Tennis players are a devoted and sometimes fanatical bunch, and that’s especially true when they’re traveling. You know you’re a dedicated tennis player when you choose your resort based on who has the best courts and the best instructors. That’s where Roger Cox comes in. A long-time columnist for Tennis magazine, he’s also the man behind Tennis Resorts Online. The modest name hides a wealth of information on the best resorts in the world for tennis vacations. He’s just released his annual list of the Top 100 Tennis Resorts and Camps for 2019, with Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina and the Roy Emerson Tennis Weeks at the Gstaad Palace in Switzerland once again ranked as the top resort and top camp respectively.
His rankings are based on reviews submitted by tennis vacationers over the past year and the winners range from large and small resorts to remote retreats. What Cox says they all have in common is "'tennis atmosphere,’ an almost palpable sense of deep-seated enthusiasm for the game of tennis and those who play it.” I caught up with him at his Manhattan office recently.
Everett Potter: Roger, in a nutshell, what does it take to earn a top ranking in the TRO list?
Roger Cox: Since 2003, the year the Top 100 debuted, I've relied on reviews submitted by tennis vacationers as the basis for the rankings because they are the people who know best what the tennis experience is like. Readers rate more than 20 characteristics that contribute to making a resort noteworthy. Obviously, many of those relate specifically to tennis: the quality of the staff and instruction, the diversity of the tennis programming, the ease of finding suitable opponents, the services and merchandise in the pro shop.
However, because we’re talking about taking a vacation, I also seek input on such creature comforts and amenities as the overall setting, the lodging and cuisine, other recreation, the spa and fitness center, children's programs, and value for the dollar. The rankings, which are published annually in May, are based on reviews submitted over the previous 12 months. To ensure statistically meaningful results. The bottom line is these rankings represent the collective wisdom of thousands of vacationing tennis players.
Potter: Do all of these resorts have stellar instructors?
Cox: A few of these tennis directors do have stellar resumes as players. I'm thinking of 12-time Grand Slam singles champion Roy Emerson, who personally runs tennis weeks at the Gstaad Palace in Switzerland, and Rancho Valencia Resort's Robin White, who captured both Mixed Doubles and Women's Doubles titles at the U.S. Open. But a lot of people have good teaching pros back at their home clubs--albeit perhaps not with the playing credentials of an Emerson or White. The difference is that a tennis vacation affords the leisure to focus on some aspect of their game they don't have time for at home. Great resorts cater to that need by hiring and training professionally certified teaching pros and then providing multiple avenues for improvement. Not only do they offer private lessons or clinics to hone technique, but they also supplement that instruction with drill sessions for repetition, Cardio tennis for fitness, customized training for teams, and game arranging services or social round robins so it can all be put into practice. Think of it as an immersion course in tennis.
Potter: Kiawah Island Golf Resort in South Carolina is the number one ranked tennis resort this year. What makes it number one?
Cox: On the face of it, it may seem strange for a resort with golf in its name to rank so highly for tennis. In fact, though golf-centric, Kiawah has cared about tennis since it opened in 1976, when it hired former ATP touring pro Roy Barth to head its programs and eventually named its tennis center for him. More than four decades later, Barth still has an active emeritus role, though he has seamlessly passed along the day-to-day operations--and tennis director's title--to his son, Jonathan, who has himself been a fixture at the resort for two decades. About the same time, the resort nearly doubled the size of the Roy Barth Tennis Center to 22 courts--all but three of them Har-Tru, or green clay. The tennis gets very high marks for its staff, instruction, and programming, and so do the creature comforts off court.
Set on a barrier island with a 10-mile-long fringe of white-sand beach, Kiawah remains home to Low Country wildlife even as it has developed an abundance of amenities and activities for vacationers and residents. That includes the five designer golf courses, a spa and fitness center, an elegant oceanfront hotel, condominium lodging--some oceanfront, some courtside--a dedicated children's park, bike paths, kayaking s, multiple dining options, shops, and much, much more. Once you arrive, it's such a welcoming sanctuary that there is little incentive to go elsewhere--or there wouldn't be if Charleston and its historic houses, culture, and diverse restaurants weren't just 21 miles away. That combination is hard to beat.
