The Queen’s Club in Cattolica (Rimini) offers a pitch equipped with a completely innovative hybrid grass surface, which constitutes the system called GrassPlus, proposed by NTS Sport.

The system, made of reinforced natural grass, consists of an artificial turf surface specially designed for root development under the primary one, made of recyclable material with a compostable matrix, clogged with soil from Wimbledon, and sown with ‘Ibiza’ bermudagrass.

The installation takes place in the nursery, where the pre-cultivated GrassPlus from NTS Sport is cut with a special root cutting machine and harvested in 118×1100 cm big rolls, 3 cm thick.

The material for the Queen’s Club was installed in July 2020, and in the same autumn it was tested with professionals, including Giorgio Galimberti himself. The installation on the tennis court took place in April 2022.

In the meantime, the drainage network was built on the site, the geotextile was laid and the drainage plate was constructed. The sub-base was then created with washed and screened silica sand with organic material and soil from Wimbledon, and the irrigation system was installed.
With the transport of the big roll from the nursery to the sports centre, the laying of the system was completed.

Interview with Giorgio Galimberti of Galimberti Academy

In 2009, the Galimberti Tennis Academy in Cattolica was founded by Giorgio Galimberti, a former Atp professional who, together with his staff of professionals, conducts courses for playing tennis.

The Tennis Academy offers its users the possibility of choosing which surface to play on thanks to the 9 tennis courts at the Queen’s Club in Cattolica, made with 3 different types of flooring.
We talked about it with Giorgio Galimberti.

Of the 9 tennis courts currently present at the Queen’s Club in Cattolica, 4 are in traditional red clay, one in RedPlus reinforced red clay, 3 in resin and 1 in hybrid grass, a real novelty, just think that in Italy there are only 3. In addition to the tennis courts, there are 2 padel courts. Plans for the future include the construction of 3 new tennis courts, with a fixed cover, that can be used all year round.

The Queen’s Club project was born in 2018, with the tender called by the Municipality of Cattolica, awarded in 2020, for an investment of 3 million euro with the aim of upgrading the old tennis club in Via Leoncavallo.

We completed the work in two years, using companies specialized in the sector and my experience as a former tennis player. I wanted to create not a members-only club but a real academy to train tennis players. The new centre, with 9 courts, a gymnasium, locker rooms and a medical centre, was opened in 2022.

Offering different tennis floors is a plus for many professionals. The tennis courts offer different types of flooring: 3 courts are in grey-black resin, equipped with a removable cover with a triple white ball with a grey background, to provide a consistent setting.

Of the five clay courts, one is of the RedPlus type, which compared to the classic red clay has the great advantage, thanks to its minimal thickness of soil, of fast recovery especially in the event of rain.

Also very popular is the GrassPlus hybrid grass court, which is close to the Wimbledon type of court. Playing tennis on grass is more complex and challenging, a great experience for tennis players, and there is a lot of enthusiasm among those who try this flooring. From a maintenance point of view, hybrid grass needs little water in summer, in the intermediate seasons it has its splendour and the great advantage of excellent drainage in the event of rain and very quick restoration times. In winter the grass remains alive.

Notizia a cura di NTS Sport