The United States of America can rightly be called “tennis country. Champions? As many as you want and at every level, from the top junior rankings to the winners of the WTA and ATP Grand Slams. Opportunities? There are over a hundred different tennis academies in America with programs to fit every taste, accommodating novices and juniors alike who are preparing for a professional career. The conditions? In some regions of the United States, tennis can be played outside all year round – what is that if not a tennis player’s paradise? But first things first.

Opportunities

These two states – Florida and California – are where most American academies are located. The largest and most famous among them is, undoubtedly, Nick Bolletieri Academy, located in the town of Bradenton (Florida) and officially called IMGAcademy. However, if we consider this academy broadly, here, besides tennis players, we can find also soccer players, golfers, basketball players, etc. Therefore, the name IMGAcademy Bollettieri Tennis can be used to be more specific. It has more than a hundred students, each of whom came here to train for a period of several days to many years. That is, at an accelerated pace the Academy may remind an anthill, where everyone is constantly on the move, coming and going, etc. An ordinary tennis player will not get an individual approach – you must have either a big purse or great talent to make a player involved.

Small academies, created by tennis parents for their children’s progress, but later developing into something more than “one player’s academy”, make a special group. Such an example is KozlovTennis Academy. Its founder – Andriy Kozlov – first of all focuses on his son Stefan Kozlov, who is on the 7-th line of the ITF Junior rating and has already proved himself in junior tennis. But for the kids who come to this academy, the opportunity to train with Stephan can be a good way to gain experience of playing at a high level.

One more academy is RybakovTennis Academy (though originally it was planned to be called US Spartak in sign of continuation of traditions of Spartak school in the USA). Its founders, the Kozlovs, moved to New York and then to Florida in 2004 specifically to give their children the opportunity to play more tennis. The older daughter, Catherine, ended up combining tennis and university by playing for Florida State University. And the younger son, 16-year-old Alex, is now storming to the top of junior tennis (currently he occupies the 100th line in ITF Junior rating) and drew attention by beating our Roman Safiullin at the Eddie Herr tournament, held this year. The Academy motto is “Less talk, more play! And obviously that’s what attracts kids who want to improve their tennis level. As a rule 10-15 people train in the Academy.

More details about the process of tennis training in America we will tell you about one of the most famous by the tennis standards Evert Tennis Academy, founded by the famous American tennis player Chris Evert (owner of 18 Grand Slam titles) in Boca Raton (Florida), which she runs together with her brother John Evert.

The ETA has 23 courts with two types of surfaces: nine hard courts and 14 dirt courts. ETA students also have 15 courts at a nearby private club, and another 13 courts at a public park a five-minute walk from ETA.

There are many specialists at the Academy, with each responsible for a specific area. For example, there is a director of women’s tennis and, consequently, a director of men’s tennis, a fitness director, a training coordinator, not to mention various administrators and assistants. Each training day at the Academy begins the day before, when practice planning and scheduling take place.

A big advantage of the Evert Academy is the opportunity for the players to practice with the USTA. The United States Tennis Association is the national tennis association in the United States, which was created to promote the growth of tennis in this country. The USTA takes the most talented kids for full support, from the training process to traveling to tournaments. Accordingly, almost all the best juniors in the United States train at the USTA. And since the main base of this association is in close proximity to Evert Academy, and in fact in one large area, constant tournament battles between Academy and Association players take place. Thus, the most ordinary day at the Academy can also turn out to be an ITF tournament.