Indoor tennis lovers all set for planned reopening of facilities in Phase 3 on July 6

When Long Island  enters Phase 3 of its reopening from the COVID-19 pandemic, scheduled to begin on June 24, then indoor tennis facilities across the Island can reopen on July 6.

The New York State Department of Health issued guidelines and protocols to sports facility operators on Thursday that allows indoor tennis to move up from the final Phase 4 reopening. In categorizing the risk factors from low to high, the directive considers singles tennis low risk and doubles tennis as moderate.  

For indoor tennis operators, the key wording of the extensive 14-page document  was this: “These guidelines apply to non-professional and non-collegiate sports and recreation activities (e.g. youth sports), inclusive of indoor and outdoor sports and recreation, as well as organized and non-organized sports and recreation.”  

Indoor tennis facilities previously had been lumped in with gyms and fitness centers. Those facilities must remain closed, though the document indicated that additional guidance will be issued that might allow those venues to open sooner.   

“My opinion is that it is definitive and we like definitive,” said Claude Okin, CEO of Sportime, which operates six indoor facilities on Long Island comprising 42 courts. “This is the clearest we’ve been about our opportunity to reopen and get back to business since the beginning of all of it . . . Tennis is back and we’ll have adults and juniors and singles and doubles, programs and clinics for adults and kids, full day programs and camps.”   

"We are all fiberglassed in at this point for protection purposes,” said Dick Zausner, president of Port Washington Tennis Academy, the Island’s biggest indoor facility with 17 courts. “All of the protection things have been done. We’re just waiting.”   

“We have masks, everything has been cleaned up, we’ve been waiting for the day,” said Mitch Zeifman, owner of Christopher Morley Tennis (10 indoor courts) at the Nassau County park. “We’ve been beyond excited waiting for this to happen.”   

Okin said that demand for the 56 outdoor courts that Sportime runs in Quogue and Amagansett has been running high.   

“Based on the outdoor clubs we’ve been operating since May 15 we have never been this busy at this time of year with people playing tennis in every possible format,” he said. “And there are new players and players we haven’t seen in a long time.” 

For Sunny Fishkind of Bethpage, longtime tennis advocate, coach and board member of the USTA Long Island region, opening indoor facilities while make older players feel safe.  

“I think it’s safer indoors,” said Fishpond, who is 78 but describes herself as immature. “The older people will be more comfortable indoors. I’ve been playing tennis every day the last week and some people are just not careful. When the older people go inside, they are going to feel safer.  

“For the sake of having a bathroom nearby, for the sake of it being clean, for the sake of having, like, idiots — I shouldn’t use the word — on other courts that are not careful, it’s just a safer situation for older people.”   

“There are players who don’t consider themselves outdoor players, they don’t like the sun or the wind or the temperature,” Okin said. “They like playing where it’s cooler; all our indoor courts are air-conditioned. They are players who are just waiting for indoor tennis.”  

And the doors should be opening on July 6 if all goes well with Long Island’s Phase 3 reopening.    

“It’s a good feeling to see the light, to be able to be back,” Okin said.