The Racquet Club of Lake Bluff

Nearly 50 years ago, The Racquet Club of Lake Bluff brought the sport of tennis to North Shore communities. Opening in 1973, RCLB originally featured carpet courts and was extremely popular due to the 70’s “tennis boom”. However by 2003 the club was in danger of becoming a warehouse.  Fortunately for all tennis lovers in the area, Lake Forest residents Dan Bruch & Gary Janko purchased the building and maintained its tennis club status.  Since then the club has undergone extensive physical renovations.

In the mid-2000’s, Dan’s son Matt, who was a top junior tennis player, was competing in ITF tournaments in Europe. While competing in the Junior French Open, Dan had the opportunity to discover the difference between the American and French way of training and developing tennis players. At the same time, Patrick McEnroe, who was the USTA Director of Player Development, was quoted as saying that the French Federation “had the best player training and development system in the world”. A few years later, Dan created a company that assists in placing qualified French teaching professionals at RCLB.  The combination of American and French teaching styles has created a highly successful niche at the club over the past decade.