After years of watching potholes deepen, cracks lengthen and paint fade, Molly Buck is looking forward to testing the bounce on the newly resurfaced tennis courts at Hardy Park.

“The courts were getting worse and worse. It was really getting dangerous,” the Q Lane denizen said Wednesday afternoon. “This is like two different worlds,” she said, looking over the crisp courts of green and blue. “These are attractive.”

TENNIS ANYONE?: Hardy Park at Q Street and Foxhall Road in Washington, D.C., sports a new look on Wednesday, June 21, 2017, with newly resurfaced courts beckoning. Photos Credit: John A. Bray

The job took about two weeks and was carried out by American Tennis Courts of Baltimore, Maryland, which simultaneously resurfaced the park’s basketball courts. Two basketball goals also were installed, according to Nick Rouhana, company vice president.

The resurfacing had been anticipated for a year, with Ward 3 Councilmember Mary Cheh telling neighborhood residents that the Department of Parks and Recreation had expected the work would be done by mid-June 2016. But contracting for the job hit delays, with Friends of Hardy Chair Frank Staroba leading the push to get the work done.

The work on the courts was arranged through the Department of General Services as an addition to the renovation of the park’s field house, which had a project budget of $500,000 and cost $437,114.

From what remained, $51,720 was requested for the tennis and basketball court resurfacing, $5,000 for the basketball posts, backboards and goals, and $5,589 for replacement of the tennis courts sidewalk, according to a budget document provided by the agency under a Freedom of Information Act request. Now there are five goals, with an empty space where a sixth had once been. It was unclear Wednesday whether that’s the way it would stay.

Rouhana said that the crew power washed the courts, cleaned and filled the cracks and affixed over them lengths of a 12-inch-wide fabric that helps deter water penetration. The courts got two coats of primer and two coats of color, a type of acrylic sports surface made by California Products that is used throughout the world, including at the U.S. Open. Rouhana said the surface should last up to seven years, depending on the use.

Buck said the poor playing condition had diverted her to places like Yates Field House at Georgetown University and Volta Park near Wisconsin Avenue and Q Street to get in her strokes.

“I didn’t play here a lot because of the condition of the courts,” Buck said, adding that she now anticipates taking the home court advantage two or three times a week. “Now I’ll play here.”

SWISH: American Tennis Courts of Baltimore, Maryland finished their resurfacing of the basketball courts and on June 21, 2017 were removing leftover barrels of coating materials.