Prospect Park Tennis Center

Do you love tennis and not overcrowded courts?
Prospect Park was a great option for anyone living in Brooklyn.
This tennis center has approximately twice as many well maintained Har-​Tru (clay courts) as hard courts.
Reading the Unilocal reviews, I learned to:
1) Be nice the the elderly gentleman.
2) Pay per hour during the summer.
3) Its possible to book online.
After that, everything worked out great!
One of my tennis days, I got to rally with a semi pro for 2.5 hours. I won’t tell you who won that game.
Another day I got to play baseball with our tennis rackets with my beginner friends.
Best work out in the gentle summer sun!

The whole tennis «racket» is confusing. Permits are needed but only in the outdoor season. Permits are needed but only before sundown. Permits are needed but you can only sign up for a court during a blue moon on the third Thursday of a month beginning with a J. Anyhoo, I dig the adult lessons on Wednesday nights taught by my man Alex — an older gentleman who used to be second seed in Haiti back in the day. He’s really nice, he’s a good teacher and sometimes you have to just improvise because you don’t know what he’s saying due to that Haitian accent and street noise. I don’t mind — learning from Alex is fun. There are other teachers who are not nice, Mr. Johnson is one of them. I saw 2 people walk out on his lesson because he was so abrasive. No thanks man. Anyway, Tennis is hard to come by in NYC so I’ll take what I can get at Prospect Park. I kind of think it’s worth the hassle and the BS.

the CRANKY OLD DUDE who works there has got to go! I bet I’ve dealt with him a half dozen times and every time he has been openly abrasive. A tennis center should not feel like the DMV or central booking at the county jail, it’s tennis!
the other young ladies who work there are good at what they do and friendly. the old dude is none of those.
the courts are fine. clay is pretty well kept. expensive in the winter.

I’m not sure why these courts are listed on the nyc dept of parks and rec site as being available to nyc tennis permit holders. Went here to play tennis and there were literally no people on any of the 11 courts save for one guy giving a tennis lesson. We were told by someone in a white t-​shirt that we could not play on the courts because they were wet and ‘unsafe’, when we asked why another person was allowed to profit off of a court in the same exact condition we were given some bullshit reason. These are not public courts, they are controlled by something called the Prospect Park Alliance which seems to have the mission of denying permit holders the right to play tennis on public courts. My friend and I have spent 400 dollars combined to obtain permits and were turned away from a virtually empty tennis facility by a very rude man in a white t-​shirt. what the fuck? Avoid at all costs, these people are not worth your time and energy.

Tennis in New York City. Well maintained courts, 11 in all — 9 Har-​Tru, 2 hardcourt with a comfortable clubhouse that is open to all. In the summer, the courts are part of the city’s system that uses seasonal tennis permit or single-​play coupons. In the winter, the Prospect Park Alliance, a nonprofit that helps operate the park, bubbles over the courts and runs the indoor tennis facility with court fees that are very competitive for the city. If you play on weekend mornings, you’ll get some complimentary caffeine and bagels to get you ready to play.
Year round, Paul Campbell, director fo the Tennis Center, along with the team of tennis pros and staff make this facility a great place to play and learn the game. A great addition is the Special Aces program for kids with disabilities. And if you’re not staring at others playing on the courts, look at the clubhouse walls and see some of Paul’s art hanging on them — he’s an accomplished artist and tennis player.

There are, I think, 12 total courts here (10 Har-​Tru and two hard). The Har-​Tru, or clay, surface feels more forgiving and seems to lend itself to longer rallies.
My favorite feature of this tennis center is that you can make court reservations online once you get a user ID after showing your ID at the desk. You can also sidestep buying single-​play tickets at the Arsenal or Paragon during the tennis season by purchasing directly at the desk… a nice change from the East River courts and others.