Fort Greene Tennis Courts

Fort Greene Tennis Courts sit at the southern end of Fort Greene Park, near the intersection of DeKalb Avenue and South Portland Avenue in Fort Greene, Brooklyn. The facility has six outdoor hard courts. They were resurfaced in 2026 with a Titan Trax Shield overlay and Laykold acrylic filler, part of the same product family used at the Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows.

Getting to the courts is straightforward. The nearest subway stop is the C and G trains at Lafayette Avenue, one block south of the park's DeKalb Avenue entrance. The park spans from Myrtle Avenue on the north to DeKalb Avenue on the south, and the courts are clustered at that southern edge.

Courts operate under the standard NYC Parks permit system and are staffed by an on-site attendant throughout the week. The attendant checks permits before allowing players on court. A season permit costs $100 for adults, and a single-play day pass is $15. There are no online reservations for these courts.

Instead, a same-day in-person sign-up sheet is posted by 6:30 AM each morning. Courts are first-come, first-served before 7 AM and after 8 PM for permit holders. The season runs from early April through the Sunday before Thanksgiving, following the NYC Parks standard calendar.

Lights have never been installed at Fort Greene, and the path to adding them is complicated. The park holds New York City landmark status, which requires Landmarks Preservation Commission approval for any infrastructure changes. There is no existing electrical infrastructure on site, and nearby residents have raised concerns about light pollution and noise. The Fort Greene Tennis Association, a volunteer-run 501(c)(3) founded in 2009, is exploring options with local officials, but no approval is currently in place.

Ron Holmberg learned to play tennis here and went on to reach the number seven world ranking in the 1950s. Colombian professional Santiago Giraldo used these courts as practice space before the 2016 US Open qualifying rounds.

Fort Greene Park itself is Brooklyn's oldest park, redesigned in the 1860s by Frederick Law Olmsted and Calvert Vaux. Tennis has been played here for more than a century. The Fort Greene Tennis Association has run programs and advocacy for the facility since 2009, and the 2026 resurfacing project represents one of the most significant investments the courts have seen in years.

For more places to play, see the best public tennis courts in NYC or browse every court in the city. Then find a partner at your level on Doyouplay before you go.