Thursday, October 1, 2026
The Atlantic Beach Tennis Center will serve as the setting for a day of tennis, instruction and community when the second annual Atlantic Open is held on Sept. 19.
The event, organized by Lawrence native David Gill through his tennis community company, Tennis Grip, is expected to draw between 60 and 80 players. The event will include tournament competition, instructional drills, food and other activities designed to bring tennis players together.
Gill started Tennis Grip during the Covid-19 pandemic after seeing an opportunity to use tennis to build community.
“The company, a few years ago, actually during Covid, really set out to build community around tennis,” Gill said. “I started in Brooklyn, and I’ve done events in New York, L.A. and some of Miami.”
The organization has also partnered with nonprofits, including Harlem Junior Tennis, an after-school program that combines education and tennis.
“We found ways to get people together, rather than trying to only do tennis events,” Gill said. “We were really creating an environment for people to get together, have an opportunity to talk about tennis, potentially play tennis, make new friends and find new people to partner with.”
Gill grew up playing tennis at Long Beach and the Atlantic Beach Tennis Center, among other local facilities. He said returning to Atlantic Beach for the tournament has a personal significance.
Gill worked with Atlantic Beach Tennis Center officials last year to launch the first Atlantic Open and 70 people attended with local businesses and vendors helping support the event.
“We hosted a tournament that had 70 people that came out to play, and we came out to hang out for the day,” Gill said. “We got a bunch of local vendors alongside national ones.”
The event raised $1,000 last year. Gill said the money supports tennis programming throughout the year, including youth programs and efforts to increase access to courts.
“The tournament helps us raise money to do tennis programming throughout the year,” he said. “Whether that’s a youth program, whether that’s getting people to potentially get court time, working with clubs, kind of making more availability — that’s really where our goal is.”
The tournament will feature intermediate mixed doubles and advanced singles. Players who are eliminated can continue participating in drills, with four courts expected to be active throughout the day.
Gill said the event is intended to make tennis more accessible to people who may not regularly have the opportunity to play.
“The hardest thing about tennis in New York is finding people to play with in affordability and availability once you leave the city,” he said.
He added that the Atlantic Open offers participants an opportunity to spend several hours playing and learning without the costs associated with traditional tennis programming.
“Giving people an opportunity to play for five hours, you can’t really get that anywhere else,” Gill said.
But Gill said the tournament is about more than the competition.
“It really celebrates what tennis should be about,” he said. “Tennis should be fun. It doesn’t matter if you’re good or you suck. It’s getting out there. It’s moving. It’s just being around people.”
Registration and donations are available through Tennis Grip’s website at tennisgrip.club/collections/atlantic-open.
