While many young Australians will dream of the opportunity to contest grand slam tennis tournaments, surfaces in our suburbs are not always the optimum training grounds for a new generation of Lleyton Hewitts or Sam Stosurs.
Few get the opportunity to pit their wits on genuinely good natural grass turf, the like of which is found at Wimbledon. But synthetic grass is now providing a viable alternative for top class tennis clubs because it not only looks like the real thing but acts like the real thing too – only it is much easier to maintain.
Great tennis turf is difficult to maintain properly even in the most agreeable climates, requiring intensive grounds keeping throughout the year. But in the hot arid conditions encountered through Perth’s Western Australia’s long summers it becomes nearly impossible to manage natural turf.
The Bassendean Tennis Club chose synthetic grass for their new courts on Guildford Road because their natural turf was not providing the performance required. The Town of Bassendean, who manage the facility, engaged the services of Green Planet Grass to come up with a high performance solution to their turf troubles and the new courts have been as well received by club members as the numerous residential customers installing synthetic tennis courts recently.
Green Planet Grass designed and constructed the new synthetic grass courts providing a full turn-key solution for the Town. The scope of work included project design to Australian standard, demolition, base construction, lighting, fencing and of course laying the synthetic grass surface. Both the design and construction were approved by SportDev Australia on behalf of the Town. Sport Dev Australia work with Tennis Australia to implement their facility concepts.
The courts were completed in February 2011 and are now starting to save the Town of Bassendean serious sums of money thanks to reduced maintenance and the elimination of irrigation requirements.
“The Bassendean tennis courts are an important sports facility in Perth’s eastern suburbs and we were delighted to be able to provide a top class surface for tennis there,” says Jeff Dennis, managing director of Green Planet Grass.
“When installing sports surfaces it is essential to get the preparatory work right and be meticulous in producing a high quality finish because these facilities are heavily used and sustain high impacts on a regular basis. The fact that the surface is approved by Sport Dev Australia shows that our tennis court design and construction are of the highest quality available in WA.”
Hopefully synthetic tennis courts can prove to be a great training ground for West Australian tennis stars of the future.
