Beyond the Baseline: Chintan Trivedi, Nassau Tennis & Sports Center
Tennis for everyone, Tennis for life.
That is the mantra that Chintan Trivedi has used throughout his adult life, as the sport of tennis has helped take him from a small town in India to the owner of a top tennis facility right here on Long Island, and one that he continues to use today as he aims to grow the sport of tennis here in our community.
Earlier this year, Trivedi took over full ownership of the Nassau Tennis & Sports Center, completing a goal of his when he began his tennis journey.
“I started in tennis later than most people, at around 17-years-old, when I challenged my friend, who was playing three times a week at that time, to a match,” said Trivedi. “So for my summer vacation after completing 12th grade, my father asked what I wanted to do, and I told him I wanted to play tennis.”
And while Trivedi’s family, coming from a middle-class background in India, couldn’t afford lessons, they were able to pay for access to the local public tennis courts and a wall to practice against. As Trivedi recalls, there was one court but also a wall, and he would go there and hit against that wall whenever he could, and would play on the court when it was available. He picked up a book on Biomechanics to learn the ins-and-outs of the sport’s technique, and also rented a VCR and old VHS tapes of tennis matches which he would use to shadow practice in his living room and on a flat roof.
“About seven weeks after I started, I challenged my friend. And I beat him 6-1,” he said.
From there, Trivedi’s tennis passion was in full bloom and he knew it was what he wanted to do in his life. He continued to play and grow his ranking as a player, competing in state championships, while also leaning into the teaching world, organizing lessons and groups at that same local court where he got his start.
“I organized three different stations at that local court, one was on court, one was in an exercise area, and one was at that wall,” he said. “In the couple of years I ran the program we grew from 18 kids to 84 kids, and it was amazing being able to use tennis to meet all these people. Some of the people who were coming to the courts went to a resort in Canada during the summers, and I was then able to use that connection to get a job teaching tennis there.”
That resort was called Manitou, about three hours north of Toronto, and it was Trivedi’s first time coming to North America. The main challenge with this transition was learning to speak English, but just like tennis, he worked hard in order to improve, watching videos and repeating phrases he heard from people to improve his language skills. By being able to do so, he was able to improve his tennis teaching at the resort, and it helped lead him into the next stage of his tennis journey.
At that resort, he met a few families from the Riverdale area of the Bronx, who put in a good word for him at the Tennis Club of Riverdale. At the same time, he received a job offer from what would become the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, but as a young 23-year-old, he chose to go to New York. But Trivedi had dreams of owning his own club one day, and using all that he had learned and benefitted from tennis and passing that on to others.
“I was looking into business and wanted to something more entrepreneurial,” said Trivedi. “At around this time my daughter was born, I knew that I needed to add to my skill set if I was going to achieve my tennis ownership dreams, and I needed to add another source of income. I developed a career in banking and as a real estate broker, while still teaching tennis.”
As he grew his real estate business, an opportunity arose when the City of New York opened up bidding on the McCarren Park in Brooklyn. He put together an investment group and won the bidding, and after negotiating all the details, the Trivedi and his team started the indoor programming at McCarren Tennis Center in January of 2017.
After running that club for a few years, another opportunity presented itself when he was told that the Nassau Tennis & Sports Center on Long Island was possibly for sale. 
“The previous majority owners wanted someone to take on the reigns of the club and not let the tennis die at Nassau Indoors,” Trivedi recalls. “We negotiated the terms, and agreed to keep all the same teaching professionals, the same rates and the same overall operating procedure for at least a year. We had our own ideas on how to run things, but we agreed to keep things the same for the time being until we got to know the neighborhood.”
And it is at Nassau Tennis & Sports Center that Trivedi planning to achieve his dreams of running his own tennis & sports club, a journey that began all those years ago on that local public court in India. Earlier this year, he relinquished his interests in the McCarren Park facility and he now plans to put all his resources and energy into Nassau Tennis & Sports Center.
“We have a simple rule: Tennis for everyone and Tennis for life. Our goal is to get as many new players to Nassau as we can, make it a lifelong sport for them and become a staple in our community,” Trivedi said. “When we took over the club there were about 400 people in the club’s database, and in our two-plus years we’ve grown it to 2,000. We have one of the finest indoor Har-Tru courts in the tristate area, plus locker rooms, saunas, stringing services, pro shop, plus camps, adult leagues, adult zones plus open court timesare available to all tennis enthusiasts. We’ve also began planning for USTA tournaments and we are also working with UTR as well, so we are really moving in a direction of becoming an all-encompassing tennis facility.”
Trivedi is excited for what lies ahead for Nassau Tennis & Sports Center as we head towards the end of 2023 and into 2024. As the club continues its path to become profitable for him and his team of people, they plan on giving back to the community that has welcomed them in. He wants to donate the unused court time to underprivileged kids, donating that time at no cost while also going into the public schools and ask them to be a part of this beta program.
At this year’s U.S. Open, players from Nassau Tennis & Sports Center got the opportunity to play on court through the Net Generation program, which was a tremendous opportunity for the young players from the program.
“The idea is to create an environment where everybody can win, from the local community to our staff,” he said. “There are a lot of people here in New York that can’t afford to spend extra income on expensive tennis lessons or court time, and our goal as we move into 2024 is to figure out what we can do to help with that and continue to grow the sport.”
Trivedi’s tennis journey has been a long one, but one that has been incredible rewarding for him and his family. He has two children, both of whom play tennis, and he says as long as he can walk he will be playing the sport that has given him so much.
From his humble beginnings as a teenager hitting against a wall in his hometown, to owning a premier tennis club on Long Island, Trivedi hopes to become a steady pillar in our local tennis community.
