Sven Groeneveld is the “tennis architect” and possibly a tennis book author in the near future. As readers demand more insights, Sven will continue to share his experiences with us. Hope the readers enjoy the small insights and memories.
THE BADGE CHRONICLES
“ Mary Joe Fernandez, ‘The German Open’ of 1997. Has a great story leading up to it.
When in January 1997 Mary Pierce reached the final of the Australian Open, I stopped (I will save that story for my book). After reflecting a couple of months (and turning down several coaching jobs, one of which was with Ana Kournikova) I signed a contract with Swiss Tennis to head the newly built national training center in Biel/Bienne (where some very talented players would train one of them Roger Federer).
However, I had two free months that I could fill with either vacationing or take a short gig on tour. When IMG Tennis asked me to work with Mary Joe Fernandez for the clay and the grass court season I was all in. Tony Godsick, at that time, an IMG manger (presently Roger Federer manager) now the husband of Mary Joe Fernandez will always tell this story. Where, his now wife, started working with me and she never won a tournament on clay and in the first week working with me she won one of her biggest titles of her career in Berlin.
After our very successful short two months of work I was asked to continue and if it had not been for the fact that I had signed the contract with Swiss Tennis I would have continued. So, instead I moved to Switzerland and started my journey at the Swiss Tennis Federation and the rest is history.”
*All the information for this article was attained through explicit permission from Sven Groeneveld to be published on 10sBalls.com – no lifting or reusing is permitted.