Greenville, SC (29607), and it’s actually inside of the Wenwood Soccer Complex. It’s located near the center of Greenville, so it’s easily accessible from anywhere in the county. It’s next door to the Carolina Elite Soccer Academy, half a mile away from the brand new multimillion dollar Conestee Baseball Park that houses Greenville Little League baseball, 1.5 miles away from Christ Church, J.L. Mann, and St. Joseph’s high schools, and just 2.5 miles off of Hwy 85 (taking either the Laurens or Mauldin road exits). The center is set on a peaceful, beautifully wooded property, far away from busy roads, houses and businesses. While 4 acres were cleared to build the initial 10 court complex, 10.5 more acres sit ready and waiting if needed for future expansion.
Our 10 tennis courts consist of 4 clay courts, 3 slow hard courts, and 3 fast hard courts. Additionally, all of our hard courts have a DecoTurf surface, which is the surface used at the US Open. Most new hard courts are surfaced at a “medium” speed, which is neither fast nor slow, and accordingly takes very little getting used to. The problem for a tournament player, however, is that they will travel and play at places with very fast courts (such as old hard courts that are worn down, or on indoor courts), and sometimes on very slow, gritty courts (as many D1 colleges have), and these surfaces play very different. We want our players to be prepared for either extreme, so 3 of our courts have a “slick coat” that make them play fast, and 3 have “extra sand in the paint” to make them grittier and play a lot slower.
Other notable features of our facility are as follows:
- All of our courts are full-sized and individually fenced in (no shared alleys or balls from neighboring courts causing lets).
- Upgraded heavy duty fencing along with rails at the bottom of the fences, so that the fences never curl up at the bottom and let balls roll out of the court.
- A unique gateless design which means no opening and closing of gates every time you enter or leave a court.
- Upgraded vertical burn court lights which are 75 percent brighter than “standard” tennis court lights.
- California/cut corners so you don’t have to walk as far to chase balls that roll into a corner after a point.
- Custom built wooden shade shelters located on every court to provide shade on hot, sunny days.
- A large shade shelter with high powered fans in the center of the ten courts that is used as a central meeting point/picnic area for both junior clinics and ladies league teams.
- Hilly terrain that provides for excellent, elevated viewing of all 10 courts.
Additionally, our clubhouse has a 400 sq foot back porch that overlooks the tennis center, a 500 sq foot lobby with a 60” tv for watching the tennis channel, two coaches offices/meeting rooms, a storage room, an ice machine/water fountain room, and men’s and women’s restrooms that have showers as well as private individual bathrooms, instead of stalls.
