Little-known Orlando jewel hosted play by tennis greats
I can’t claim to have ever been an athlete, although long ago I did stumble through 10K races when I lived in the San Francisco area, where top temperatures hover in the high 60s. But in my Orlando youth, I did play a bit of tennis and followed the sport.
So, when I read that the City of Orlando Clay Court Championships took place this month at the Orlando Tennis Centre, it jogged my memory about this historic facility, one of the area’s hidden treasures, nearing the end of its reign at what used to be the city’s fairgrounds.
The Tennis Centre’s address is now 649 Bentley St. in the area that’s still labeled “Sunshine Park” on some maps. Until recent construction for the Creative Village, the address for the courts was 649 W. Livingston.
If plans proceed apace, the Tennis Centre is slated to move, perhaps in 2020, to a new city park at Princeton Street and John Young Parkway, leaving the location where it has been since 1932.
In the years since it opened with four clay courts (it’s now far larger), the tennis greats who have played there include Bill Tilden, Don Budge, Fred Perry, Jack Kramer, Bobby Riggs, Fred Stolle, Rod Laver, Pancho Gonzales, Pancho Segura, John Newcombe and Ken Rosewall, as well as Orlando tennis legend Roger Pharr, who began playing on the courts as a teenager in 1945.
Credit to Clarence Varner
Accounts of the courts’ history credit another Orlando sports legend, Clarence Varner, with putting a spotlight on both tennis and softball in the City Beautiful.
Varner had arrived from Minnesota with his wife, Gladys (a longtime teacher), in 1926 and became Orlando’s city recreation director — a role he played until 1958 before moving to Rollins College for 10 years.
“His biggest concern was always the kids,” Gladys Varner told a reporter in 1987. “He saw to it that they learned how to play tennis.”
Varner also began the tradition of big-name exhibition matches when he lured “Big Bill” Tilden to Orlando. Tilden was ranked the world’s No. 1 player from 1920-25. He and several other well-known players put on exhibition matches at Orlando’s public courts in January 1933; Tilden also presented a talk on the sport at the downtown Sears, Roebuck and Co. store.
In the 1950s and ’60s, the Orlando Tennis Centre’s reputation as a firstclass tournament facility flourished. Bob Gould, city recreation director from 1962-79, invited Segura, Laver, Gonzales, Newcombe and others for exhibition tournaments.
“Orlando has always been a great tennis center,” Segura told a Sentinel writer in 1987. “It was always a favorite of mine. I loved the red clay because I had a good drop shot. We played for peanuts back then, and I still loved it.”
Famous for his powerful doublehanded strokes and for his compact, 5-foot-7-inch stature, Segura died at 96 in 2017; he was also known for coaching Jimmy Connors.
Formoreonthecity’scourts,visitwww.cityoforlando.net/recreation/orlando-tennis-centre.
Morse Museum Open House
An annual Easter treat returns next weekend when the Charles Hosmer Morse Museum of American Art in Winter Park invites visitors to enjoy the museum for free April 19-21.
The open house begins on April 19, from 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m., with music by classical guitarist Joshua Englert from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. Admission is also free on April 20 from 9:30 a.m. to 4 p.m. and April 21, Easter Sunday, from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The Morse Museum is home to the world’s most comprehensive collection of works by American artist and designer Louis Comfort Tiffany (1848–1933). The chapel Tiffany created for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair is a highlight of a visit during the Easter weekend open house, organizers say.