Friday, July 22, 2011

Tennis Fanitics - Training on Clay is needed for the game!

West Coast Expansion: As more people recognize that playing on clay is essential for the development of champions (note that the USTA has committed to getting more players on clay as part of its training strategy and last month announced the shift of its largest junior tournament, the Orange Bowl, from hard to Har-Tru), the west coast stands to have the most to gain. Junior tennis players in this huge tennis market simply do not have adequate exposure to clay court tennis, hence the drought of champions from the great state of California (hear what Vania King has to say about training on clay). That tide is beginning to turn. Napa Valley Country Club became the first club in NorCal to install ClayTech courts and other clubs are scrambling to see how they can add clay and avoid falling behind.

Har-Tru Sports is the largest manufacturer of clay tennis court surfaces in the world. We have courts in all 50 American states and approximately 23 countries worldwide. We want to help develop champions around the world and hope to do this through product innovation, scholarships and sponsorships. Let us know how we can help you.

Tuesday, July 19, 2011

Growing Internationally - Har-Tru Courts

International Expansion: In May Australia installed its first Har-Tru HydroCourt at Macquarie University in Sydney. It has received rave reviews for playability and ease of maintenance, with Tony Roche amongst those using the court to train top junior players. We expect that this will lead the way for 50-60 courts in the next few years.

Clay court interest in China continues to grow and the ascension of Li Na to Roland Garros champion is accelerating the Chinese Tennis Associations push to train their future champions on clay. Li trained for Roland Garros on one of our red HydroCourts in Beijing. I guess it helped! The momentum around clay has also resulted in the first ClayTech court shipping to China this month. We have orders for 7 more to go over in the ensuing months.

Friday, July 1, 2011

Exciting New Times at Har-Tru Sports!

In case you haven't heard we changed our name from Lee Tennis Court Products to Har-Tru Sports. While Lee Tennis has had a reputation for expertise in clay court surfacing dating back to the early 1960’s, the Har-Tru brand has been around for 80 years and has considerably more equity amongst tennis players worldwide. We are excited to lead with Har-Tru for now on and think it will help us connect with tennis players across the globe.

In conjunction with the name change we launched the new Hartru.com. It has never been more evident that clay courts help tennis players develop the core skills required to become champions. This site helps you understand why. It features cool videos of how to master clay court shots and become a champion in your own right. It also shows off the innovative products we have brought to market that improve the playing experience and make clay court ownership simpler.

We'd love to hear what you think of our new website and how you feel about the name change.