USTA Kentucky

08/10/2025

Kentucky’s own Tennis Technology, Inc, Louisville, Kentucky was selected for court renovation at the Cincinnati Open! The last company to do the job was from England.

Tennis Technology, Inc. surfaces and constructs basketball, pickleball, and, of course, tennis courts and is run by the father and son team, Jeff and Jesse Henderson.
During the 1970’s the Louisville Tennis Center hosted the First National Tennis Classic, a major tournament that was part of the Grand Prix and the WCT circuits. It attracted the best players in the world (Rod Laver, Arthur Ashe, Guillermo Vilas to name a few). The Louisville Tennis Center recruited a few college guys including Jeff Henderson, Chris Burckle and Paul Borman to help them get the clay courts ready.
Tennis Technology, Inc. was launched in 1978 by Jeff, Chris, and Paul.
Paul moved on, but Jeff and Chris have been in the tennis business ever since. Chris opened Blairwood and Louisville Tennis Club, and Jeff has owned and operated Tennis Technology for the past 47 years.
In February the Cincinnati Open presented an overview of the $260 million transformation project to Tennis Technology. Jesse Henderson said, “we were blown away with the world-class design.” The construction timeline was very tight considering the asphalt hadn’t been installed on almost twenty courts. The deciding vote to move forward with the project was cast by the Operations Officer, Jose Lopez, whose exact words were, “Yeah, we got it.”
The project began in April and got off to a very slow start due to the fact that our region experienced the most amount of rainfall ever, from January through June. Jesse said, “I lost a lot of sleep solely because of the rain.” But with Tennis Technology’s exceptional crew who worked 12 to 16 hour days they completed the job. Jesse said, “our guys are the best in the business and are artists armed with squeegees.” Har-Tru provided the court coating product.
The Cincinnati Open team included Dick Clark, Jon Sanders, and Christian Flory. “Those guys are worldclass. If they were not running this massive construction project, they wouldn’t be having a tournament right now.” Jesse said.
The Cincinnati Open is a spectacular facility with 31outdoor courts, five of which are stadium courts, and six indoor courts.
When you are onsite watching the great tennis action, just think it would not be possible without the father son team at Tennis Technology Inc. Jannik, Carlos, Aryna and Coco should be thankful!

08/09/2025

🎾 The latest episode of Game Set Match Kentucky - The Podcast is out! Hosts Chad Young & Chris Godby go over tournamnets and drop some exciting upcoming tennis announcements! 🎉🏆

Check it out! https://www.facebook.com/share/v/18gf7jV1LJ/

08/09/2025

Don't miss the latest USTA Kentucky news! Check out our August Newsletter for all the updates and highlights. Read more at https://wix.to/OgGhsiS

Don't miss the latest USTA Kentucky news!

08/08/2025

What do you think!? Working on some T-shirt graphics for our online merchandise sales. What's your favortie? Vote in the comments.

08/07/2025

KENTUCKY TENNIS HISTORY - A MOMENT IN TIME

Eric Quigley plays Cincinnati Open in 2019, following an NCAA runner-up finish. Quigley received a wild card into the Cincinnati ATP Qualifying. In the first round, Quigley played Pablo Andujar ranked number 49 in the world. Quigley reached match point at 5-3 in the third set. Then at 5-4 he had two more match points that Andujar fought off before winning the match.
The Louisville native was playing at that level during his pro career.
Dennis Emery - contributor

08/06/2025

In the heart of Louisville's Newburg neighborhood, Bruce Stone is changing lives one tennis swing at a time.

Bruce,along with many other NTA members, have introduced hundreds of kids and adults to the game, his mission is simple: make tennis accessible to everyone. 💚🎾

Over the years, Stone has continued to bring the game of tennis to the Black and brown community through summer camps.

08/04/2025

Harper Lile and Natalie Griffin took the Midwest and Chicago by storm and made waves in every division they entered! As an unseeded doubles team, they powered their way to a runner-up finish. Natalie, unseeded in the Girls 14s A Flight, battled to the finals and fell just short to the #1 seed. Harper, seeded #2 in the Girls 14s B Flight, dominated her draw and brought home the title! 🎾💪👏

08/03/2025

Big congrats to John and Kennedy Herring on finishing 2nd at the National Father-Daughter Grass Court Championships in Boston this weekend! A proud moment for this father-daughter team and for Kentucky tennis! 👏🎾

08/01/2025

KENTUCKY TENNIS HISTORY - A MOMENT IN TIME

History was made at the 1996 Fifth Third Bank Lexington Challenger Tournament. Director Dennis Emery received a call from his good friend Nick Bolletieri about a main draw wild card for his 18-year-old protege Tommy Haas. Emery didn’t have the main draw wild card but convinced Bolletieri to have Haas play qualifiers on a wild card and get great housing for their group at a Lexington horse farm.

Haas qualified and in the first round upset 90th ranked top seed Grant Stafford in the first round 6-2, 3-6, 6-3. Haas lost second round of the event, but a star was born. This was the professional debut for Haas who went on to be ranked number two in the world and was top ten for years. His long professional career started here in Kentucky!

Don’t miss your chance to see other raising tennis stars this week at the Lexington Open Open!
Dennis Emery - contributor

07/31/2025

KENTUCKY TENNIS HISTORY - A MOMENT IN TIME

In 2016 a young Francis Tiafoe came to Lexington for the Kentucky Bank Tennis Championships (now the Lexington Open - playing this week!). Seeded at number seven, the 19-year-old Tiafoe would reach the final where he lost a heartbreaker to Ernesto Escobedo 6-2, 6-7, 7-6.

In the first round Tiafoe, who would become a top ten player but was ranked 162 going into this tournament, faced another future top ten player in unseeded Tommy Paul. Tiafoe won 6-3, 6-1.
Tiafoe would reach the US Open semifinals in 2022 and 2024 and has earned 15 million dollars in his career. Professionally Lexington was a huge piece of his career jump start.
Dennis Emery - contributor

07/30/2025

KENTUCKY TENNIS HISTORY - A MOMENT IN TIME

At the Lexington Challenger Louisville native Colin Purcell was given a USTA wild card to play with John Isner. Purcell and Isner were teammates for the Georgia Bulldogs. Purcell was living in Louisville and remembers “playing the event for fun”.

It ended up being quite a run. In the first round they upset number two seeded Horia Tecau who ended up later being top five in the world. In the semifinals they beat Kevin Anderson and his partner. Anderson would later reach the finals of the singles at both Wimbledon and the US Open.

In the finals they lost to the team Raitiwana - Raitiwana 7-6,7-6 Isner of course later became top ten in the world and the US number one.
Dennis Emery - contributor

07/29/2025

We have a winner!