So, I found myself in Valencia, Spain, and you know, the weather was just calling for some outdoor activity. I used to play a bit of tennis back in the day, nothing serious, but I thought, why not try and hit some balls here?
First thing was finding a place to play. Wasn’t sure where to start, really. I did a bit of looking around online, typed in some stuff like “tennis courts Valencia”. A few options popped up.
Looking for Courts
Seemed like there were a mix of proper clubs and some more public-access places, maybe run by the city. The clubs looked nice, probably had better courts, but I figured they might be pricey or need membership. The public ones seemed more my speed for just a casual hit.
- Proper Tennis Clubs
- Public Sports Centers (Polideportivos)
I noticed quite a few were clay courts, which is pretty common in Spain, I guess. Different from the hard courts I mostly played on before. That was interesting.
Okay, finding them was one thing, booking was another. This part got a bit tricky. Some websites were only in Spanish, which, well, my Spanish is okay-ish but not great for navigating booking systems. Some places seemed to want you to call, which I wasn’t super keen on doing with my limited Spanish.
I eventually found one place, a ‘polideportivo’, that had an online system I could sort of figure out. Had to register first, put in my details, the usual stuff. It wasn’t super smooth, took a bit of clicking around and maybe some help from online translation tools, but I got there in the end. Managed to book a court for an hour the next afternoon. Felt pretty pleased with myself for navigating that.
Then I realized, I didn’t bring my racket! Didn’t really plan for tennis when I packed. Had to figure that out. Considered buying a cheap one somewhere, but didn’t want to lug it around afterwards. Luckily, the place I booked mentioned something about rentals on their site. Just had to hope they actually had some decent stuff available when I got there.
Hitting the Court
Showed up the next day. The place was decent, pretty busy with people doing all sorts of sports, lots of activity. Went to the reception desk, gave my name, confirmed my booking. Renting a racket and getting some balls was easy enough, just cost a few extra euros. The racket wasn’t amazing, obviously a rental, but it was good enough for a knockabout.
The court itself was clay, like I thought. It was… different. Definitely felt slower than hard courts. The ball bounces slower, maybe a bit higher too. Took some getting used to, moving on it. Found myself sliding around a bit unintentionally at first. And man, it was hot. Valencia sun in the afternoon is no joke, even though it wasn’t peak summer season. Made sure I drank plenty of water I brought along.
Didn’t actually have anyone to play with this time around. I’d just booked the court hoping maybe someone else would be looking for a game, or worse case, I’d just practice serves. Ended up just hitting against the practice wall they had there for a while, then spent some time just practicing serves on the court. It felt good though, just to be out there, hitting the ball, swinging a racket again after a while.
So yeah, played for about an hour until my time was up and I was pretty knackered, mostly from the heat, I think. Remembered you’re supposed to sweep the lines on a clay court afterwards, so I grabbed the big brush thing and did that before I left. Seems to be the standard etiquette.
Overall, it was a pretty good experience. Took a bit of effort to figure out the booking system, and playing alone wasn’t ideal, but hey, I got to play tennis in Valencia. If you’re thinking about doing it, my advice would be maybe try and find a partner beforehand if you can. Or if you’re staying longer, look into some of the club social events maybe. And definitely book ahead, especially if you want peak times like evenings or weekends. Oh, and definitely, definitely bring lots of water!
