Where to play tennis in New York

There is a ritual to playing public tennis in New York. It begins before sunrise. At Fort Greene, the sign-up sheet goes out at six thirty in the morning. Regulars arrive with their own markers. They know each other. They know the unwritten rules. One hour for singles. Two for doubles. If you go over, someone will tell you.

The permit system is the gateway. A hundred dollars buys you a full season, April through November. Seniors pay twenty. Kids pay ten. You can also buy a single-play ticket for fifteen dollars, good for one hour at any court in the city. The permit is a sticker. You put it on your racket. If you do not have one, you do not play.

For most courts, there is no app, no booking system, no algorithm. You show up. You write your name. You wait. At Central Park, the thirty courts fill before eight. At Riverside, the ten red clay courts, the only outdoor public red clay in New York City, close when it rains and open when it stops. The clay courts at Prospect Park have a bubble that goes up in October and comes down in April, turning a seasonal sport into a year-round one.

But it is not all paper and patience. The city has been gradually expanding online reservations. At a handful of popular locations, you can now book a court up to seven days in advance for fifteen dollars an hour. Third-party services like CourtRes have automated the process at Central Park, McCarren, Riverside and a few others.

The courts themselves are as varied as the city. Crotona Park in the Bronx has twenty-two courts. The USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows has forty-five, the largest public tennis facility in the world, home of the US Open and open to the rest of us the other eleven months of the year. Above Grand Central Terminal, the Vanderbilt Tennis Club hides one court on the fourth floor, a remnant of a time when tennis courts appeared in the strangest places.

And then there is Pier 40 on the Hudson River. Three hard courts, open from six in the morning until one at night. No permit required. No sign-up sheet. First come, first served. In a city that puts a price and a process on nearly everything, three free courts on the water may be the most New York thing of all.