Serving Luxury: 5 Homes with Private Tennis Courts

It’s full-on balmy summer deep Down Under for the first of this year’s Grand Slam tournaments, the Australian Open. Ahead of this weekend’s finals, Luxury Defined serves up a collection of homes with private, professional-grade tennis courts. 

Choose among a range of surfaces: the DecoTurf hardcourts of the Australian Open and the US Open, the red clay of the French Open, or the elegant lawns of The Championships, Wimbledon. Further advantages include stadium lighting, umpire chairs, and shaded spectator seating. 

Note to the dedicated spectator: Imagine all those spirited rallies from the comforts of a shaded pavilion or courtside cocktail bar. Service, please! 

1. Kokera, a Landmark Estate in Hunters Hill, NSW, Australia 

Kokera is a landmark estate in the Sydney North Shore suburb of Hunters Hill. 

The property has an elevated setting on a 0.34-acre landholding with spectacular views of Alexandra Bay, the Lane Cove River, and Sydney Harbour Bridge.   

Built in the American Shingle Style in 1890, the two-story main residence has been carefully restored and updated, linking the old with the new. Among the contemporary updates are reverse cycle, iZone operated air-conditioning and a fully integrated indoor/outdoor Bang & Olufson sound system. 

The floor plan is designed for entertaining. The foyer, living/dining room, and library are appointed with high ceilings, timber floors, and either gas or log-burning fireplaces. The chef’s kitchen features top-of-the-line appliances, custom cabinetry, a stone island with bench seating, and a walk-in pantry.   

The owner’s suite has a deluxe marble bathroom with underfloor heating and a private terrace with grandstand views of the water and the Sydney Harbour Bridge. Three additional bedrooms each have a generous bathroom and built-in wardrobe. The fifth bedroom, next to the foyer, is currently configured as a home office. 

The grounds are surrounded by the original, 19th-century sandstone walls and offer a host of delights: a full-size lawn tennis court (with spectator-viewing pavilion), a solar- and gas-heated swimming pool and spa, a gazebo, and stone terraces overlooking Alexandra Bay. There’s also a four-car garage with a 2,000-bottle, climate-controlled wine cellar and ample room for either a gym or games room.  

2. Manorial Villa in Tivoli, Rome, Italy 

This magnificent 74-acre country estate in Tivoli, just outside Rome, comprises a grand manor house, two villas, resplendent gardens with specimen trees and olive groves—and its own significant archaeology: the ruins of the villa of the rebel Queen Zenobia of Palmyra. 

Tennis, anyone? Three courts, two of them clay, highlight the estate’s spa-grade amenities. 

They begin in the three-story Manor Villa. Its Pompeian red plaster façade, typical of Roman countryside farmhouses, brings rustic architectural themes to the contemporary living spaces. A single-family home, it has an indoor swimming pool on the ground floor and a well-equipped gymnasium upstairs.   

The villa’s surrounding tree-filled garden provides a royal outdoor swimming pool, a sauna, tennis court, a pond, and a gazebo. There are two more large villas with spacious terraces, a tavern/restaurant with kitchen, a games room, a guest house, and a caretakers’ home. All told, there are 15 bedrooms and 15 full baths. 

The respectfully preserved ruins of the villa of Queen Zenobia are a highlight in themselves. This was where the rebel queen of the breakaway Roman colony of Palmyra, in present-day Syria, is reckoned to have lived out her exile following her defeat by Rome. The ruins include the bath complex, the peristyle with floor mosaic, a cryptoporticus, a sacrarium, a baptistery, and a viaduct.  

3. Whispering Winds in Water Mill, New York 

Whispering Winds offers a parklike experience in the prestigious Hamptons hamlet of Water Mill, New York. 

The 6,150-square-foot main residence is ensconced within 5.8 bucolic acres with a Har-Tru tennis court, a gazebo, and a saltwater pool and sun terrace hidden behind a privacy hedge. 

The main reception rooms have access to an expansive veranda facing the grounds. The palatial chef’s kitchen leads into a light-filled solarium. Its fireplace and built-in pizza oven make it ideal for casual, year-round entertaining. Also on this floor is a den/study that doubles as a guest suite. 

The upper-level private quarters include a primary suite with a fireplace, dumbwaiter, dressing salon, palatial en suite bathroom with Jacuzzi tub, and private sundeck with an outdoor shower. Two additional private balconies offer another panoramic view of the gardens.  

Two more guest rooms, one with a private balcony and fireplace, also have en suite baths. A secondary staircase, hidden behind double doors, rises to two third-floor bedrooms, one with a private balcony.  

The rec room on the lower level of the house has a ping pong table, guest room, full bath, laundry, and an attached two-car garage. 

Related: Discover 5 Top Wellness Trends in Today’s Luxury Homes

4. 18th-Century Farmhouse in Provence, France 

This picturesque Provençal farmhouse abides on almost five acres near the village of Maussane-les-Alpilles. 

Renovated to exacting standards, the 3,466-square-foot main residence has retained all its elegant period charm, accented by 21st-century interior designs. Cornflower-blue shutters add a pop of color to the sunbaked rustic stone façade and tiled roof. 

Beamed ceilings with wrought-iron chandeliers grace the hall, living room, dining room, and study. The kitchen is a grand affair with its timber ceiling, monumental wood-burning hearth, and formal dining space. There’s also a cinema for those who prefer armchair sports.  

French doors throughout the main floor open to sweeping terraces and an exquisite formal garden. The swimming pool has a sun terrace and a pavilion. The tennis court is set within lovely Mediterranean gardens with a lavender field, orchard, vineyard, and an olive grove—for Maussane-les-Alpilles is world famous for its olive oil. 

5. Resort Villa in Istria, Croatia 

Nestled on a quiet slope in Croatia’s Central Istria, this contemporary villa offers breathtaking panoramic views, a heated outdoor swimming pool, sauna, outdoor Jacuzzi, and a superb clay tennis court. 

Nearly 4,000 square feet of interior space unfolds over two levels, luxuriously finished, furnished, and fixtured with names like Gaggenau, Baxter, Paola Lenti, and Focus. 

The main floor, illuminated by full-height windows, provides an open-plan living space, a fully equipped kitchen and dining space, a family lounge with a modern fireplace, drawing room, and gym.  

Outside, the tennis court awaits, provided one can get past the pool and its terrace, with lounges, sundecks, a fire pit conversation lounge and a full summer kitchen, a Big Green Egg charcoal barbecue, a gas-fired barbecue station, and a woodburning pizza oven. There’s also a Jacuzzi and, hidden away under the pool deck, a full-service spa with a sauna. 

The villa has six parking spaces, two of them covered, and the property, surrounded by lush greenery, fruit trees and vineyards, is completely fenced.  

Anyone for tennis? Search our portfolio of courtside homes here.