Grass Court Saga

The club was founded in 1975 by Dr Ogata, a physician who had visited the All England Club and wanted to bring its tradition to Kyushu. It opened as Wimbledon Kyushu and took its present name in 2008, to avoid any suggestion of an affiliation. It describes itself as the first tennis club in Japan with a number of grass courts and the largest natural-grass club in the country, its courts shaded by cherry and maple trees.

Japan’s hot, humid summers and typhoon season make grass hard to keep, and fifty years of commitment to the surface are an achievement in themselves. The club staged an international women’s event at which Ai Sugiyama played her first professional match, and before London 2012, when Olympic tennis was played on Wimbledon’s grass, the Japanese Olympic Committee made it a training centre.

Unlike most of the great grass clubs, Saga welcomes visitors, who can book a grass court and hire grass shoes. As Japanese players have become significant figures on the world tour, the club’s long isolation as the country’s leading grass institution may be ending.