GRAND SLAM

An emerging Sports & Performance District is reshaping Lake Nona, bringing world-class athletic facilities and new experiences to the fast-growing community.

The United States Tennis Association National Campus celebrated one year as the “Home of American Tennis” in Lake Nona. As the anchor of the Sports & Performance District, the campus is one of the largest tennis facilities in the world. 

  With 100 tennis courts spread across 64 acres, it offers unparalleled playing, training and educational experiences for recreational players, competitive players, coaches and spectators.

The facility brings together the association's Community Tennis and Player Development divisions, along with the Florida branch of USTA and the national training site for USTA-certified officials. Programming is offered for players at every level — from amateur to pro.

It's a place dedicated to learning, playing and improving the game. It's also is the home of the University of Central Florida’s varsity tennis program.

“It's an incredible platform for us to raise the bar for how we deliver tennis,” says Kurt Kamperman, the USTA's chief executive for community tennis. “We're truly using this campus as a campus. We want to train people who want to teach tennis, coach high-performance players and organize events.”

Despite its enormous size, the campus isn't a concrete jungle. The association had plenty of land to separate the courts, leaving ponds and landscaping to create a park-like setting. Kamperman sees it as a “metropolis” with smaller, self-sufficient neighborhoods devoted to different aspects of the game — such as family tennis.

Some of the courts are made of a specific red clay that comes only from Cremona, Italy. Wanting only the best, the USTA had 450 tons of it shipped to Lake Nona.

The lifeblood of the tennis facility is the programming available to local residents on a daily basis. With after-school and weekend youth programming, daily adult sessions and camps for kids and adults, hundreds of Central Florida tennis players are using the courts.

Reflecting on the epic performance of the USTA National Campus in 2017, USTA President Katrina Adams says the impact of the project has been bigger than she ever imagined — and she promises even more in the coming years.

“To say this has been an amazing year for the USTA National Campus would be an understatement,” says Adams, who's also CEO and board chairman. “When we set out to create this place, we wanted to design a facility that would be all things to all levels of players. That's a pretty large challenge — but working as a team we rose to that challenge in an equally large way.”

Indeed. The campus hosted more than 100 local, regional, national and international events in 2017, ranging from community events and Junior Team Tennis National Championships to USTA Pro Circuit events and collegiate conference tournaments. The campus has attracted more than 200,000 players and visitors.

At one end of the spectrum, more than 500 youngsters under the age of 18 participate each week in youth programs. At the other end, the campus embraced its role as the new home of USTA Player Development, welcoming more than 600 current and aspiring professional tennis players who were assisted by Team USA coaching, training and medical staffers.

In total, more than 150,000 hours of court time were booked for players of all ages and abilities last year — and that number is only expected to grow in 2018.

Current and former pros who visited include Bob and Mike Bryan, Ivan Lendl, James Blake, Jack Sock, Bethanie Mattek-Sands and Lake Nona residents Madison Keys, Donald Young, CiCi Bellis and Frances Tiafoe.

Competitors and spectators alike have easy access to the campus because of its proximity to Orlando International Airport.

Nearby medical facilities offer plenty of synergies for sports organizations. For example, Nemours, which operates a children's hospital in Medical City, has partnered with the Andrews Institute for Orthopaedics & Sports Medicine, based near Pensacola, to become the campus’ official medical providers.

Just steps away, another major project is taking shape. Tavistock Development Co. is building an iconic resort and spa along the southern shore of Lake Nona.

The eight-story Lake Nona Resort will feature cutting-edge design and top-tier amenities, such as a major fitness and spa campus, a massive beach volleyball venue, one of the nation’s largest man-made crystal-clear lagoons and custom-designed guest rooms and condominium units. 

“With Orlando now approaching 72 million annual visitors, it is a very competitive hotel market with many exceptional properties and operators,” says Tavistock Development Co. President Jim Zboril. 

“With our proximity to the airport, this facility will not only serve the Lake Nona community but will also provide a unique addition to the Central Florida region. Lake Nona has become synonymous with innovation and wellbeing, and the creation of this iconic resort highlights our dedication to building a holistic environment for residents, businesses and visitors.” 

Inspired by Lake Nona’s forward-thinking mission statement — to “create the ideal place that inspires human potential through innovative collaboration” — the resort will offer the highest level of healthy living in a resort setting, appealing to athletes, business travelers, weekend warriors and families seeking an escape with an abundance of healthy activity, rejuvenation and relaxation. 

The hotel's design and offerings complement the community’s healthy living initiatives. 

The resort joins recent community anchors including the USTA National Campus, KPMG’s state-of-the-art learning, development and innovation facility, as well as Johnson & Johnson’s Human Performance Institute, through which a longitudinal community health and wellbeing study, the Lake Nona Life Project, is being conducted.

Construction of innovative medical and sports facilities makes a big statement. But a focus on healthy living was woven into all of Lake Nona — and it’s evident in more subtle ways, too. 

The community features 44 miles of trails for walking and biking, and 40 percent of the land will remain undeveloped, creating green, open space that promotes a sense of wellbeing and connectivity with nature.