Retired teacher revitalises historic tennis centre for inner-city children

Alec Galanakis started the Joburg Tennis Grassroots Foundation in February 2025 to provide free tennis coaching to children in the Troyeville and Bertrams areas of Johannesburg, South Africa.

Galanakis, a retired teacher, uses the Ellis Park Tennis Centre to host these sessions. The facility once hosted major international tournaments like the South African Open and Davis Cup, featuring stars such as Billie Jean King and Björn Borg, but it fell into disrepair and became mostly unused over the years.

The foundation currently serves between 30 and 60 children from local primary schools who often have no prior experience with the sport. Galanakis walks to the schools to collect the children, who then use donated equipment and shoes at the centre. While the programme provides athletic training, it also includes academic support. Students from the University of Johannesburg work with the foundation to monitor the children's school reports and help them with their studies.

Galanakis intends to transform the site into a comprehensive development hub that offers coaching, academic support, and pathways to university scholarships. He aims to create a living museum that preserves the site's history while serving the 35,000 schoolchildren living within a five-kilometre radius of the facility.

The project faces ongoing challenges, including a need for more equipment, reliable transport for the children, and the difficulty of keeping students engaged as they transition from primary to high school in a challenging inner-city environment.