Game, Set, Match Above the Roar of the City

During the United States Open, many tennis fans will pass through Grand Central Terminal and hop the No. 7 train to Flushing, Queens. Little do they know that directly above their heads, some of the Open’s top-seeded players are honing their skills on two almost secret courts above the terminal’s main concourse.

The courts, called the Tennis Club, are leased and operated by Donald Trump. They are directly above Vanderbilt Hall — the cavernous entrance at the south end of the building on the 42nd Street side — and are open to anyone who can, first, find them, and then is willing to pay $155 for an hour of court time on weekdays, or $130 on weekends.

That includes the players entered this week in the Open, where rain delays and the lack of indoor courts at the tennis center have left some scrambling for a place to practice.

In the last week, Lleyton Hewitt, Andy Murray, Martina Navratilova and Robby Ginepri have practiced on the courts. During past Opens, John McEnroe and the Williams sisters have trained there.

“It is one of the greatest secrets of my time and the only people who know are the ones who play on it,” Trump said. “The ceilings are high and you can play without people walking all over you. You are right in the middle of Manhattan, right in the most expensive real estate in the world.”

Finding the courts may be the most daunting task, as the coach Brad Gilbert, Hewitt (seeded 15th at the Open) and Murray (17th) discovered Friday. They gave up trying to find their way through the maze of stairs and hallways and needed an employee to lead them to the club.

“Of all the places they go and all they have seen, they come in here and they are so amazed to be in Grand Central Terminal and be on these courts here,” Jim Martin, the head pro at the club, said. “It’s fun watching their reaction.”

Gilbert’s first reaction was to gaze at a ceiling that soars three floors above the courts and say, “This is unbelievable,” said Martin, who has been at the club 10 years.

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After arriving at the locked front door, an attendant buzzes the players in. Inside, the floors are covered in green carpeting, which along with the décor, looks like it has not changed since Trump bought the club in 1984.

Trump discovered the courts, which were sitting dormant, when he built the Grand Hyatt Hotel and renovated the exterior of Grand Central Terminal in the early 1980’s.

“It was a mess,” Trump said. “It was not good. It was not nice.”

Trump said he submitted a bid to the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, which owns and operates the building, and received a 20-year lease. He has since renewed the lease.

Before the third floor was converted into tennis courts in the mid-1960’s, the space was used as the original set for CBS News, and Edward R. Murrow and Walter Cronkite broadcast live from there, Martin said.

The first episodes of “The Honeymooners” were also broadcast from the space, but the show moved because the floor shook and the cameras vibrated when trains passed through the station. The trains can still be felt today, but Martin said the rumbling did not affect play.

The courts sit on the old soundstage and the players can lounge in the former broadcasting studio. The courts are lighted by stadium-sized fixtures that hang from the ceiling.

Before Trump bought the space, the courts were owned by Geza A. Gazdag, a Hungarian immigrant who died in 1992. Then, the courts were called the Vanderbilt Athletic Club, named after Cornelius Vanderbilt, the builder of the original Grand Central Depot, which was demolished in the early 1900’s to make room for the new station.

The courts are open from 7 a.m. to 10 p.m. on weekdays and 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. on weekends. The fall membership, which runs Sept. 4 to May 6, costs $5,145 for one hour of court time a week during weekdays, or $3,850 for the hour on weekends.

“It has been very successful and I play there and I love it,” Trump said.

Martin said he and his employees — two other pros and seven attendants — try to set a quiet mood.

“We are happiest that we are able to provide calm in the middle of the busiest center in the world,” he said.