'End Of An Era': Beloved LI Tennis Academy Closes, New Door Opens

WESTHAMPTON BEACH, NY — The Wholistic Tennis Academy marked its final weekend on Depot Road in Westhampton Beach this weekend as many longtime clients gathered for hugs, tears, laughter — and a celebration of years of memories and friendships.

Happy Bhalla, who owns the business, sent a message to loyal friends and players announcing that the tennis academy's location would shutter on Sunday forever.

"That was the sound of a door closing," he wrote. "The end of a chapter, one full of beautiful memories and numerous moments of human connections and sharing."

Next summer, the Wholistic Tennis Academy will be moving to The Barn, located at 142 Montauk Highway, he said.

"We see this as a door opening and an opportunity to make new memories and share more moments with old friends and make new friends," Bhalla wrote. "Our desire is to slow down and eventually fade away into the sunset as all cowboys with white hats do and to that end, we will not be running the entire show at The Barn, but be part of a team."

While he and his wife Maggie will be returning to their first love of focusing on teaching tennis, they will also be present to offer some input to help the membership part of the club operate smoothly as they head into the future, he said.

Westhampton Beach Village Mayor Maria Moore confirmed that plans for housing have been proposed for the site where Wholistic Tennis has been located for years.

The applicant, Beechwood Westhampton LLC, currently has site plans for review before the Westhampton Beach Village planning board. The proposal involves land at both 44 and 60 Depot Road; the applicant is requesting preliminary approval to subdivide the 13.06-acre assemblage of parcels into 22 single-family lots with road, drainage, and utility improvements in the R-2 residential zoning district.

Looking back at the years that have shaped so much of his journey, Bhalla said the Wholistic Tennis Academy was born in 1999 as Wholistic Tennis Academy at the Quogue Racket Club on Lamb Avenue.

"We took over a program with one pro who was giving 20 lessons a week and we immediately started giving 20 hours of lessons a day — and then we went from teaching on three courts to five and then seven courts in a very short time," he said.

In 2003, the business moved to Depot Road and became Wholistic Tennis Academy at Le Club. Next, in 2015, Wholistic Tennis Academy bought out one of the two owners, Andreas Morales, and became a 50 percent owner of the land on which Le Club existed. At that time, the business became known as just Wholistic Tennis Academy, he said.

The site is now closing as part of the Bhallas' "exit from work strategy," he said.

To mark the momentous day, Bhalla hosted a farewell celebration Saturday; longtime clients and friends were invited to "say a final goodbye to our paradise." All were welcomed to take whatever they wanted as a memory of the time they'd spent there. Containers were set up for donations to the Quogue Wildlife Refuge.

Signs hung up around the tennis academy reflected words that had been printed on T-shirts, one per year, for 28 years. The words inspired, setting the tone for a place where the lessons learned spanned far more than tennis skills: "Live your moment!", "Trust your body," "Get into it!," "Playful exploration," "Awareness, awareness, awareness," "See the new in the old," "From thinking to feeling."

Bhalla's approach to the sport of tennis has been, for many, ground-breaking and life-changing, the group of tennis players gathered Saturday agreed.

According to Zentennis.com, Bhalla has a Master’s degree in comparative philosophy and religion and has written two books about "tennis, life and the role of the mind in peak athletic performance."

Speaking with Patch, Bhalla, who lives in Hampton Bays and East Quogue with Maggie, said he was born and raised in London and later came to New York, where he attended Queens College before moving to the Hamptons in 1975. In 1977, he first began working with the Quogue Racquet Club.

After that, wanderlust fueled his journey. "I basically just traveled; I was interested in life for 20 odd years," he said.

In 1990, he returned to the Hamptons, and to the Quogue Racquet Club, where he worked as an assistant pro and then, then as the director of tennis at the Hampton Athletic Club, which is now Sportime in East Quogue.

Teaching has always been at the core and heart of Bhalla's mission, with a focus on holistic principles.

"One of our logos, our theme, is, 'Integration of the pursuit of excellence and the search for inner peace,'" Bhalla said.

