Mayor Rahm Emanuel today joined Kamau Murray to cut the ribbon on XS Tennis Village, a state-of-the-art athletic complex in Washington Park. The tennis training facility will serve more than 4,000 youths from the South Side and beyond.

“XS Tennis is a place to develop champions on the court and in the classroom with the support of coaches, tutors and mentors,” Mayor Emanuel said. “This new facility will provide a world-class space for young people across Chicago to train, to dream and to discover their full potential.”

The 118,000-square-foot complex at 5336 S. State St. features 27 indoor and outdoor tennis courts, a 10,000-square-foot gym and a 5,000-square-foot academic center.

“This is a truly state-of-the-art location that will offer mentoring opportunities and life lessons to students across the City of Chicago,” said XS Tennis founder and president Kamau Murray, a Chicago native who recently coached Sloane Stephens to a U.S. Open championship.

XS Tennis directly serves Chicago Public Schools (CPS) students and other youth through its free Tennis XSpress program, which stresses team work, self-confidence and sportsmanship through the game of tennis. The new facility will more than double the number of schools that participate in the program and enable XS Tennis to extend $300,000 in scholarship-based instruction to Chicago residents and CPS youth.

The site was formerly part of the Robert Taylor public housing complex. City support for the $16.9 million project includes $2.9 million in Tax Increment Financing assistance.

In 2015, Mayor Emanuel celebrated the opening of the $7 million, eight-court MetroSquash Academic & Squash Center in Woodlawn, where more than 300 youth learn academic, wellness and life skills through the game of squash.

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