Serving is the one part of tennis you can work on completely alone. It's also the part where the balls run out fast and you spend the rest of the hour collecting them.
The $20 option
Meredith Brothers Tennis Academy, on Valley Road in Cashmere, lists "Ball Hire" at $20. You get two hours of serving time, a full basket of pro balls and targets to aim at. One or two people can use it at once, so it works as a split-the-cost session with a friend.
Two hours is long for one person. Check the booking calendar for an available slot before making plans.
Before you book
Ask which court you'll be on when you book, because it isn't spelled out. The academy publishes rain terms for lessons, but we haven't confirmed that they apply to ball hire. Check before you count on a rain-day change.
We haven't come across another bookable ball basket in Christchurch. If you want a machine firing balls back at you instead, Burwood's sits behind club membership, which we cover in practising on your own.
Why this matters
A serve session is useful, but it's a quiet hour. Having someone to rally with on the other side of the net, at about your level, is the bit that's hard to buy.
That's what we're building Hitter for: finding someone close to your level who's free when you are.
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