Mayor Mamdani And NYJTL Unveil 10 Newly Resurfaced Bronx Tennis Courts With Lights For Night Play
- Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Junior Tennis & Learning unveiled 10 newly resurfaced public tennis courts in the Bronx’s Crotona Park, the only courts in the borough with lights for night play.
- A $500,000 grant from the USTA Foundation and equipment sponsor Yonex funded the three-week resurfacing, with part of the money also covering free coaching, mentorship and academic support.
- The courts host the country’s largest free junior tennis competition, the Mayor Dinkins Cup, which draws more than 800 young players from across New York City.
Ten Courts, Three Weeks, One Neighborhood That Needed It
Ten public tennis courts in the Bronx’s Crotona Park had gone worn enough that bounces turned unpredictable and rallies got harder than they needed to be. As the 2026 US Open played out across the city, Mayor Zohran Mamdani and New York Junior Tennis & Learning stood on those same courts, freshly resurfaced, and made the case that fixing them was about more than pavement.
New York City has more than 500 public tennis courts spread across its five boroughs and a century-long relationship with the sport through the US Open in Queens, plus a roster of tennis figures tied to the city, from Althea Gibson to former Mayor David Dinkins. Crotona Park’s courts are a fixture of that history: they are home to the Mayor Dinkins Cup, the country’s largest free junior tennis competition, which brings in more than 800 young players from across the city each year.
“Bounces Unpredictable And Play All Too Difficult”
Mamdani did not soften the condition the courts had fallen into before the fix.
“These courts are some of the most popular in the Bronx. They are home to the country’s largest free junior tennis competition, the Mayor Dinkins Cup, hosted by our partners at [New York Junior Tennis & Learning] and featuring more than 800 young players from across the city,” Mamdani said at an Aug. 26 press conference at the park. “And yet, for too long, these courts have been worn down with cracks in the surface that make bounces unpredictable and play all too difficult.”
After the remarks, Mamdani picked up a racquet and hit a few backhands with the kids on the court. Assemblymember Chantel Jackson, chair of the Black Legislative Task Force, joined the ribbon cutting and connected the repaired courts to something bigger than recreation.
“Tennis can open doors that go far beyond the court,” Jackson said in a statement. “For a lot of our young people, especially in urban communities, tennis has not always been the sport they’ve had the same access or exposure to. That has to change. When we create spaces where our kids can learn the game, compete, build discipline, and develop relationships, we’re also creating pathways to scholarships, college opportunities, mentorship, travel, and careers they may not have considered for themselves.”
Where The $500,000 Actually Went
New York Junior Tennis & Learning is the largest youth tennis and education nonprofit in the country, serving more than 90,000 young people from kindergarten through 12th grade. The organization received a $500,000 grant from the United States Tennis Association Foundation and Yonex, a tennis equipment sponsor, to patch up the courts and apply a new sports coating over three weeks, according to NYJTL Executive Director of Tennis Ahsha Rolle. Part of the funding also went toward youth coaching, mentorship and academic support at no cost to the families involved.
Rolle pointed out that the Bronx sits among the poorest congressional districts in the country, right around where the tennis center is located, which is part of why she considers the investment significant.
“Tennis is one of those sports that’s kind of always been considered an elitist sport. So a lot of Black and Brown folks don’t know that the sport is for them,” said Rolle, a Florida native and former professional player who reached a career-high world ranking of 82 in singles in 2007.
A Front Row Seat To The US Open, Two Minutes Away
NYJTL has 15 ball crew members working the US Open this year, and the organization is hosting the Junior US Open qualifier at the Cary Leeds Center for Tennis & Learning from Sept. 1 to 5, a short walk from the refurbished Crotona Park courts. Rolle called it a preview of the sport’s next generation of stars and a meaningful moment for the young athletes watching it unfold in their own neighborhood.
“Being able to see yourself in the sport. Being able to see people that look like you on TV. I remember I had beads in my hair as a kid too, because Venus and Serena started out with the beads,” Rolle said.
She described tennis as a launchpad beyond the court itself. “Through tennis, they can go up, grow up to be other things. Maybe they want to be a coach. Maybe they want to be a director. Maybe they want to be a doctor. But they can use tennis and the life lessons that tennis teaches you, that resilience, that discipline, that professionalism. They can use all those attributes to become essentially whatever they want to be.”
What Would Actually Close The Access Gap
Isis Gill-Reid, founder and executive director of SG Next Level Tennis, grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant, Brooklyn, playing through NYJTL before becoming a Division I player in the USTA Eastern Section for girls 12 to 18. She has worked as a high-performance tennis coach and consultant starting in 2022 and has coached players at three Junior Grand Slams. Today she coaches small groups on Long Island and runs community and after-school programming in Brooklyn.
Gill-Reid said resurfacing ten courts is a real first step, not a finish line, for a sport that still asks a lot of families before a kid ever picks up a racquet.
“The city can help with increasing access to tennis. One, just more tennis courts, putting lights at tennis courts so people have more time to actually come out and play. Increasing the budget to allocate funding for programming across the city,” said Gill-Reid. “And if there’s funding for smaller programs that aren’t necessarily nonprofits, but operated social enterprises, you’re able to increase accessibility to the sport. And also just trying to partner with smaller orgs to get them into schools.”
Gill-Reid traced her own path back to a specific program. “I definitely played at Harlem Jr. Tennis program in the Armory on 127th. They run a great program. I know they’re also trying to expand and build a tennis center up in Harlem,” she said, adding that she would like to see fully funded tennis facilities built out in places like Harlem and East New York, Brooklyn, next.
Why The Lights Are The Real Upgrade
The refurbished Crotona Park courts remain the only tennis courts in the Bronx with lights that stay on for nighttime play, a detail worth more attention than it usually gets. For families working jobs in daylight hours, or teenagers who only have court time after school and after dark in the winter months, lit courts turn a facility into something they can actually use on a normal weekday.
That single feature separates Crotona Park from most of the 500-plus public courts scattered across the other boroughs, and it is a big part of why NYJTL and the city presented this project as more than a routine repaving job. A smooth surface gets players back on court; lights get them back on court after work.
What Comes Next For Bronx Players
For players in the Bronx, the immediate change is simple: ten courts that play true again, lit for evening sessions, and sitting two minutes from a Junior US Open qualifier running this week. The bigger test is whether the $500,000 grant becomes a model the city repeats elsewhere, or a one-time fix for a single park. Gill-Reid’s wish list, more lit courts, more funding for small community programs, and facilities in Harlem and East New York, offers a rough blueprint for what comes next if the city wants to build on what just opened in Crotona Park.
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