You would never know it from the street as you exit Woodlake Avenue from the north US 101 and head east before making a left turn onto Burbank Blvd., but in the backyard of a quiet, older, tree-lined neighborhood in Woodland Hills lies a pristine and immaculate tennis court like no other in all of California, maybe even the entire Western United States.

Everyone knows Indian Wells in March is “Tennis Paradise” but for the past eight years, Zimbabwe native Zibu Ncube has painstakingly worked to make his solo private clay court a place where champions train. The bright, burnt orange court – dubbed “The Tennis Compound” – resembles that of the terre battue, the classic red clay surface at Roland Garros in Paris where the French Open is played.

Shortly after buying the house with a tennis court in 2017, Ncube had the unique texture and composition of crushed stone mixed with natural clay delivered from Italy and installed into his backyard court.

“The only reason I have this court is I saw the benefit of what clay did for the players,” Ncube said on a recent warm Saturday morning on a break from a two-hour lesson with blue chip recruit Nicole Weng of South Pasadena. “The movement and the footwork make it make sense. If you move wrong on this surface, you will find yourself off balance. If you move correctly on this surface, then you could move on grass or hardcourt or any surface.”

The 46-year-old Ncube worked on Weng’s forehand and backhand, and stressed her transition game and when she should approach the net and volley. But there are not two lessons the same.

Ncube’s favorite semi-private lessons come when working with UCLA freshman Olivia Center and Kate Fakih, who as high schoolers had already played in the main draw of the US Open having won the USTA Nationals 18s in 2023. A few months back the pair were a tiebreaker away from winning the NCAA Nationals.

Ncube also works extensively with another top UCLA player in Rudy Quan, meaning the three attend school in Westwood just 15 miles from Ncube’s home court. “They chose UCLA to stay close to me,” Ncube said. My goal is to develop college players. I’ve had over 30 players who have gone on to Division I tennis scholarships in the past five years. A few can go pro, but for most it’s about getting a college scholarship.”

The pro tour beckoned for two of Ncube’s top students in Altadena’s Tristan Boyer and Katrina Scott, who lives nearby in Woodland Hills. The 23-year-old Boyer made a stopover at Stanford for two years and overcame injury to reach a career-high of No. 109 and won three ATP Challengers, all on clay, last year. The 20-year-old Scott turned pro at 15 and broke into the world top 150 in 2022.

It’s imperative that the players Ncube works with buy into what he calls the “European style” of training on red clay.

“If you look at the Zverevs, the Alcarazs, the Rublevs and the next generation like the Fonsecas, they are all training on clay all the time,” Ncube said. “The calendar doesn’t matter. They are training on clay to play the hard courts. It goes back to the way you were raised. If someone tells you that clay plays differently than hard court, then you are going to feel some level of insecurity and you’re going to find an issue and be stressed when you have to switch to hard courts. But if you grow up on clay and then have to play on a hard court, it’s no big deal. Your mindset is going to be fine. It’s easier to go from a clay court to a hard court.”

“Kate, Olivia, Rudy, Tristan can all train on clay, and win a hardcourt tournament tomorrow. You also have to remember that no hard court plays the same way. So if they want to get in 10 or 12 hours on the hard court during a tournament they can do that. I saw Nadal train on the clay and then go win Wimbledon. A week later he was back training on the clay and getting ready for the US Open. They were not conditioned to train for the hardcourt season.”

Weng is coached exclusively by Ncube after learning the game from her father on the public courts in South Pasadena growing up. She first heard about the red clay court training offered by Ncube after word began spreading at local and national events.

“You really can’t just focus on hitting the ball hard, you really have to focus on the movement and footwork,” said Weng, who will play at Vanderbilt in the fall of 2026 and made the finals at the USTA Nationals 16s last year in San Diego. “It really also just helps you have a higher IQ on the court and using different shots.”

Weng said Ncube is more than just a tennis coach on court but also serves as a mentor and sounding board when she has a question like which tournaments she should enter. 

“Oh my, I text him and call him so often,” Weng said. “You can pick up the phone and call him and he always picks up.”

Ncube focuses not only on coaching the previously mentioned players but has some “regular players” that he sees once a week. He has built his network based on his relationships and doesn’t have to recruit players or advertise his services.

When you ask him how many hours a day he averages on court, he replies: “12 to 14. Seven days a week.” He does enjoy family vacations with his wife and two young children and says not having to commute to give lessons has been a game-changer, although he is mindful that his clients often travel more than two hours round-trip for a lesson.

Ncube first fell in love with tennis as a young boy watching his father play at a local club. A soccer sensation, Ncube was recruited and offered a scholarship for his family to move to England at the age of 10, but his father declined the offer as he wasn’t a big fan of soccer. 

A past member of Zimbabwe’s Davis Cup team, Ncube followed his dream to America where he helped junior college powerhouse Tyler, Texas, win two national titles before transferring to the University of Arkansas at Little Rock.

Following teaching stints in Tennessee and Texas, Ncube took a leap of faith and through a connection moved to Santa Barbara where he worked with top players like Daniel Nguyen (Long Beach) and Michael Grant, eventually moving with Grant to Barcelona, Spain, where he worked with high-level juniors and learned the European way of teaching.

“I saw Europe dominating tennis and it was changing from a game of weapons to a game of movement and defense,” Ncube said. “The trend had shifted. A clay court player can win on all surfaces and grass and hard courts had slowed down. The idea was to have a clay court so they could learn how to move correctly.”

Ncube was looking for a place to settle near Pasadena when he first met Tristan as a 12-year-old. Two years later, at age 14, Ncube began working exclusively with Boyer in 2016 after completing two years on the tour traveling with WTA player Olga Govortsova and Grant. 

One year, Ncube didn’t think Tristan was ready to showcase his skills at the No. 1 junior boys’ event in the U.S. – the Kalamazoo Boys’ Nationals. Instead, Ncube recommended Tristan fly home with him to Zimbabwe and play a series of ITFs in South Africa.

“So we spent five weeks in Africa playing Futures instead of going to Kalamazoo,” said Ncube, who said Tristan fell in love with the people and the African culture. “Tristan begged his dad to let him stay longer and play the final two tournaments. Chris said, ‘What have you done with my son?’ It was a huge part of his development.”

Tristan eventually rose to No. 8 in the ITF junior world rankings and made it to the finals of the Easter Bowl in 2018, falling to Jenson Brooksby in three sets. Ncube has seen the full transformation of a player he thinks can “definitely be a top 20 ATP player.”

“He’s gone through necessary challenges and found a way to dig himself out of those by sticking to a process and trusting a process,” he said. “Even elite athletes can start doubting that process but when you have that type of mentality that very few people possess then that becomes your superpower. That’s why you can never count him out. He’s got the necessary skills and the right team around him. Sky’s the limit for him.”

As Black History Month comes to a close, Ncube is mindful of how fortunate he is to be “living the dream” coaching tennis in the mecca of Southern California. “I am extremely grateful for Southern California,” he said. “In my 25 years of coaching, SoCal is the only place where I felt I was not judged by the color of my skin, and that I was given my opportunity not based on where I came from but from what I am willing to offer.”

He concluded: “Being from Zimbabwe all we know is how to work, work, work, work. If you are depressed, you work. If you are happy, you work. That part of me as a Zimbabwean was embraced because I work 14-hour days and sometimes with no breaks. And that has created a lot of opportunities for me. We are a proud people, and I am so fortunate to have been able to share my culture with Tristan and all of the players that I coach.”