It\u2019s a public court, too, meaning anyone can play on Court 10, which was Jimmy Evert\u2019s office for 49 years. You can hit tennis balls there like the five Evert kids, Hall of Famer Harold Solomon and his brother, Brian, Jennifer Capriati, Laurie Fleming or so many others did as a youth. Well, you can try anyhow.<\/p>\n
What you should understand is the history underfoot. Holiday Park was such a rare intersection of time and place that six teenagers who trained on its courts played at Wimbledon in 1976.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was the Mecca of tennis in the 1970s,\u2019\u2019 Evert says.<\/p>\n
It was her father\u2019s creation in spirit as much his students\u2019 success. He took over the city\u2019s courts at Holiday Park in 1958 as a one-man force \u2014 giving lessons, stringing racquets, booking court reservations, all with the same love, grace and humor that he managed his family.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe had all of us kids play there \u2014 not with the idea of becoming champions,\u2019\u2019 Evert says. \u201cHe wanted to keep his family all together.\u201d<\/p>\n
You can see the idea of who Jimmy was and the Holiday Park he built through the lens of his daughter\u2019s grand tennis life. Holiday Park is where as a youth, without the strength to hold the racquet for the normal, one-handed backhand shot, she created a two-handed backhand that became a signature of her game.<\/p>\n
Holiday Park was where the 13-year-old Evert had a tennis epiphany after losing to fourth-ranked Mary-Ann Eisel in the annual Austin Smith Championships. \u201cI won a set off her and remember thinking, at 13, \u2018Wow, there\u2019s not a big difference between us,\u2019 \u2019\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n
Holiday Park is where dad took phone calls from his daughter from around the world to hear how she did in a match. He didn\u2019t like to travel, or watch in person, so that was left to his wife, Collette. The first call from Chris came in 1970, when she was 15, and had just beaten two-time Grand Slam champion Margaret Court in the Charlotte Open. She had to repeat the result to him.<\/p>\n
\u201cHe didn\u2019t know what to say,\u2019\u2019 Chris says. \u201cHe goes, \u2018I\u2019ve got to get off the floor.\u2019 \u201d<\/p>\n
This was a time when agents and promoters began throwing money at the Everts. Jimmy once told a promoter who opened a briefcase holding $25,000 to leave his house. He had Chris remain an amateur and graduate from St. Thomas Aquinas High before turning pro.<\/p>\n
He was the original tennis dad, the best version of that idea, the one future generations could have followed if they had the principles and discipline for more than chasing fame and money. None of this is necessary to know to hit tennis balls at Holiday Park. But you need it to grasp the spirit of the place and appreciate its value all these years later, 10 years after Jimmy Evert died.<\/p>\n
Look at Chris Evert in her third chapter, as she calls it, to see her father, too. Her first 30 years were laser-focused on her tennis career. Her next 15 or so were spent raising her children (\u201cthe peak of my existence,\u2019\u2019 she called it). Now she\u2019s in her \u201cgiving back,\u201d chapter, as she said.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s gone beyond the annual pro-celebrity tournaments that raised more than $20 million for charities. As a cancer survivor, she works on getting the word out on early detection. As chairperson of the United States Tennis Association\u2019s foundation, she helps 250 programs offer tennis to under-resourced youth, like current pros Hailey Baptiste and Frances Tiafoe.<\/p>\n
As a namesake on the Evert Tennis Academy in Boca Raton, which is run by her brother, John, she spends mornings watching and working with youth players.<\/p>\n
![\"FILE](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/tfl-l-holiday-everts.jpg\")
In this file photo, Jimmy and Chris Evert are at Holiday Park Tennis Center in Fort Lauderdale, in July 1983. (Art Seitz\/Contributor)<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen John came up with the idea, he wanted to have the same philosophy and mission statement we had growing up at Holiday Park,\u2019\u2019 Evert says. \u201cIt was obviously to work hard, but also be a good person with good sportsmanship, to support one another with camaraderie \u2014 we honored my dad with that ideal.\u201d<\/p>\n
As time moves on, so much of South Florida\u2019s sports history is discarded. The Orange Bowl is gone. Golf tournaments that were once a destination for the PGA Tour don\u2019t exist. The list is long. But here\u2019s a renovated gem in the heart of Fort Lauderdale that will officially be welcomed back with Monday\u2019s 10 a.m. ceremony.<\/p>\n
Evert has purposely not gone to see the renovated Holiday Park.<\/p>\n
\u201cI want it to be a surprise,\u2019\u2019 she says.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s been a surprise, all the wonderful way, this park that raised so many youth that Evert is often stopped by people who tell her dad taught them lessons. She can relate, this 5-year-old taken there one day after kindergarten and then climbing the highest part of the sports world.<\/p>\n
And now she\u2019s back \u2014 if she ever really left.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt was always a part of me, all the memories,\u2019\u2019 she says, \u201cAnd now to have the renovation of the Jimmy Evert Tennis Center, and have my name on the center court, it brings everything full circle.\u201d<\/p>\n
![\"Chris](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/TFL-l-chris-evert-holiday.jpg\")
Chris Evert hits a ball on the court at Holiday Park while other kids wait their turn on July 9 1970. (Staff file photo)<\/p>\n
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