Tennis in Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo is, by common consent, the home of American junior tennis. Stowe Stadium has hosted the USTA Boys’ 18s and 16s National Championships since 1943 — “Nats at the Zoo” — and the alumni list reads like a history of the American game: Trabert, Ashe, Stan Smith, Connors, McEnroe, Agassi, Sampras, Chang, Roddick, the Bryan brothers. Between 400 and 500 of the country’s best juniors arrive every August, and the 18s singles and doubles champions go straight into the US Open main draw. In 2026, from 7–16 August, Jack Kennedy took the 18s title with a perfect 7-0 run and Kamil Stolarczyk the 16s.
The rest of the year it is a working tennis town. Stowe’s 11 courts and 3,000 seats sit on Acker Lane — named for George Acker, who took Kalamazoo College to 35 straight MIAA titles and seven NCAA Division III championships — and serve as K-College’s home courts outside tournament windows. Add the four indoor courts at the Markin Racquet Center, WMU’s 20-court Sorensen complex, the Kalamazoo Country Club, the Maple and Portage YMCAs and the city’s park courts, all under the Western Michigan Tennis Association.
Highlighted Events
One of them is the most important junior tournament in the country, and it has been here since 1943.
USTA Boys’ 18s & 16s National Championships
“Nats at the Zoo” — at Stowe Stadium since 1943 and the single most important event in American junior tennis. The 2026 edition ran 7–16 August: Jack Kennedy took the 18s at 7-0 and Kamil Stolarczyk the 16s. The 18s singles and doubles champions earn US Open main-draw wildcards.
WMTA Junior District Championships
The Western Michigan Tennis Association holds its Junior District Championships at Stowe Stadium each June — local juniors competing on the same courts as the August Nationals.
WMTA League Play
The USTA Midwest district covering Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Holland and Lansing runs adult league play at NTRP levels 2.5 to 5.0 with divisions through 65 & Over.
Tennis Circuits Events
Local tournaments, doubles leagues, camps, clinics, lessons and match play powered by Tennis Circuits®.
Tennis courts & facilities in Kalamazoo
Tournament venues, campus complexes, YMCA courts and city parks across Kalamazoo and Southwest Michigan.
Almost everything is here, and much of it within a mile or two — Stowe Stadium and the Markin Center at Kalamazoo College, WMU’s 20-court Sorensen complex, the country club, the Maple YMCA and the city park courts.
City of Kalamazoo Park Courts Kalamazoo, MI
Loy Norrix High School Courts 606 E Kilgore Road, Kalamazoo, MI 49001
Markin Racquet Center Kalamazoo College, Kalamazoo, MI 49006
Raymond Sorensen Tennis Courts Dormitory Road, Kalamazoo, MI 49008
Stowe Stadium 154 Acker Lane, Kalamazoo, MI 49006
WMU Student Recreation Center Kalamazoo, MI 49008
Maple YMCA Kalamazoo, MI
The surrounding communities — Portage, Mattawan, Richland and out toward Battle Creek — served by the Portage YMCA, school courts and municipal facilities.
