Where Steve Carell, Dakota Fanning and Other Stars Are Playing Tennis in Los Angeles – The Hollywood Reporter

In 2020, in the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, when sheltering at home seemed like an infinite reality, a neon-green lighthouse shone through mandatory isolation through darkness: tennis. Traditionally, outdoor sports, a largely socially distant sport known for its promise of good exercise and competitive partnership, rose in popularity.

According to an annual survey Sports Council21.64 million Americans went to court in 2020, up 22.4 percent from 2019, after years of leveling off. Of these players, 6.78 million were either new to the sport or returned after a long time.

Tennis became a popular pandemic, especially in Southern California, as the lack of weather threatening the fields made tennis a year-round sport. There are long wait times in public areas in the area, and Realtors say tennis courts are once again in demand among home buyers. “People took them out,” says Linda May of Hilton & Hyland. “It’s a complete recovery now. People are playing with their kids and they have tournaments on the weekends.

In one private Tarzana court in particular, the attraction of the game gave way to the emergence of an entire tennis-playing, entertainment-centric community led by a coach and actor. Chris Crabb (who worked with Robert Downey Jr., playing left – handed and with a wooden bat Chaplin).

Crabb – who performed at the age of 9 with Tiny Timina in 1979 American Christmas carol With Henry Winkler – built his home field in Tarzana just before the pandemic. It has now become a place where his client Steve Carell often plays with his wife Nancy as well as other names coached by Crabb, including Dave Grohl, Pete Wentz, Survivor presenter Jeff Probst and Dakota Fanning. “Chris takes tennis seriously, but he doesn’t take himself seriously,” Carell says. “Every hour I learn something, and at the same time it’s the funniest part of the day. He is so kind and positive and he has created a great sense of community among all of us.

In addition to rewards for the mental and physical health of playing tennis, Probst says the Crabb field community has given him the opportunity to “see people’s personalities differently” and that learning new skills in the context of tennis has kept him sharp and creative. to a series he has hosted through 41.

“Everything in my life goes through me Survivor filter, ”says Probst. “There are similarities in tennis strategy that I try to extrapolate and bring to the game Survivor. One of the truths about tennis is that it’s hard to win because when you’re close to winning, you get tight and start to choke, so I left for this new season. Survivor remember that the same will happen to these players. “

In the court of five Beverly Hills Tennis Club, tennis director Anne White, a former world ‘s top 20 athlete, has also experienced a recovery. “We have a very long waiting list to get in. When I started compared to the current one, it was crazy,” he says, adding that one sign of the popularity of the sport is the shortage of tennis balls from companies like Penn. A spokesman for Penn said, “In the 27 years I’ve done this, I’ve never had this problem.” It’s a good and bad thing, he says. White joined the tennis club staff four years ago; and welcomed professionals such as Naomi Osaka and Tommy Haas.

Darryl Goldman, a private tennis coach for over 40 years in Beverly Hills, has noticed a peak in equipment prices as a result. “I haven’t been able to get the shoes I want for the longest time,” he says, adding, “Plus, sometimes I pay 30-40 percent more for tennis balls and equipment, and I haven’t received them properly. Often they are ordered in arrears.” He gave tennis lessons at the late Robert Evans mansion on the court in Beverly Hills, but now he coaches at another private court nearby. “I don’t think I’ve ever seen such a boom. It has become such an incredible social sport. I don’t remember the game getting so many new players, young and old, men and women, boys and girls, ”Goldman says. “When the CDC declared tennis the safest sport, it became busier than ever.”

Los Angeles has long been known for its impressive private selection of tennis clubs – including the Los Angeles Tennis Club at Hancock Park, Brentwood Country Club, Riviera Country Club and Malibu Racquet Club – but public parks with courts are also a strong option. “There are a lot of parks around Los Angeles where people play and the fields are pretty crowded because of the renaissance of tennis,” says talent manager Steven Siebert, founder of Lighthouse Entertainment (where customers include Angela). Bassett).

But many entertainment names favor the privacy and status of private courts. Siebert runs a weekly tennis team, Team Uomo Live Ball, in the gated Malibu Colony community, which attracts players (Architects, Actors, Technology Entrepreneurs and more) from all over Los Angeles, from West Hollywood to Los Feliz.

Visitors to Team Uomo Live Ball have included tennis legend John McEnroe, Chinese pro Qiang Wang, actor Jonah Hill, director-producer James L. Brooks, Wimbledon winner Pat Cash, music director Elliot Grainge and screenwriter-director Stephen Gaghan. “If you come to our field in Malibu and play live ball tennis with us on Saturday, you’ll always catch up with the pros,” Siebert says.

His tennis team is named after a sportswear brand Athletic man, founded by Siebert in 2016 in response to what he saw style and charisma fade into the tennis clothes of past players. “I really couldn’t believe what was happening to the tennis clothes, it just went aside,” he said.

The disc was recently shown King Richard: “Will Smith is wearing some of our songs in the film,” Siebert says, “including the pink polo, even though the logo had to be removed.”

Although several communities and clubs have followed the increase in enrollment, tennis has not achieved the same success in other areas; The Arthur Ashe tennis courts at the Rancho Cienega Recreation Center in Baldwin Hills have had difficulty getting new players into the game. According to Richard Williams (but not that Richard Williams, head tennis professional and field coach since 1976, the popularity of tennis has not changed among black players recently, but he has noticed more white players.

“The area, of course, is changing, the area is moving,” Williams says of the recent gentrification. “It’s hard for us to get kids out to play tennis; it may involve money. Maybe they think tennis is an elitist sport and they can’t do anything about it, but they can if they come up.

During his tenure, Williams has coached countless players in the community, most notably the legendary champions Venus and Serena Williams and their father. King Richard. Given the film’s recent debut, Rancho Cienegan Williams believes “it will generate some traffic… but the problem is that it won’t be maintained”.

Crabb – who taught George Clooney and the late Miguel Ferreria at Rosemary Clooney’s house – hopes more and more people will fall in love with the game and the lessons it gives. “People think tennis is just about hitting the ball,” says Crabb, who adds that he sees similarities between sports and acting. “They’re so interconnected in the fact that you always have a goal or hurdle you’re trying to overcome. And by acting, you work for another person. That’s tennis! “

A version of this story first appeared in The Hollywood Reporter on December 15th. Click here to order.