From RG To Wimbledon and ITF World Championship Dinner In Between

Written by: on 16th June 2013
Bookmark and Share
From RG To Wimbledon and ITF World Championship Dinner In Between  |

Before I start the Grass Court season I would like to have a special entry about the The World Championships Dinner in Paris. (during Roland Garros)

I was invited by Esther Vergeer who won her 13th World Champions Trophy (in a row) of her career (she officially retired in February of this year.) A Must read is her personal Biography (hopefully soon to be translated in English now only available in Dutch “Kracht en Kwetsbaarheid”)

This was my 2nd time I attended (last year I could not attend due to my work with adidas) but this year it was also a special year because of The ITF celebrating their 100th year birthday.

The evening was presented by Andrew Castle. Andrew and I actually played each other during our time in the USA when I played for the University of Kansas and Andrew played for Wichita State University. Time fly’s when you are having fun.

Before I speak about Esther it was also great to see one of my very special players I coached, Mary Pierce during this evening and take a rare picture together. In all of my years I have coached i can count on 2 hands of how many pictures i have with players I have worked with before I started with the adidas player development program.

Esther Vergeer

I want to thank Esther, for having the strength to think out side of the box by asking, in 2010, if I wanted to work with her. we spend almost 3 years together working towards her dream but more importantly we worked towards getting the best out of her. This would never have been possible without the help of the Head Coach of the Dutch Tennis Federation (KNLTB) Marc Kalkman. Marc has been the creator of Esther and I working together. Marc brought a whole new dimension to wheelchair tennis by integrating coaches that were or are successful in the abled body tennis world. Marc deserves a lot of credit for Esther staying in the game and finishing her career on the top of the mountain. I keep Marijn for last because Marijn the physical trainer of Esther continued to challenge Esther every single time we were on court and was able to integrate the physicality and the mobility conditioning into the game style we were developing during this period. I want to thank again the entire team for this great experience and look forward to help Esther during the transition after her professional tennis career.

 

NOW ON TO THE GRASS

Topics: , , , , , , , ,

Sven's Latest Pictures

[slickr-flickr tag="svensblog" type="gallery"]

Sven's Recent Blogs

TENNIS POSTCARD FROM SHENZHEN FROM SVEN GROENEVELD “ORANGE COACH” thumbnail

TENNIS POSTCARD FROM SHENZHEN FROM SVEN GROENEVELD “ORANGE COACH”

The first Tournament (Shenzhen China 25.K) was a great experience and being far away from @Wimbledon where the roots of tennis mean so much.
POSTCARD FROM PARIS FROM SVEN GROENEVELD thumbnail

POSTCARD FROM PARIS FROM SVEN GROENEVELD

Hi everyone. Here's Sven. Sven here. He sent us these photos. He is obviously a very busy man. He has everyone stopping him every few steps to ask him something...
TENNIS UPDATE • SPAIN BESTS GERMANY • SVEN TENNIS SHARES HIS DAVIS CUP • HOW CAN I ADD ANYTHING MORE TO THIS DAY IN VALENCIA? thumbnail

TENNIS UPDATE • SPAIN BESTS GERMANY • SVEN TENNIS SHARES HIS DAVIS CUP • HOW CAN I ADD ANYTHING MORE TO THIS DAY IN VALENCIA?

How can I add Anything more to this day in Valencia, where Spain ended up victorious over Germany.
POSTCARD FROM SVEN GROENEVELD • DAY 2 FROM DAVIS CUP TENNIS IN SPAIN • SAVE THE FORMAT • PLAYERS MUST UNITE thumbnail

POSTCARD FROM SVEN GROENEVELD • DAY 2 FROM DAVIS CUP TENNIS IN SPAIN • SAVE THE FORMAT • PLAYERS MUST UNITE

To be honest I never ever attended a full weekend of Davis Cup. So that is why I needed to take my parents as they also never experienced this phenomenon.
DAVIS CUP TENNIS IN VALENCIA BY SVEN GROENEVELD • TOALSON TENNIS • ORANGE COACH • 10SBALLS AMBASSADOR thumbnail

DAVIS CUP TENNIS IN VALENCIA BY SVEN GROENEVELD • TOALSON TENNIS • ORANGE COACH • 10SBALLS AMBASSADOR

First Day at the Davis Cup between Spain and Germany in Valencia. Traveling is part of my life for the Past 37 years and the past weeks have not been different.






10sBalls Top Stories

In Case You Missed It

EUGENIE BOUCHARD NAMED 2018 TENNIS CANADA FEMALE PLAYER OF THE YEAR / EUGENIE BOUCHARD NOMMÉE JOUEUSE DE L’ANNÉE 2018 DE TENNIS CANADA thumbnail

EUGENIE BOUCHARD NAMED 2018 TENNIS CANADA FEMALE PLAYER OF THE YEAR / EUGENIE BOUCHARD NOMMÉE JOUEUSE DE L’ANNÉE 2018 DE TENNIS CANADA

Tennis Canada announced on Wednesday that Eugenie Bouchard is the winner of the 2018 Excellence Awards in the Female Player of the Year and Singles Player of the Year categories.
TENNIS NEWS • CALIFORNIA CHAMPIONSHIPS • TOMMY HAAS, TAYLOR FRITZ, STEVE JOHNSON, MARDY FISH AND MORE thumbnail

TENNIS NEWS • CALIFORNIA CHAMPIONSHIPS • TOMMY HAAS, TAYLOR FRITZ, STEVE JOHNSON, MARDY FISH AND MORE

Time to get tickets to watch! Surly you have heard about The Largest Open Tennis Event in America!
TENNIS NEWS • RAFA NADAL CONFIRMS RETURN TO PRACTICE, EYES ABU DHABI EXHIBITION AND AUSTRALIAN SUMMER thumbnail

TENNIS NEWS • RAFA NADAL CONFIRMS RETURN TO PRACTICE, EYES ABU DHABI EXHIBITION AND AUSTRALIAN SUMMER

According to Uncle Toni, Rafael Nadal was supposed to be back at practice on either Dec. 4 or 5. Well, better late than never!
Conchita Martínez prepara la temporada 2019 de Karolina Pliskova en Tenerife thumbnail

Conchita Martínez prepara la temporada 2019 de Karolina Pliskova en Tenerife

Española y checa ya trabajaron juntas durante el pasado Open de Estados Unidos
ALEJANDRO’S FAVORITE PHOTOS FOR 10SBALLS FROM SOME OF THIS YEAR’S TOURNAMENTS thumbnail

ALEJANDRO’S FAVORITE PHOTOS FOR 10SBALLS FROM SOME OF THIS YEAR’S TOURNAMENTS

Jelena Ostapenko of Latvia hits a forehand to Kaia Kanepi of Estonia during her second round match at the Nature Valley International tennis tournament in Eastbourne, Great Britain, on Tuesday, June 26, 2018.

Support Sven's Links: