Tennis in Chattanooga, TN

Andy from Atlanta here.

I am moving to Chattanooga, TN at the end of October and am worried about the tennis scene in Chatt.

Can anyone provide advice or contacts of where to play, cost of play, tournaments, etc...to help me adjust coming from a tennis city like Atlanta.

Any thoughts are appreciated!
I am a 4.0-4.5 player and looking to stay active with league play and possibly help start a singles league similar to KSwiss or Ultimate in Atlanta.

Thanks!

Andy

check out Manker Patten tennis club

jpr said:

check out Manker Patten tennis club

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I will definitely check on Manker Patten. If not only for the historic significance of Chattanooga tennis.
It may be a hair $$ for me, but we shall see.
Do you play there?

Thanks

j (dot) andy (dot) golden (at) gmail (dot) com

Manker Patten is very nice.

I used to live in Chattanooga. There's actually a decent amount of courts and tournaments locally.

http://www.chattanoogatennis.com/

I played at the Racquet Club in Hixson (just off Hwy 153).
6 Indoor, 8 lighted outdoor courts (19 total courts)

If you play a lot of singles I'd go and try and get into the Champions Club league. The facility is nice and it's about 40 bucks for 6 or 7 matches plus playoffs. The 4.0 leauge is always full(28 players) and the 4.5 league has about 16 or so. Manker is good if you want to pay money but the best competition is going to be at the champions club. I think they(Manker) may be trying to start up some leagues not that they have started recruiting. In the past, if you wanted to play there you had to call up some people you knew and meet up and play. it's nothing like the tennis scene in Atlanta. In fact, some of us play in Atlanta. We won the alta a1 mixed this summer. Wife also won aa3 and played with the woman(Shadisha Robinson) on the cover of the magazine this summer. Our picture is in that magazine. i forget what issue this summer. I'll look at it and let you know...but there is some tennis but again....there aren't 15 singles leagues and Usta all over the place here. They generally have one season of each and that is it. There are some leagues in Dalton as well(25 minute drive) We will get you hooked up as much as you can be here. What is your usta rating. If it's 4.5 you are really screwed usta wise here. They are lucky to get two teams to play each other and I don't think they had a league this year for 4.5.

owtdoorguy said:

Andy from Atlanta here.

I am moving to Chattanooga, TN at the end of October and am worried about the tennis scene in Chatt.

Can anyone provide advice or contacts of where to play, cost of play, tournaments, etc...to help me adjust coming from a tennis city like Atlanta.

Any thoughts are appreciated!
I am a 4.0-4.5 player and looking to stay active with league play and possibly help start a singles league similar to KSwiss or Ultimate in Atlanta.

Thanks!

Andy

Click to expand...

chatt_town said:

If you play a lot of singles I'd go and try and get into the Champions Club league. The facility is nice and it's about 40 bucks for 6 or 7 matches plus playoffs. The 4.0 leauge is always full(28 players) and the 4.5 league has about 16 or so. Manker is good if you want to pay money but the best competition is going to be at the champions club. I think they(Manker) may be trying to start up some leagues not that they have started recruiting. In the past, if you wanted to play there you had to call up some people you knew and meet up and play. it's nothing like the tennis scene in Atlanta. In fact, some of us play in Atlanta. We won the alta a1 mixed this summer. Wife also won aa3 and played with the woman(Shadisha Robinson) on the cover of the magazine this summer. Our picture is in that magazine. i forget what issue this summer. I'll look at it and let you know...but there is some tennis but again....there aren't 15 singles leagues and Usta all over the place here. They generally have one season of each and that is it. There are some leagues in Dalton as well(25 minute drive) We will get you hooked up as much as you can be here. What is your usta rating. If it's 4.5 you are really screwed usta wise here. They are lucky to get two teams to play each other and I don't think they had a league this year for 4.5.

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Chatt, you are a wealth of knowledge and nice to help me adjust!

$40 for a season is similar to Atlanta so I will probably try and get connected with that league. Where did you and your wife play mixed at A1? Thats nice tennis. Sounds like your wife is a player also.
I only have 1 usta season under my name and it has me rated 4.0. I am looking forward to finding some quality players to play with and alongside.
What kind of seasons should i expect in chatt? Can you give me a timeline roughly of what I should be thinking about the next months and year?
That would be helpful.
I am officially leaving Atlanta at the end of October and will be living in North Chatt near the tunnels that lead to Baylor.
My wife took a job at Memorial as a Social Worker 4 weeks ago.
I have started my job search in the finance/business world which is my background, but I have tennis management exp too.
I am thinking tennis and community groups will be a good way to go to start networking in chattanooga.
Thoughts?
Andy

We played A1 mixed at Trammel Crow this summer. We won a2 mixed at Sugar Creek last summer. Leagues are shutting down for the winter here and not much else is going on tennis wise. It's pretty much what you make of it during the winter. I get my share in. As far as getting to know people. There are several people I can introduce you to around here as I get their names. There is a human resource guy for Cigna that I'm actually trying to get some help from as I'm out of work right now(why I'm on here at 2:42 AM. There are others that I know that will probably help you land something. There are some other indoor courts out at Baylor(private school out near where you will be living). You have to have connections though to get in there. I really don't try because I have access to UTC's indoor courts after hours. It may take some time because of timing of your arrival but I'm sure someone will be able to help you. You said you were play some 4.0. I'd start in the 4.0 league there just because it's always full(28 guys). There will be more networking. The 4.5 generally has about 16 to 18. Some guys like myself have 4.0 ratings but have won the 4.0 league and voluntarily move on to 4.5. There are some highschool kids that can play(mostly play in the summer). I would call out to Champions and ask for Eddie. Tell him your situation and let him know you are moving here. He can tell you how soon you can sign up for the spring league or when you need to call back. I promise you it will fill up quick. If you give him an address i think they send out info about the leagues ahead of time. Tell him Bernard told you to call.

owtdoorguy said:

Chatt, you are a wealth of knowledge and nice to help me adjust!

$40 for a season is similar to Atlanta so I will probably try and get connected with that league. Where did you and your wife play mixed at A1? Thats nice tennis. Sounds like your wife is a player also.
I only have 1 usta season under my name and it has me rated 4.0. I am looking forward to finding some quality players to play with and alongside.
What kind of seasons should i expect in chatt? Can you give me a timeline roughly of what I should be thinking about the next months and year?
That would be helpful.
I am officially leaving Atlanta at the end of October and will be living in North Chatt near the tunnels that lead to Baylor.
My wife took a job at Memorial as a Social Worker 4 weeks ago.
I have started my job search in the finance/business world which is my background, but I have tennis management exp too.
I am thinking tennis and community groups will be a good way to go to start networking in chattanooga.
Thoughts?
Andy

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chatt_town said:

We played A1 mixed at Trammel Crow this summer. We won a2 mixed at Sugar Creek last summer. Leagues are shutting down for the winter here and not much else is going on tennis wise. It's pretty much what you make of it during the winter. I get my share in. As far as getting to know people. There are several people I can introduce you to around here as I get their names. There is a human resource guy for Cigna that I'm actually trying to get some help from as I'm out of work right now(why I'm on here at 2:42 AM. There are others that I know that will probably help you land something. There are some other indoor courts out at Baylor(private school out near where you will be living). You have to have connections though to get in there. I really don't try because I have access to UTC's indoor courts after hours. It may take some time because of timing of your arrival but I'm sure someone will be able to help you. You said you were play some 4.0. I'd start in the 4.0 league there just because it's always full(28 guys). There will be more networking. The 4.5 generally has about 16 to 18. Some guys like myself have 4.0 ratings but have won the 4.0 league and voluntarily move on to 4.5. There are some highschool kids that can play(mostly play in the summer). I would call out to Champions and ask for Eddie. Tell him your situation and let him know you are moving here. He can tell you how soon you can sign up for the spring league or when you need to call back. I promise you it will fill up quick. If you give him an address i think they send out info about the leagues ahead of time. Tell him Bernard told you to call.

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I guess the 2:42am post should have clued me in.
Great thoughts about the leagues and playing in the winter.
I will call up Champions and see what Eddie can tell me and just get a feel for the programming. For the league, is it run such that you can schedule your matches on your own, or are they played every week at a certain time? Like a flex league or a scheduled league?
I am definitely interested in figuring out where I can play for the winter months, not a ton, but here and there.
Good chatting with you as always.

No...The champions is scheduled time and date. Most guys here like that because it takes all the guessing out. The 4.0's have always played at 6:00 on Tuesday and the 4.5's play at 6:00 on Wednesday. Now every now and then guys can't play and reschedule for different reasons but for the most part it's a set time. There is a league called CTA(Chattanooga Tennis Association) that has a flex league. I won that so many times that guys stopped calling for the matches. Not that I was so good...but they were that bad. This was before I had any kind of backhand. The thing is though it is Tennis and there may be some more people to network with. I met a lot of cool guys in both leagues. Haven't played CTA in about 4 or 5 years. Like I said...there are indoor courts around town and certain people have access. We will figure something out and get you hooked up. I don't always play with a lot of the different guys during the winter, but I do know quite a few people and I can make some calls and find out pretty easily who's playing on what indoor courts and where.

owtdoorguy said:

I guess the 2:42am post should have clued me in.
Great thoughts about the leagues and playing in the winter.
I will call up Champions and see what Eddie can tell me and just get a feel for the programming. For the league, is it run such that you can schedule your matches on your own, or are they played every week at a certain time? Like a flex league or a scheduled league?
I am definitely interested in figuring out where I can play for the winter months, not a ton, but here and there.
Good chatting with you as always.

Click to expand...

chatt_town said:

No...The champions is scheduled time and date. Most guys here like that because it takes all the guessing out. The 4.0's have always played at 6:00 on Tuesday and the 4.5's play at 6:00 on Wednesday. Now every now and then guys can't play and reschedule for different reasons but for the most part it's a set time. There is a league called CTA(Chattanooga Tennis Association) that has a flex league. I won that so many times that guys stopped calling for the matches. Not that I was so good...but they were that bad. This was before I had any kind of backhand. The thing is though it is Tennis and there may be some more people to network with. I met a lot of cool guys in both leagues. Haven't played CTA in about 4 or 5 years. Like I said...there are indoor courts around town and certain people have access. We will figure something out and get you hooked up. I don't always play with a lot of the different guys during the winter, but I do know quite a few people and I can make some calls and find out pretty easily who's playing on what indoor courts and where.

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That is great sounding!
I am up here permanently now, have been for a week.
Glad to make it and be done with moving.
Excited to get out the sticks and play soon.
If you want to email me about playing sometime you can at j.andy.golden (at) gmail (dot) com

Thanks!

I just sent you an email...give me a call or shoot a text tomorrow.

owtdoorguy said:

That is great sounding!
I am up here permanently now, have been for a week.
Glad to make it and be done with moving.
Excited to get out the sticks and play soon.
If you want to email me about playing sometime you can at j.andy.golden (at) gmail (dot) com

Thanks!

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