Today we’d like to introduce you to Corey Matney
Corey, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
Tennis has been my life’s passion and work. I first fell in love with the sport after being invited to a summer youth program run by former Harlem Globetrotter, Charles “Goose” Doughty at McAdams Park in Wichita, KS the summer before my freshman year of high school. After the first session I went back every day that summer and tried to play and get better as much as I could. During my freshman year I was able to barely make the JV team by securing the last available spot in the doubles line-up, I was the 14th guy in line-up on the high school teams. I went back to the same program every day the next summer and after putting in a lot of extra work ended up playing the number one spot on the Varsity team during my sophmore year. After that high school season I was given a schlorship for discounted group lessons at the Wichita Racquet Club, the top local academy in the area. The club also gave me a job stringing racquets to pay for additional lessons. This was extremely beneficial since I come froma single parent family with not a lot of money. I would spend everyday the next two years at the club basically all day. If I wasn’t in a group session, private lesson, or working I would hit with friends, on the ball machine, or be in the gym.
After high school I was able to walk-on the team at Wichita State. Even though I had scholarship offers from other division 1 schools, I wanted to stay home and play for the shockers. After the fall semester my sophmore year I decided to transfer to a junior college to get more playing time. I ended up at Barton County Community College and really started to flourish. As a team we reached the #1 spot in the national rankings numerous times during my two seasons there and finished both years as the runner-up for the National Championship. Individually I achieved high national rankings in the individual doubles rankings and had numerous singles achievements.
After college, I spent most of my career in tennis club management, but I always knew I wanted to open up my own tennis shop and give back to the sport that has given me so much. I finally decided to take the leap three years ago to open up Premier Racquet Sports in Dunwoody. The journey to open what is now the brick-and-mortar shop had actually started in my dining room at home during the covid shut down. I was the Head Tennis Professional at Concourse Athletic Club at the time and when the club was closed, I started to get a lot of questions of where my players could get their racquets strung since everything was shut so I purchased a stringer and started stringing at home. The home business just kept growing and growing and I was falling in love with something I had enjoyed so much when I was younger again. The home business eventually took up most of the house and offered much more than just stringing. As the business grew it was becoming obvious to me that I was happier than I had been in years doing what I did when I was much younger, so I decided to leave the corporate world and chase my dream.
I started off focusing on tennis, with a small pickleball presence. More recently, after I started playing pickleball myself, I have expanded the pickleball offerings to equal the tennis offerings. I discovered a very warm and vibrant community in pickleball, and I wanted to expand the shop to better serve the pickleball community since there was not much for pickleball players in Atlanta. In addition to our extensive tennis collection, I’m proud to say we also have the largest pickleball paddle and accessories selection in Atlanta.
It brings me a lot of joy to be able to serve our thriving tennis and pickleball communities in Atlanta and being a part of so many players’ journeys to have fun and be active.
I’m sure it wasn’t obstacle-free, but would you say the journey has been fairly smooth so far?
There have certainly been a lot of ups and downs in this journey but I wouldn’t change it for the world! In the beginning as we were getting the word out about the shop, there were days where I’d sit around and not a single customer would come in. It was tough, but we’ve come a long way these last two years and growth has been constant. As folks started finding out about the shop and coming in and referring their friends, we’ve developed a really awesome customer base in our Perimeter community and beyond. Things have really exploded in the last few months and I am so grateful for all the support from our loyal customers and how far the shop has grown. I know now that we have a bright future as Atlanta’s premier tennis and pickleball shop, and I look forward to scaling our operations to serve our community even better!
We’ve been impressed with Premier Racquet Sports, but for folks who might not be as familiar, what can you share with them about what you do and what sets you apart from others?
Premier Racquet Sports is your local, one-stop shop for everything tennis and pickleball. We offer everything from racquets, paddles, bags, balls, stringing, shoes, grips, and more! We make sure every tennis and pickleball player gets the same treatment as professionals do. I combine my knowledge from 30 plus years working with equipment and my experience and certifications as a high-level teaching professional to provide players with the best advice on equipment to best suit their game and help them improve. We offer the widest variety of racquet strings in the Atlanta area, so players have more choices in fine tuning their racquets to help them play their best. I really enjoy being able to help players with their equipment as much as I do teaching them how to play on court. It’s just a great feeling when you can discuss what a player feels with their racquet and help them make that feel even better.
At Premier Racquet Sports, we pride ourselves on delivering an awesome customer experience. We are super knowledgeable on our all equipment and their specs. We will listen to your needs to figure out the best setup for you, whether you’re a seasoned player or just getting started in the sport. I make sure to only carry products I will put my name behind. It’s very important to me that quality is never sacrificed for any reason. I’m fortunate that I get to come to work every day to a shop I love and get to make a living helping people with tennis and pickleball needs and we will never sacrifice quality for our customers. Every day I get to have conversations with seasoned high-level players, people just starting the journey, and many in between. It’s just such an amazing experience being able to help all walks of tennis & pickleball lovers. Whether it’s the vet talking about the resent tough loss, or the beginner excited about hitting their first good forehands, it’s just so awesome being a part of their path.
Plus, we have the best Chief Fun Officer Abbey! She’s my daughter and our friendly four-legged shop dog. She’ll greet you with a big smile and furiously wagging tail. Come stop by and say hi!
What sort of changes are you expecting over the next 5-10 years?
Both tennis & pickleball are at all-time highs in participation numbers, so the outlook is very bright. Tennis had its largest jump in participation right after Covid. While everything was shut down a lot of people had access to courts and with not much else to do, started playing. After the shutdowns many of these players started taking lessons and became addicted.
As much as tennis has grown, the growth of pickleball dwarfs it. Pickleball is exploding like wildfire since it has lower barriers to entry and is much more socially based than tennis is these days. I see the sky as the limit for pickleball. As much as I love tennis, and owe it for everything I have in life, I am one of the few that do see pickleball overtaking tennis in participation numbers in the US, and I see it happening sooner than later. I really believe that players wanting to start a sport for recreation will soon enter pickleball before tennis simply because it takes less time to start enjoying playing. It’s exciting to me that there are now multiple racquet sports that people can have easy access to. I know that some in the tennis community are not the biggest pickleball fans, but to me anything that gets more people active and social is a great thing.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.premierracquetsports.com/
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/premierracquetsports/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/PremierRacquetSports
