Friends of Bitsy Grant Tennis Center

Built in 1952, the Bitsy Grant Tennis Center was once the headquarters of the Atlanta Lawn Tennis Association (ALTA), the country’s largest grass roots tennis organization. Considered the showplace for tennis in the Southeast, the BGTC hosted ALTA’s Atlanta Invitational tournament, drawing the great national players of the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s to Bitsy Grant. Today, BGTC is the largest public tennis facility in Atlanta, with the only public clay courts available (13 clay courts and 10 hard courts [all lighted]). It is currently managed by Universal Tennis Management (UTM).

The Bitsy Grant Tennis Center is named after Bryan M. Grant, Jr. (“Bitsy”), a longtime Atlanta tennis legend who seemed an ever-present fixture on and off the courts here for much of his life. Like the Bobby Jones Golf Course, also located at Atlanta Memorial Park, the tennis center is named for an Atlanta sports legend. Nicknamed “Bitsy” because of his 5-foot, 4-inch frame, Bryan M. Grant, Jr. personified the “everyone can play” credo of the tennis center named in his honor. Grant won the U.S. Clay Court title three times, played on three U.S. Davis Cup teams, and won 19 national senior singles titles. Grant was inducted into the International Tennis Hall of Fame in 1972.