The lawn at the Cascine was the first tennis court in Florence. That’s also why it’s called Lawn Tennis Club. In order to keep the net upright the players used to stick pieces of wood in the ground – the lines were made of cloth that was attached to the ground. It more or less corresponded to the present court number 8. We wrote the year 1898 and were very close to the birth of the CTF, founded by the initiative of 30 members.

In the beginning there was just one lawn court but with the construction of the villa in 1900 and the first national tournaments (with handicap) the lawn court was substituted by three clay courts that were build in front of the villa. Some years later a fourth court was built crosswise to the other courts. Depending on circumstances this court was provided with a tribune.

In the early 30ies the municipality issued the concession to build two other courts (court 1 and 3) in an area behind the villa called the “Rotonda”. Being provided with a tribune, these are the courts on which men’s Davis Cup and international tournaments have taken place in the past and where still today the most important team cups and the finals of the Yourth tournament can be watched. With the construction of the pool in 1939 the last court was removed and replaced by two courts. So, just before the war, there were 7 courts: five in front and two behind the villa. It was only in the 70ies that the municipality rented another part of the “Rotonda” and court 2 and 10 were built.

In these years the situation of the courts was changed from three in a line to four in a row so the club now had 10 courts at its disposal. In 2003, finally, the club was able to buy another adjacent area and built another two courts made of artificial lawn. These courts are also used for playing football. At present the Circolo del Tennis Firenze is composed of 12 tennis courts: 2 artificial lawn courts and 10 clay courts.