Rather than looking at the way competition is traditionally perceived, as seeing the opponent as the enemy, Bhalla said his approach has been to look at the art of the game, as competition, from the perspective of advanced development.

"Sports have always been an art for me," he said.

The philosophies played out on the court are a dance reflected in life, he said. Rather than view competition as bad, he said: "In my understanding, nothing is good or bad; everything is neutral — it's what we bring to it. And how we develop an understanding of competition that leads not to deflation, but growth."

In the heart of the Hamptons, where so much is measured in terms of financial status, Bhalla has offered a place of growth and healing for the many, ranging from small children to seniors, who've come for lessons and spiritual nurturing.

"I have many adults who may be 'successful' in life but who are still seeking some sort of peace. Everyone is dealing with human issues," Bhalla said. "Just because they have fancy cars or fancy houses doesn't mean they aren't struggling. Everyone is struggling. This is a way we can really help people — why we've touched their lives beyond the game of tennis," he said. "It's about really creating an environment where growth can happen."

A spotlight on spirituality has long been a hallmark of the tennis academy, as deeply ingrained as lessons in form and techique.

Many times, those playing tennis have resistance to "moving smoothly and gracefully," due to a "fear of missing, of upsetting their partner. There are all these blocks we put in ourselves that don't allow free and loose movement," Bhalla said. "Grace comes when the mind and body are in synch. When the mind is too active, as a result, the body will not be smooth. Grace means an inner calmness."

But, Bhalla added: "Grace is our birthright. It is something we can all have. But if there is no stillness, there will be no grace."

He spent many years on his own spiritual journey. "I was traveling all over the world; I had no focus," Bhalla said. "All this was luck. I never planned it."

Part of the spiritual journey has always been exploring the past to make sense of the present, Bhalla said. "The present is determined by the past."

Bhalla had a "difficult" relationship with his father, he said. "I was born into Sikhism as a religion. My father kicked me out at 19 because I'd cut my hair. It was a powerful moment."

Although he was born into eastern traditions, he said he "never bought into that guru-type" of instruction. He has found enlightenment along the way from a series of individuals and teachers including Rajneesh, later as Osho, an Indian leader, he said.

But while he's met "some pretty amazing people, the wisest people are the ones that point you to yourself, who encourage you to listen to your inner voice and go through the journey, whatever the journey is."

Emotions perceived as negative, such as anger, must be seen as neutral and experienced; the whole "positive moment" is damaging in that it places a negative connotation on emotions such as anger or jealousy, Bhalla believes. Even faced on the court, at times when players may have gotten angry and raised their voices, Bhalla has seen those moments as chances for growth and understanding.

After traveling for years, Bhalla came back to New York eventually to help his parents — but finances never motivated his life's path.

Bhalla said even during a time when he and his wife — who met in Spain and have been married 35 years — had just purchased a home, he was never driven or motivated by financial concerns.

"I never thought about paying the bills," he said.

When he quit a job or when a business where he'd worked closed, he said: "I had no panic. And I always ended up in a better situation. It's almost like I trusted existence without making any plans whatsoever — and it's always worked out. My whole life, people have been saying, 'What are you going to do when you get old?' I've lived the antithesis of a responsible life, but it's all worked out. The universe has provided."

The innate trust in the universe has guided, Bhalla said. "I never had financial problems in life. Even if I had $100 in my pocket in Spain, I figured, 'I'll work.'"

He's always felt the need to help those struggling. Bhalla spent a portion of his 20-year journey in India, helping those who had nothing – building villages and inspiring hope. "When I saw photos of children starving in Biafra, I felt guilty for all I had, growing up in the West," he said.

While in India, Bhalla had an epiphany. "There's a real problem in this world and it's not a lack of resources or shelter. It's consciousness, ego, greed. It's really not about providing food. For me, the journey went from fixing everything outside of me, to a 180-degree change and looking inside," he said. "The spiritual journey began there."

For years, traveling, Bhalla said, "I didn't want all the things the world wanted."

Growing up, while his family wasn't rich, they always had enough. Later, his father saw great success and wealth, and Bhalla had mixed feelings about money. He traveled the world, searching for meaning and avoiding sports.