Portage Branch YMCA Portage, MI 49002
Battle Creek YMCA Tennis Courts 182 Capital Ave NE, Battle Creek, MI 49017
Bronson Athletic Club 6789 Elm Valley Dr, Kalamazoo, MI 49009
Celery Flats Park Courts 7335 Garden Ln, Portage, MI 49002
DeWitt Tennis Center (Hope College) 361 Fairbanks Ave, Holland, MI 49423
Dowagiac High School Courts 701 W Prairie Ronde St, Dowagiac, MI 49047
Harper Creek High School Courts 12677 Beadle Lake Rd, Battle Creek, MI 49014
Holland High School Courts 600 Van Raalte Ave, Holland, MI 49423
Hope College Tennis Courts 263 College Ave, Holland, MI 49423
Kalamazoo College Stowe Stadium 1600 W Michigan Ave, Kalamazoo, MI 49006
Kalamazoo Country Club 1609 Whites Rd, Kalamazoo, MI 49008
Kalamazoo YMCA Tennis Courts 1001 W Maple St, Kalamazoo, MI 49008
Laketown Township Park Courts 6710 142nd Ave, Holland, MI 49423
Lakeview High School Courts 15060 Helmer Rd S, Battle Creek, MI 49015
Milham Park Tennis Courts 607 E Kilgore Rd, Kalamazoo, MI 49001
Minges Creek Athletic Club 903 Capital Ave NE, Battle Creek, MI 49017
Niles High School Tennis Courts 1441 Eagle St, Niles, MI 49120
Portage Central High School Courts 8135 S Westnedge Ave, Portage, MI 49002
Portage Northern High School Courts 1000 Idaho Ave, Portage, MI 49024
Portage West Middle School Courts 7650 Oakland Dr, Portage, MI 49024
Ramona Park Tennis Courts 8600 S Sprinkle Rd, Portage, MI 49002
Romence Park Courts 8600 Shaver Rd, Portage, MI 49024
South Haven High School Courts 600 Elkenburg St, South Haven, MI 49090
South Shore Health & Racquet Club 3630 Washington Ave, St Joseph, MI 49085
Spring Valley Park Courts 2600 Mt Olivet Rd, Kalamazoo, MI 49004
St Joseph High School Courts 2521 Stadium Dr, St Joseph, MI 49085
West Hills Athletic Club 2001 S 11th St, Kalamazoo, MI 49009
Western Michigan University Tennis Courts 1200 Oakland Dr, Kalamazoo, MI 49008
Woods Lake Park Courts 2900 Oakland Dr, Kalamazoo, MI 49008
Before you go: the date that governs everything here is the second week of August. During the USTA Nationals, Stowe Stadium, the WMU Sorensen courts and the Loy Norrix courts are all tournament sites and unavailable for general play — but it is also the best tennis in the country to watch, and tickets start around $15. Outside that window Stowe serves as Kalamazoo College’s home courts and opens to community play. The YMCAs are member access and Markin is a college facility.
Junior Tennis, Academies & Programs
Junior tennis here is exceptionally strong relative to the size of the city, and the reason is eighty years of the Nationals sitting in the middle of it.
USTA Boys’ Nationals
Stowe StadiumMore than eighty years of the country’s most important junior tournament in one small city. Between 400 and 500 of the best juniors in America arrive each August, and the tournament’s presence shapes the entire local junior culture. Website
WMTA Junior Team Tennis
Western MichiganUSTA Junior Team Tennis leagues for boys and girls ages 6 to 18 across the district, with the Junior District Championships held at Stowe Stadium each June. Website
YMCA of Greater Kalamazoo
Kalamazoo & PortageYouth tennis programmes at both the Maple and Portage branches. YMCA staff also help run the Kids Day events during the USTA Nationals each August. Website
Kalamazoo Country Club
KalamazooJunior programming for members at the area’s leading private club.
USPTA & PTR Teaching Professionals
Southwest MichiganCertified professionals across the region run year-round junior clinics and private instruction.
Competitive Adult Tennis
Adult league play runs through the Western Michigan Tennis Association, the USTA Midwest district covering Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Holland, Lansing and the wider region, at NTRP levels 2.5 to 5.0 with 18, 40, 55 and 65 & Over divisions in men’s, women’s and mixed doubles. The city’s tennis culture, sustained by the annual Nationals, keeps adult participation unusually high for the population. Representative leagues, tournaments and clinics below.
Adult Leagues
Adult Tournaments
Adult Clinics
Did You Know?
How a small Michigan city came to hold American tennis’s most important junior title. Two highlights:
The first Nationals here, in 1943, drew 90 entries and were played on five Grasstex courts beside the railroad tracks. In 1946, to stop another city taking the tournament, Kalamazoo built a stadium for $5,000 and named it for Dr. Allen Stowe. Eighty-odd years later it is still there, and still the venue.
Champions here do not just get a trophy and a US Open wildcard — they get a Heritage guitar, built in Kalamazoo by Heritage Guitar Inc. And when Andre Agassi came back for an exhibition against Mats Wilander in 1988, roughly 6,000 people packed into Stowe Stadium, still the record.
College Tennis in Kalamazoo
A Division III programme with a national record, playing on the same courts as the Nationals.
