Skip to main content
Tyler Pell would like to consider Portland a kind of tennis paradise. One can jump on a bike and get to fairly uncrowded, if poorly maintained, courts nestled in trees all summer (when it’s not scorching hot), and still play into the shoulders of fall and spring when the days are mild. “I think we objectively have a huge chunk of the calendar for tennis weather,” Pell says.
Growing up playing the sport and returning to it as an adult, Pell, 36, found the weather to be objective, but the access to playing tennis in the city to be anything but.
“It’s a very opaque and kind of byzantine world of clubs and leagues,” Pell says. “It’s hard to Google how to play or where to play tennis. My experience mirrors a lot of peoples’ experience—it’s really confusing.”
Hence, Portland Tennis Courterly (instagram.com/portlandtenniscourterly) was born, a newsletter devoted to all things tennis in town, whether it’s about the courts or “where to get your rackets strung—really basic stuff that isn’t super obvious to newcomers,” Pell says.
Just a handful of issues in, Pell has already amassed a roster of contributing writers (though he still writes and provides some of the illustrations himself). Typical runs have been 1,000 copies printed at various libraries and dropped in Courterly-designated boxes in parks around town. What comes next for the growing tennis news source?
“I just want to capture whatever ambient energy there is around tennis and orient it in whatever direction it goes,” Pell says.
See the rest of Willamette Week’s Best of Portland 2024 here!