"I was avoiding all my so-called advantages. Until I realized they weren't the problem — it's what I brought to it," he said. "Then I came back to tennis — and it was about coming back to it in a different way."

It was that new holistic philosophy and approach to teaching that sparked a sea of adoration from the many who came to say good-bye on the academy's last weekend.

The group gathered on the sun-warmed deck Saturday were eager to share memories of what they agreed, for years, had been the "best-kept secret in the Hamptons."

Andi Byer, who lives in Sands Point, said she was feeling sad on Saturday. "Happy and Maggie are just the greatest," she said.

"I'm speechless," said John Linguiti. When asked what made the spot so special, he said, "It's all about Happy."

Diana Maher of Hampton Bays also expressed sadness. She has been playing tennis for 50 years, but the Wholistic Tennis Academy symbolized so much more than just a game. "This place got me through some of the hardest times of my life, including sickness," she said. "Psychologically, emotionally, and physically, this place got me through that horrible time."

Happy is a sweetheart, she added. "There's just a wonderful aura of happiness here. Anyone coming in feels welcome."

Linda Arida of Quogue has been coming to play tennis for about two years. "It's almost a club," she said. "It's a lot of fun. We play tennis and we laugh a lot. Some other places are very serious, and there are ugly parts. But not Happy. He brings out the best in people."

Ron Roth said he's known Happy for 25 to 30 years, and the game of tennis has turned into a lifelong friendship. So much so that when he called for a lesson once and the Bhallas were in Spain, they invited him and Byer to come and join them — and they did.

Sylvia Gruber of Center Moriches said it has been the people, the friendships, that made the place so special. "Nobody hugs better than Maggie," she said. "This is just the best place. We love them."

In fact, Maggie, all agree, is known for her "heart-to-heart" hugs.

Laura Flores said everyone gathered, arms wrapped around one another with tears welling, was experiencing the same emotions Saturday. "We're all sad because we love them."

What makes Wholistic special, said Rachele Borruso, whose daughter Ava, 11, has been taking lessons, "is the combination of Happy’s energy and the people he brings in."

Over the past summer, her daughter played daily clinics, she said. Every morning, every person was greeted by Happy where he stood on the deck with a smile and his clipboard containing handwritten notes of carefully planned court assignments for the day, Borruso said.

Each day, the courts were full of athletes, from varied backgrounds, aged five to 85, she noticed. Many of the instructors were kids who'd grown up playing tennis with Happy in the summers, gone on to play in college, and then returned every summer to work on the same courts where they'd first played, she said.

"That speaks volumes to how special Wholistic is. And Happy is at the center of it — he gives joyful tennis. It is the Hamptons best-kept secret for tennis and unfortunately, we only found it this summer," Borruso said. "Though Ava won’t have the opportunity to play there through the years, I’m happy she had the experience."

Her eyes filled with tears as she watched her daughter learning on the court, she said, "I wish it didn't have to end."

"It's the end of an era," said Bonnie Stein of Eastport agreed. "I'm heartbroken."

Amy Cohen of Hampton Bays said every day she stepped onto the court at Wholistic Tennis, she was grateful. "And I'm going to be grateful as they start their new journey."

Lynn Blair captured the sentiment expressed by all. "It's very nostalgic," she said. "It's like home. I don't think we're ever going to find this anywhere else."

Gazing out at the court, Bob Gargiula smiled. "The game is meant to be fun — and with Happy, it always was."

Bhalla said his clients have always been thought of more as friends. He can have the same level of closeness whether he's known someone 30 years or 30 minutes; the connection is immediate, Bhalla added.

While he treasures the moments and memories, Bhalla said no matter what he has done in his life, he has always known when it's time to go. He's never one who had to have the next job or experience lined up. "It's about creating empty space, to see what will fill it," he said.

"The journey continues," Maggie said. "It's not like anything is ending."

Her husband agreed. "It's really been a fantastic ride. It's been beautiful."

Standing to gaze at the building and courts that have stood for so much over the years, the slogans on the shirts worn by the Bhallas, two of the 28 shirts created over so many years, read: "The journey continues. . . Let's see what happens."