Happy Valentine’s Day and Happy President’s Day!
2026 is well underway and we approach a couple holidays this month. The
Ellington Racquet Club staff and I continue to look to meet your tennis and pickleball needs. Recently, we have had a couple days with “special pricing” and we look to do this again in the future. Also, we have some special programs coming up for both adult and youth (high school tennis player wannabees) to consider.
USTA Adult League Team Spring Play Starts Soon
We have teams established to play in the USTA Adult Men’s Leagues. We have 3.5 and 4.0 teams set to begin play in late February. We have a few openings on each of these teams, if you still have an interest in playing. Play is open to men aged 40 or older and matches typically occur on Saturdays. Please let us know if you are interested and we’ll connect you with our captains.
Coach Rahul Bala
Rahul Bala has joined our tennis staff. He is an Ellington resident and has experience teaching in Connecticut at the Weston Racquet Club and in New York at what was the Sound Shore Tennis Association and at the Shenorock Shore Club. He also played tennis for Springfield College. He will be teaching both adult and youth tennis clinics for us.
Due to some conflicts with her new full-time job,
Lexi Kubas is taking a break from teaching with us. We hope to have her return in the future.
Our Next USTA Youth Tournament
We will be hosting our next youth tournament, a Level 7 tournament, on February 21st. Registration closes on February 14th. Please refer to the USTA web site to register or let us know if you need help getting your child involved.
If you are interested in captaining a team based in ERC, please see us about home match court availability. If you are interested in playing on a team based at ERC, please let us know. For the Men’s league, we expect to have both 3.5 and 4.0 teams registered. For the mixed doubles team, we are looking for interested players to help us confirm the team(s) we offer.
3-Month Membership Special
We have a
3-month membership special underway. The last day to register is Friday, February 13th. With this deal, an adult gets a 3-month membership for $75, a junior for $45, and a family for $180. Being a member grants you reduced court membership rates. If you’re looking to play a bit these next few months, I suggest you take a look at the membership benefits.
Tennis Racquet Stringing and Racquet Sales
ERC tennis pro
Scott Barker regularly and quickly strings racquets. Please see the front desk for pricing.
Also, the “demo” tennis racquets on the front wall are for sale. Again, please check with the front desk for pricing. are all great quality racquets offered at special pricing.
Beginners Pickleball Clinic
Looking to give
pickleball a try? Or looking to drag one of your tennis-playing friends onto the other side to play with you? Consider joining the Beginner Pickleball Clinic led by our UCONN Pickleball Club instructors. The class runs on Wednesday .
Looking to Be Playing High School Tennis??
The first day of practice for kids looking to play high school tennis in Connecticut is March 22nd. If you’d like to have your future tennis student-athlete take part in a mini-camp at the end of February, please let us know. Also, we do have private, semi-private, and group lessons ongoing and available for the kids. Please call us for more information.
Options for A Tennis Tournament
We’re looking forward to conducting a tennis tournament March 20-22 and 27-29.
At this time, we’d like some feedback from you on what we should be having. Please let our front desk staff know of your preferred option by February 15th.
Option 1 is a “typical” tournament with separate tournaments for men’s singles, men’s doubles, women’s singles, women’s doubles, and mixed doubles. This will likely take the 2 weekends to complete with play starting on Friday nights and continuing Saturdays and Sundays.
Option 2 is more of a fun, social event following the format of the Australian Open “1 Point Slam”. In this event, your match would consist of 1 point. Rock, paper scissors duels will decide who gets to serve. You will get one serve (not the typical two), and you will play your point with the winner advancing to the next round. Guys play guys, guys play women, women play women, women play guys. It’s one draw for everyone.
Your Clean Shoes Result in Our Clean Courts
It’s that time of year when many track sand or salt on the bottom of their shoes and this ends up on our courts which can either dirty or scratch the courts. Please take a minute to clean your shoes when you enter the club or wear another pair when off court.
Let's Keep in Touch!
That’s it for this month, but please keep in touch with any questions or suggestions you have. This is your club!
Tracy French
Ellington Racquet Club
e-mail: Tracy@ellingtonracquetclub.com
Phone: 860-962-9641
