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For all Manhattan Real Estate Broker William J. Hirschman knew, the two men might have been planning to hijack an airliner, breed whales or launch an armada. Otherwise, why would they want a building with at least 50,000 sq. ft. of floors, 40-ft.-high ceilings, and no interior columns? As it turned out, Ben Lieberman and Luke Sapan were neither subversives nor quacks, but high-powered businessmen with an abiding fondness for tennis and the determination to turn it from a strictly seasonal sport into a year-round affair.

The answer seemed obvious, but until recently, indoor courts in the U.S. were as few and far between as parking spaces. Enthusiasts, on the other hand, abounded; there are now 8,000,000 tennis players in the U.S.--but most of them were resigned to being sun worshipers until the trend toward indoor courts caught on.

Good Manners. In Chicago, where two armories provided tennis fans their only outlet for 20 years, eleven indoor emporiums now thrive, including the swish two-year-old courts in suburban Winnetka financed by the Arthur C. Nielsens (of ratings fame) and the swish Lake Bluff Bath and Tennis Club, whose ultra-exclusive membership (an applicant must have "good tennis manners and be a nice person") has access to squash courts, an ice-skating rink, sauna and toboggan hill in addition to two quality indoor courts. Even Washington, D.C., minus a single indoor club to its name until last fall, today has two, which furnish a total of six courts.

Philadelphia's three-year-old Downtown Tennis Club costs $1,000 to join and $360 a year in dues, but the onetime icehouse provides players with a processed cork court (similar to grass, but a good bit slower and more springy), spectators with a 50-ft.-long, glass-enclosed lounge, and both with the prestige of a former Davis Cup star, Vic Seixas, for vice president. Boston's clubs, all private, afford all manner of excellent courts, ranging from the green composition (at the Brookline Country Club) to cork (Longwood) to clay (Dedham Country and Polo Club). The best setup of all: the three composition courts, sheltered by a translucent, plastic Quonset hood, opened last fall at Harvard.

A Likely Loft. In Manhattan, last of the big-time holdouts, players looking for a game at night or in bad weather have had to choose in the past between several ill-lighted, slat-floored courts in armories and the prohibitively costly, ultra-exclusive River Club.

Broker Hirschman and Clients Lieberman and Sapan spent weeks scanning likely factories and lofts, finally turned to the skies for inspiration and found it--on a helicopter tour that took them over an old terminal building with a five-acre roof. In October, the Penthouse Tennis Club--eight clay courts that are thermostatically heated, lit by soft overhead lamps and maintained by a full-time staff--will open for business at the foot of Manhattan. (Seven more courts will open later.) Some would-be tennis players may find the yearly membership fees (ranging up to $500 per person) a bit steep for a maximum of one hour's play a week. Let them play golf.

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