It won’t be wrong to say that the situation at the Grande Dunes Tennis Club is now beyond repair. The future of the club that was started by the community in the 1960s is now quite uncertain. Its blueprint and early courts were designed by tennis legend Arthur Ashe, the first Black man to win singles titles at Wimbledon, the US Open, and the Australian Open. Yet the prestige may prove inadequate in ensuring its survival. There have been plans to demolish the club for years, but the tennis community in South Carolina has fought long to prevent its destruction. But it appears that there is no way back now.

A redevelopment plan for the tennis club was recently proposed at the Myrtle Beach City Council meeting. The plan includes demolition of the ten-court clay tennis facility before it is replaced with a 31-home subdivision. This proposal has already received approval from the planning commission. But the tennis community isn’t ready to bid goodbye to its beloved club and has raised concerns over the redevelopment plan.

“It goes even deeper than that — there is a lot of history,” Terry Springs, a community member, said. “Over the last 10 years, Myrtle Beach has talked a lot about their history, and you’re talking about the top seven pros coming in and building that.”

Another community member highlighted just how much the people of Myrtle Beach would be affected if the tennis club were demolished.

“More importantly, they will lose a place where friendships are built, families connect, children learn, and seniors remain active and healthy. I respectfully ask you to look beyond this proposal and recognize what is truly at stake,” another member said. Further grievances were raised by Charles Collins, a notable member and HOA President of Castillo Del Mar, who argued that the facility has always been noted as a tennis center.

But the city officials appear adamant about the tennis club’s demolition and pointed out that the final decision is not in the hands of Myrtle Beach’s tennis community. The city itself stated that the Planning Commission’s role is confined to whether the subdivision application abides by South Carolina law. The commission cannot prevent a project from going forward based on public opinion.

“This is not a decision by the city of Myrtle Beach,” the city officials said. “This is a private property owner’s decision to do something different with the private property that they own. That is currently permitted under the current zoning. It didn’t need to go to the city council for any approval because there is no rezoning involved.”

According to the community members, more than 500 people at Myrtle Beach will be left without a nearby place to play tennis if the redevelopment plan goes ahead. But it seems that the hands of the city leaders and the tennis community are all tied in this situation. As a result, the club bearing the signature of a tennis icon may soon be replaced with a housing complex featuring four new streets.

While the Grande Dunes Tennis Club in South Carolina is on the verge of getting replaced due to redevelopment plans, an iconic tennis club in Suffolk, England, might get taken over for a completely different reason.

80-year-old tennis club might be replaced by padel courts in Suffolk

The popular Victory Ground Tennis Club in Suffolk may get swept by padel courts in the near future. The club parts with £4,000 (approximately $5,347) a year to rent two courts at the Victory Sports Ground Complex in Bury St Edmunds. But the members have now been told that a padel company has agreed to pay a higher amount to rent the courts. The BBC reports that if Victory Sports Ground CIC accepts the padel offer, it could signal an end to the long-standing tennis club.

With Padel being the fastest-growing racket sport in the world and achieving unprecedented popularity in England, it won’t be a surprise if it replaces a well-known tennis club.

Its popularity has grown rapidly in England ever since the Lawn Tennis Association (LTA) became the national governing body of the sport. It is responsible for organizing over 100 Padel events in Britain, and according to data provided by them last year, over 860,000 people play the racket sport on an annual basis.

But it will still take a long time for Padel to come close to tennis’s popularity in England. According to the LTA, the number of adults playing tennis at least once a year in the country had increased by 44% to around 5.6 million people between 2019 and 2023. Additionally, the annual participation of children has also reached 3.6 million.