Kalamazoo College Hornets
KalamazooNCAA Division III · MIAA · A Division III programme with a record that would flatter a far larger school. Under George Acker the Hornets won 35 consecutive MIAA championships and seven NCAA Division III national titles — Acker Lane, the street Stowe Stadium sits on, is named for him. The team plays outdoors at Stowe and indoors at the four-court Markin Racquet Center. Men | Women
Western Michigan University is a major part of the tennis picture here, as a venue. Its 20-court Raymond Sorensen complex serves as the official co-site for the USTA Nationals, absorbing the overflow from a draw Stowe Stadium alone cannot hold, and the Student Recreation Center adds three indoor courts for the university community. WMU’s current varsity tennis sponsorship was not verified for this page, so it is listed among the facilities rather than the competing programmes — worth confirming before treating it as either.
Kalamazoo Area High School Tennis
Michigan high school tennis is governed by the MHSAA, which runs boys’ tennis in the fall and girls’ in the spring.
Portage Central Mustangs
MHSAA · PortageOne of Southwest Michigan’s strongest programmes, with a long record of state-tournament qualification.
Portage Northern Huskies
MHSAA · PortagePortage’s second large public programme and Central’s crosstown rival.
Kalamazoo Central Maroon Giants
MHSAA · KalamazooThe city’s historic public high school, with tennis played a short distance from Stowe Stadium.
Loy Norrix Knights
MHSAA · KalamazooA Kalamazoo Public Schools programme whose courts serve as an official co-site for the USTA Nationals each August.
Mattawan Wildcats
MHSAA · MattawanA large western Van Buren County programme in the Kalamazoo metro.
Gull Lake Blue Devils
MHSAA · RichlandA competitive programme northeast of the city serving the Gull Lake communities.
Kalamazoo Christian Comets
MHSAA · KalamazooA smaller-division private school with an established tennis programme.
Hackett Catholic Prep Irish
MHSAA · KalamazooA Catholic school fielding varsity tennis in the smaller divisions.
Michigan runs its seasons opposite to Ohio. The MHSAA plays boys’ tennis in the fall and girls’ in the spring — the reverse of the OHSAA calendar just across the state line — and contests four divisions rather than two. If you are coming from an Ohio market, or comparing schedules across the border, that catches people out every year.
Loy Norrix plays a part in the Nationals. Its courts are an official co-site for the USTA Boys’ Championships each August, alongside Stowe Stadium and WMU’s Sorensen complex. Few high schools anywhere host rounds of a national championship on their own courts, and it is a fair illustration of how completely the tournament draws on the whole city’s facilities for those ten days.
This list is a starting point. It covers the main programmes across Kalamazoo and Portage and the surrounding communities. Confirm each school’s current MHSAA division and conference before the season — Michigan’s four-division structure means division placement shifts with enrollment more often than in two-division states.
Run more tennis in Kalamazoo — without the overhead.
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Kalamazoo Tennis Facts
Curious one-line facts about the people, places and history that make tennis in Kalamazoo unique.
Kalamazoo is widely regarded as the home of American junior tennis.
Stowe Stadium has hosted the USTA Boys’ 18s and 16s National Championships since 1943 — more than eighty years.
The tournament is known as “Nats at the Zoo”, Zoo being short for Kalamazoo.
The first Nationals here in 1943 drew 90 entries and were played on five Grasstex courts beside the railroad tracks.
In 1946 Kalamazoo built a $5,000 stadium to avoid losing the tournament, naming it for Dr. Allen Stowe.
Alumni include Tony Trabert, Arthur Ashe, Stan Smith, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Andre Agassi, Pete Sampras, Michael Chang, Andy Roddick and the Bryan brothers.
Jack Kennedy won the 2026 Boys’ 18s title with a perfect 7-0 run; Kamil Stolarczyk took the 16s.
The 18s singles and doubles champions receive automatic wildcards into the US Open main draw.
Champions are also presented with a Heritage guitar, made in Kalamazoo by Heritage Guitar Inc.
When Andre Agassi returned for an exhibition with Mats Wilander in 1988, a record crowd of roughly 6,000 packed Stowe Stadium.
Stowe Stadium has 11 outdoor hard courts with seating for 3,000, on Acker Lane.
The street is named for George Acker, who led Kalamazoo College to 35 straight MIAA titles and seven NCAA Division III championships.
WMU’s 20-court Raymond Sorensen complex serves as a Nationals co-site, as do the Loy Norrix High School courts.
League play is coordinated by the Western Michigan Tennis Association, the USTA Midwest district covering Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Holland and Lansing.
Michigan high school tennis runs boys in the fall and girls in the spring — the reverse of neighbouring Ohio.