Tennis is a lifelong sport that can play more than one role in our lives. This is especially true for Lucy Holtz, a longtime member of the Court 16 community. She started playing tennis ten years ago, back when the former Gowanus club first opened its doors. Now 16 years old, Lucy continues playing the sport she loves, while giving back to the club that was such an important part of her childhood.

Court 16 was one of the first clubs in the Big Apple to introduce pickleball to New Yorkers, first providing court rentals, paddles, and balls for those interested in playing before introducing expert pickleball programming.

When you walk into one of its clubs, you know instantly, “This is Court 16.” And there’s one man instrumental in helping make the Court 16 vision come to life, Chilean architect and Court 16 co-founder Matias Honorato Torrealba.

Today, Court 16 leverages state-of-the-art ball machines at its Manhattan-Financial District and Downtown Brooklyn locations to reimagine tennis training for every kind of player. From high-intensity group classes to one-on-one lessons, coaches can focus on observing and correcting technique whileplayers work up a serious sweat reacting to different spins, speeds, and frequencies.