Meet the Owner: Racquet Heads

Racquet Heads is easy to miss, wedged as it is between Byblos Cafe and Quality Plus Cleaners in downtown Palma Ceia. But most everyone in South Tampa who plays tennis hasn't had trouble finding the small shop for the last 20 years. 

Owner Doug Tveten's secret to longevity has been simple: take care of the customers, and they'll take care of you. Everything about him is straight forward and no-nonsense, from his modest (but well-equipped) store to his honest advice for customers that shows no arbitrary favoritism for any particular manufacturer. 

Tveten must be doing something right: While other shops have come and gone over the years, Racquet Heads is one of only two stand-alone tennis shops in the Tampa area, and the longest-running. 

2832 S. MacDill Ave. 

813-831-7475

www.racquetheads.com

Opened: March 1992

Serving up: Tennis racquets from 12 major manufacturers, strings, tennis shoes, and accessories including grips, balls, bags and ball hoppers. Tveten and his assistant Joey Emerick also can usually provide one hour racquet stringing service on request. Racquet Heads also has a diagnostic machine that can measure a racquet's weight, swing weight, balance, stiffness, and string bed stiffness. 

Why this location? "It's been a great location," said Tveten, "because it's right in the middle of a lot of tennis here. And it's still fairly accessible to northeast St. Petersburg, where there's a lot of tennis."

Why so few tennis shops in Tampa? "It's population," Tveten said. "Tampa is a fairly big city, but it's not all that big when you look at Miami or Atlanta. Plus the Internet has really hurt retail business across the board. And that's due mostly to the fact that the state of Florida refuses to pass the laws that will charge sales taxes on Internet mail sales. We just have to beat the prices of the Internet people." 

Racquet Heads' staying power: "It's thanks to our loyal customers, really," said Tveten. "You try and do always what's best for the customer. I like to think they oftentimes see that. A big thing that we continue to do that is not easy to continue is our free racquet demo program. Most customers realize the value of it. It's getting harder and harder because of the cost of it. We've got to re-string (the demo racquets) and everything. We don't get anything given to us (from the manufacturers). We have easliy more than ten thousand dollars in demo (racquets) right now. Again it goes back to wanting the customer to get the best racquet and not worry about our bottom line so much."

About Doug: Although a tennis player for most of his life, Tveten moved to the bay area from his native Minnesota in 1978 to play soccer for Eckerd College in St. Petersburg. He opened Racquet Heads in March 1992 and is certified by the United States Racquet Stringers Association (U.S.R.S.A.). He currently lives in Treasure Island with his wife and daughter, and is an avid surfer. Tveten's tennis heroes are Bjorn Borg and Roger Federer. "Patrick Rafter was pretty good, too," he added. 

Hours: Monday through Friday, 10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., Saturday 9 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.