St. John's tennis club gets makeover for Canada Games

It's been in the works for years, but the much-needed facelift for one of the Newfoundland and Labrador's largest tennis clubs is almost complete.

Work to refurbish the six courts at the Riverdale Tennis Club in St. John's has been underway since May, with crews completely digging up the first three courts and repaving them — a process that required about 30 days of cure time.

The next step was to use a special latex-based product to fill the cracks on the remaining three courts.

All six of Riverdale's tennis courts are now being painted. 

"It's probably been 20 years since any work of this scale has been done in tennis in St. John's," said Gordon Breen, president of the St. John's Tennis Association. 

"We'll get brand new courts for a brand new era of tennis in the lead up to [the] Canada Games."

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Breen said the association started looking for funding three years ago. Since then, Tennis Canada has offered up cash and the provincial government has served up $1.4 million for the upgrades at Riverdale Tennis Club and the nearby Greenbelt Tennis Club.

"What we had before wasn't suitable for competition," said Breen.

"This opens up a host of possibilities now for provincial and regional competition which just wasn't possible last year."

The 2025 Canada Games are just over two years away, but Breen says the new courts should have an immediate impact on the sport. 

"I think it supports a brand new era for development of the sport," Breen said.

"Riverdale, for St. John's tennis and for tennis in Newfoundland and Labrador, is incredibly important to the junior programs."

Breen said those junior programs will be able to resume in the coming weeks when the courts officially open. 

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