Its been a fantastic week for global tennis with the Miami Open in full swing, but also an incredible week for Ipswich tennis, seeing us celebrating a great performance this Sunday just gone, by one of our Elena Baltacha Foundation supported players, Saul Hindmarch, coached by Richard Daynes (Framlingham Tennis), and Mike Lunt, (EB Foundation Head of Player Support) who were both at the LTA National Training Centre, near Wimbledon to see him make the Final of the U12’s Winter National Finals. Saul met a player from Dukes Meadows Tennis, Kai-Luca Ampaw, which was, by all accounts an incredible match, he played extremely well, representing Ipswich Sports Club Tennis Academy, unfortunately eventually losing 4-6, 4-6.
Kai, the player who trains at Dukes Meadows Tennis, which is owned by one of the giants of the fashion industry, a man, I know extremely well, who is called Stephen Marks, the company he owns is called French Connection. Its quite strange how two areas of my life have crossed this week, Elena Baltacha Foundation supported player and Stephen Marks’s player who both encountered each other at a major Junior tennis tournament.
My travels through sport and with sport has taken me to all four corners of the world and has without doubt been a very colourful tapestry of positive experiences. Everyone has life changing moments, one of my biggest was when a representative of Stephen Marks, approached me in Spain while I was presenting. At the time, Elena was training there as British No.1 tennis player, also there was her coach Jo Durie, Ex British No.1 and 5th best player in the world during her time on the WTA World Tennis tour.
My presentation was a practical, on a tennis court, it lasted for around 90 minutes, and as soon as I finished a member of the French connection Tennis academy came straight over and asked if I would deliver a training session for all their players who were at the World Famous La Manga complex at the time. I delivered the day after, the players reacted very well, all expressing that they felt the session had real benefit. After the session was over, I was asked to go and meet the senior coaching staff, I was quite shocked to see Jo Durie standing there, an ex-player I watched as a young man on BBC Television as she represented Great Britain in the biggest tennis tournament in the World, Wimbledon.
I had a very long chat with her and the rest of the French connection Tennis coaching staff, at the end of our discussion, I was invited to their training base in London to deliver a trial session for all the players at the academy. Again, it was received very well, a few weeks later, a senior member of staff called me and offered me a permanent position on the coaching team, this offer would totally change everything, and send my life path on a mind-blowing trajectory that would end with me becoming Olympic and British No.1 Tennis Coach. It was at my first official training session I met the Gaffa, Stephen Marks, this was the start of an incredible relationship with a simply incredible man.
Stephen, as a young tennis player actually played junior Wimbledon, so he new the tennis business, his love of the sport led him on to sponsor and support Jo Durie, Elena, and many other players, such as Laura Robson and Donna Vekic, the Croatian player who reached a highest World ranking of 25. As the years went on, I was very lucky enough to get to know Stephen very well, so much so that he actually asked me to personally coach his son. I used to travel to London, where he lived, and remember quite vividly sitting with him in the kitchen having a chat and a cup of coffee. The more I got to know about Stephen, the more I realised what an incredible individual he actually is. Not only has he invested in British tennis, he has also invested in Israel tennis as well. At one time he had substantial shares in Hard Rock Café, and also is a prolific investor in films as well, and the list is quite impressive! Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels, Snatch, Layer Cake and Kick-Ass, to name but a few.
After I lost Elena to cancer in 2014, Stephen offered me a position at Dukes Meadows, his incredible tennis and golf complex in Chiswick, this very supportive act helped me during a very tough period of my life. I very recently visited Dukes to meet with him and some of the other staff members, during this visit there would be a treat in store. Tim Henman ex British No.1, who reached a world highest ATP ranking of 4, is a very close friend of Stephen’s, he was there, leading a session for all the young Dukes Meadows tennis players. It was great to be in attendance, and watch Tim at work, this was the first time I had ever seen him coach, he was outstanding, and it was incredible to see the affect he had on these young players.
During the same visit I met with Ollie Fawkes who joined the Dukes Meadows High Performance Tennis Centre as Head of Strength and Conditioning in May 2018, following a 2-year full time role with WTA professional tennis player, Elina Svitolina, who during his time with her reached a career highest ranking of 3rd in the world. I had a very long conversation with Ollie, as we had an awful lot in common, I, spending 8 years on the WTA World Tour, he, 2 years, it's fair to say we shared a few very interesting stories.
I’ve been very luck in my life, meeting Stephen Marks, without doubt was an incredible blessing, I will now wait, and look forward to the next time our lives cross, no doubt, it will be a very interesting and positive experience!
