The best tennis academies in Miami and South Florida

The map: where the serious academies actually are

South Florida's tennis geography is lopsided. Miami-Dade has courts everywhere and a healthy club scene, but the full-time, national-level academies cluster north of the county line: Davie in Broward (Saviano High Performance Tennis) and Boca Raton in Palm Beach County (Evert, Rick Macci). That is history and real estate, not a verdict on Miami tennis — but it means a serious Miami junior's academy decision is really a drive-time decision. For how these programs stack up against the rest of the state, see our Florida academy ranking.

Saviano High Performance Tennis — Davie, Broward County

The closest of the major academies to Miami: our Davie campus on South Pine Island Road is about 25 minutes from Miami, 15 from Fort Lauderdale and 30 from West Palm Beach, with three international airports within 50 minutes. The facility pairs lighted Har-Tru clay and hard courts with a gym, indoor track and pool, and training runs at a maximum 4:1 player-to-coach ratio under founder Nick Saviano, who is typically on court daily. It is a day academy — full-time players combine training with accredited online school, and there is a five-day after-school program for competitive tournament players ages 9–18 who train one to five afternoons a week.

Davie is also the geographic sweet spot of the tri-county area for competition: ATP and WTA Futures and Tour events run within 30 minutes of the academy, and the beaches are 15 minutes away — which matters more than it sounds when a family is deciding where a junior will spend years of afternoons.

Boca Raton: Evert and Rick Macci — Palm Beach County

Boca Raton hosts two famous names. The Evert Tennis Academy, founded by the Evert family, is a boarding boutique with academics through a partner school. Rick Macci, who coached Venus and Serena Williams as juniors, offers concentrated technical coaching. For a Miami family the Boca run is a substantially longer drive than Davie: realistic for boarding at Evert or periodic technical blocks with Macci, punishing as a five-afternoons-a-week commute.

What about Miami itself?

Miami-Dade has good club and park programs, and the Miami Open brings the tour to town every spring — it is a fine place to fall in love with the game and build a base. What the county lacks is a full-time academy operating at national level. In practice, Miami players who reach serious tournament tennis either commute north for daily training or eventually relocate; local club programs and academy training are complements, not substitutes. A sensible split many families settle into: club or park tennis for convenience and match play close to home, academy days up north for the developmental work that actually moves a ranking. We will not pretend to rank programs we do not know first-hand, so we name none here — visit, watch a peak-hours session, and count players per coach — the honest ratio at 4pm tells you more than any website.

Ways in for a Miami family

You do not have to choose between doing nothing and going full-time. At Saviano the entry points are graduated, which suits a family testing the commute from Miami-Dade:

• After school — Monday to Friday afternoons, 2.25 hours per session, one to five days a week, for competitive tournament players ages 9–18. Start at two or three days and scale up.
• Summer weeks — June through August, visitors train inside the full-time group from 7:45 to 3:00. As published for 2026: $1,209 per week full day, $753 half day. The best low-commitment look at academy life.
• Holiday camps — Thanksgiving, winter and spring break, 10:00 to 5:00, when school is out anyway.
• Full time — Monday to Friday across a 9-month program, mornings 10:00–5:00 with a midday school block or afternoons only 2:00–6:45, paired with accredited online school. The step where many families relocate closer.

Let drive time make the decision

• After-school training, five days a week — minutes matter more than anything else on this page. A 25-minute run each way is sustainable for years; double it and most families quit within a season. Choose the nearest serious program, not the most famous one.
• Full-time training — the calculus flips. Full-time players train mornings or all day with online school, so many families relocate to Broward, and international families use vetted host families in Davie. Where you used to live matters less than where the coaching is.
• Boarding — if you specifically want your child living at an academy, Evert in Boca Raton is the South Florida option; Saviano is deliberately not a boarding school.
• Testing before committing — a summer week or an evaluation tells you more about the fit, including whether the drive is livable, than any ranking. Do the commute at 4pm on a school day before you sign anything.