Potter: While the southeast, the southwest and California are full of resorts that make your list, it’s surprising to see a few outliers, like the Bio-Hotel Stanglwirt in Austria at No. 5 and The Buccaneer, in the USVI at No. 23. What makes those two resorts stand out?
Cox: Coincidentally both are family-run hotels, though there any resemblance ends. Stanglwirt's setting in the Austrian Alps could scarcely be more Instagrammable: red-clay courts backdropped by green pastures and granite peaks. The resort first began hosting Peter Burwash International tennis camps more than 40 years ago, attracting an international tennis crowd seduced by the setting and the ecologically sensitive family-run hotel--long on Tyrolean woodcraft and flower-filled window boxes-- renowned for its sumptuous food, personable service, and extensive amenities. Except during special World Camps, when tennis takes up as much as four hours a day, most players spend an hour or two on court leaving ample time to take off on hiking and mountain biking trails into that backdrop of mountains, laze in the swimming pools and lake, indulge in the expansive many-grottoed spa, check out the riding school with Lipizzaner horses, play golf, or explore nearby Kitzbühel and its gondola-to-the-mountaintop views of the heart-stoppingly steep HahnenKamm downhill ski course.
The Buccaneer on St. Croix evolved from a 17th-century plantation estate into a 340-acre resort with 138 rooms, suites, and cottages, three crescent-shaped white-sand beaches, eight hard courts (two with lights), an 18-hole golf course, and a small spa and fitness center. The tennis complex snagged a prime location early on: a terraced hillside just below the hotel overlooking the beach. It became a social hub, drawing guests and local members--many of whom seem already to know one another--for friendly (okay, sometimes, fierce) competition and a weekly roster of social mixers, round robins, clinics, and drill sessions. When tennis ends, the camaraderie continues, merely shifting from the courts to the covered wooden deck that looks out across the Caribbean.
Potter: Are you visiting these resorts incognito?
Cox: After more than 35 years of covering tennis travel, I seldom visit a resort where I’m not a known quantity. That can potentially color my experience. To compensate, I do try to talk to other players whenever I visit, in order to find out whether their take is significantly different from mine, but when it comes to writing about resorts and camps in the pages of my website I tend to pen descriptions rather than reviews. I’m happy to point out what I think they do well and any shortcomings, but I prefer to give the loudest megaphone to tennis vacationers by publishing the reports of their experiences, however candid.
Potter: Your website has been around since 1999. Why did you start it?
Cox: During most of the 1980s and 1990s, I covered travel and resorts for Tennis magazine, which gave me the opportunity to visit, and write about, virtually every major resort and camp in North America. When I met people who knew of my reputation, I was often asked, “What’s the best tennis resort?” So when my contract with Tennis ended in 1999, I decided to launch my own website, and as part of it I created a search form to help people make an informed decision about where to go. When someone wanted advice in person, I’d ask a series of questions. How many hours a day do you want to spend on court? Are you going alone, with a significant other, with a group, with kids? What’s your budget? What do you need beside tennis? Do you want a beach, golf course, or spa? Clay courts or hard? Hotel or condo? The search form on my site essentially poses these and other questions and then links to resorts or camps that meet those criteria. You can then read what I have to say about the venue and scan reviews submitted by other tennis vacationers. It’s the feature I’m most proud of.
Potter: How many days a year do you end up playing tennis?
Cox: It varies, but I probably average 75 days a year, about half of that on the road.
Potter: When you’re at home in Manhattan, a place not normally known for the quality of its tennis, where do you play?
Cox: In warm—and, sometimes, not so warm--weather, I do most of my outdoor tennis playing in New York City on the 10 red-clay public courts in Riverside Park on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. They are bordered by the Hudson River on one side and extensive gardens on the other, the latter cared for by volunteers. It’s a fabulous place to play, as much for the community that cares for the courts as for the well-maintained red clay. In winter and inclement weather, I head indoors, which in New York City can mean not only various indoor tennis clubs but also the sorts of venues not usually encountered elsewhere, like an armory or, though it’s closed now, a chemical factory.
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