Bollettieri honored at Tennis Club

Since Sean Abdali became owner of The Tennis Club at Newport Beach Country Club, he hasn’t exactly gotten a lot of sleep.

Abdali and his staff have worked all week to provide immediate renovations to the club. Fences were painted, sunscreens were rearranged and bathrooms were renovated.

And those were just some of the more minor changes. Abdali was able to show off all of the changes Saturday night, as The Tennis Club welcomed legendary Coach Nick Bollettieri, he of the famous Bollettieri Tennis Academy in Florida who has coached 10 world No. 1 players, to introduce Abdali as the new owner.

Bollettieri, 83, provided a clinic for Tennis Club members on Saturday afternoon. On Saturday night, Abdali announced that the newly built stadium court will be dedicated to Bollettieri, the Nick Bollettieri Stadium Court.

Abdali, who also runs a junior tennis program at Racquet Club of Irvine, first attended Bollettieri’s tennis academy as a youngster. He was happy to show the coach, and his Tennis Club members, the new digs Saturday night after a week of hard work.

“There’s a show called, ‘Restaurant Impossible,’” Abdali said. “I love that show because I love food, and I love impossible things. I gathered my staff and said, ‘There’s never been a ‘Club Impossible.’ We actually slept in our cars, slept in the lounge. In four days, we transformed this place. It’s completely different.

“We built a kitchen, we built a bar, we renovated the bathrooms. We designed beautiful rose gardens. We have 12 water fountains all over the facility to give you a spa feel. We have 1,000 flameless candles to give you more of a soothing feel in the club. We have new furniture ... we wanted to make this place as our showroom since we’re so close to Fashion Island.”

Abdali said valet parking is coming to The Tennis Club in the next couple of weeks. Bigger changes are down the road.

He showed off a sketch of the new Newport Beach Country Club. Construction is already starting in the golf club parking lot. In about a year, he said, that construction will make its way over to the tennis facility as part of the multi-million dollar project.

Robert O Hill of Golf Realty Fund, the property owner, is finally seeing the renovations he has wanted for years starting to come to fruition.

“We’re going to have a gorgeous clubhouse, a world-class pool and spa, restaurant,” Abdali said. “And the golf reality group will also build 29 bungalows, along with five custom homes.”

If it seems more high-end, it’s supposed to be just that, as much of a resort than anything else.

“We’ve kind of taken the Palmilla Cabo one-and-only resort, mixed it with the Beverly Hills Hotel and given it a little bit of the flavor of a European Saint-Tropez style club, and brought it to Newport Beach,” Abdali said.

In the process, The Tennis Club will go from 24 tennis courts down to just seven.

“Although it’s really scary to a lot of people, you have to understand the membership at clubs like RCI or Palisades or Newport Beach,” Abdali said. “They have far less members than they used to. They all have too many courts. So seven courts may be OK. Of course, we would love to have more courts, we would love to have the golf reality group give us one or two more courts. But with this many courts, you can still make it a beautiful, high-end club. You cannot cater to everyone. You cannot have an academy, you cannot have a million teams of junior Team Tennis and this and that. But you can really narrow it down, choose a demographic and deliver very good service.”

Bollettieri said he likes the idea. He said plenty as he spoke to club members near the current stadium court Saturday night.

He was partially there to promote his new book, “Bollettieri: Changing the Game,” which he signed copies of outside the clubhouse. But he also is not exactly resting on his laurels.

Bollettieri talked about how he recently took over the coaching of the promising American junior player, CiCi Bellis, who is just 15 years old but advanced to the second round of the U.S. Open this year.

“She came to the academy, and I decided to make two changes before two $25,000 tournaments,” Bollettieri said. “I changed her serve with her feet, and I changed her grip totally on the volley ... She won [her first pro title] last week [in South Carolina], and she’s in the finals [of a second tournament on Sunday]. She’ll be about 250 [ranked] in the world, and she’s only 15.”

Bollettieri is used to success as a coach, having coached players like Andre Agassi, Boris Becker, Monica Seles, Maria Sharapova and the Williams sisters.

He’s less used to having a court named after him.

“Those are things you don’t expect in life,” he said later Saturday night. “When they come, you say to yourself, ‘Wow.’ I’ve had so many great things happen this year. My new book, [being inducted into the International Tennis] Hall of Fame, coming out here with Sean who started as a student with me.

“This is what keeps me going. It’s not just teaching No. 1s in the world, but to be part of activities like this. I think this club, with the plans, should be a knockout club and be very, very successful. A lot of changes, and they’re going to make it first-class. Sean is a dedicated person. He breathes tennis, he eats tennis. That’s the type of person you need at a club that services all levels of play. He’s congenial, he gives spirit and good signs of positive energy to children. Robert, the [land] owner, is enthusiastic and he’s determined to make this a first-class facility. I plan to come back several times.”

Bollettieri will be at RCI on Sunday from 1-3 p.m., conducting a junior tennis clinic and signing copies of his book. The event is open to the public.