All-Love Racquet Club is bringing diversity and community to tennis in LA.
Tennis has a complicated image . On the professional level , many of the plot ’s brightest genius are rebels , tastemakers , and badasses : think Andre Aggasi ’s radical ' 90s way , Arthur Ashe ’s boundary - split up aplomb , or everything about the Williams sisters ’ careers . At the unpaid level , though , tennis can have that dreaded country - cabaret energy .
That was Erika Bond ’s experience , growing up as a high - stage junior tennis player in the Atlanta area and playing D1 college tennis . After some time in other industries , Bond returned to lawn tennis and go train as a way of life to get outside and work with hoi polloi during the early days of the pandemic . The work brought her to a variety of order and private motor hotel around LA , where she was reminded of the sport ’s homogeneity and honestly less - than - accessible feel .
" I ’ve walked into many private clubs and all optic are on me , and you could just feel this place might not be for you , " said Bond .
Courtesy of All-Love Racquet Club
That deficiency of variety is what led Bond to foundAll - sexual love Racquet Club , a new inclusive lawn tennis club dedicated to throw tennis approachable to underserved communities in LA .
“ I just wanted a space where it palpate accessible for citizenry to be their authentic ego , ” she say .
All - love life is a radically inclusive grouping where people can instruct how to play tennis , connect with other players , and expand and celebrate the game . Someday , hopefully , All - Love will include a physical clubhouse too . But for now , they ’re building through biotic community interlocking and a serial of exciting events .
Courtesy of All-Love Racquet Club
This weekend , All - Love is hosting a tennis tournament , pop - up securities industry , and party in honour of Black History Month that they ’re callingThe Cookout . There will be competitive tennis , Black - owned businesses sell their wares , and an factual cookout , all to celebrate the long history of Black Americans in tennis , from Arthur Ashe and Althea Gibson , through to Zina Garrison and the Williams sis , and active whizz like Coco Gauff , Frances Tiafoe , Chris Eubanks , and Sloane Stephens , among many others .
Part of opening lawn tennis up to a more diverse biotic community is providing a receive space for new player to learn the secret plan . So the Cookout tournament will admit a series of radical classes and workshops for beginners . Tennis is n’t an well-to-do plot to pick up , specially because so much of the culture and training takes place in exclusionary space like expensive club or leagues , and a lot of private lessons have a relatively high hourly rate . But by making beginner category comfortable and welcoming , Bond hopes to encourage a newfangled readiness of player — the sort who may feel a little othered in country clubs for one reason or another — to pick up a racquet and get out there .
All - Love is also design to help local instrumentalist plug in with each other , and , in the process , build a bass biotic community of diverse tennis players . To that end , Bond choose a team tennis format for the intermediate and forward-looking histrion tourney at the Cookout . There will be pear-shaped Old World robin elements , with singles and doubles mixed in , and teammates are encouraged to determine other matches , to cheer and hang out . The idea is to keep things casual and light , free-enterprise but not in an fast-growing way .
Courtesy of All-Love Racquet Club
The venue has special meaning for Bond and All - making love too . They ’re hosting the Cookout at the Michelle and Barack Obama Sports Complex at Rancho Cienega Rec Center . The lawn tennis courts there have a particularly authoritative place in African - American tennis chronicle ; the facility is formally named for Arthur Ashe , and legends like Aretha Franklin and Gladys Knights act there . It is an iconic locus , and a affecting place for a new aggregation of various lawn tennis player to meet , to gather , to serve up near food , good vibes , and maybe some aces , too .
