The Courier & Advertiser (Fife Edition)
Top coach to work with next generation of tennis aces
Highly-respected tennis coach Jose Higueras will lend his coaching expertise to the next generation of British tennis stars at Gleneagles next month.
Higueras, former coach to Roger Federer, will spend a week working with the best young players at the GB National Tennis Academy at Stirling University before sharing his coaching philosophy at the annual Tennis Scotland Coaches’ Conference at the Perthshire venue.
The ground-breaking academy is one of two set up by the LTA and opened its doors to eight of the country’s most promising talents last September as part of the first-year intake.
Students are housed at Dollar Academy and receive tennis tuition from a worldclass coaching team led by Leo Azevedo, Colin Fleming, Bruno Argudo and Esteban Carril.
Higueras won 16 ATP singles titles as a player and reached back-to-back semi-finals at Roland Garros in 1982 and 1983, the year in which he reached No 6 in the world rankings.
He has gone on to coach some of the world’s best tennis players including Federer, Pete Sampras and Michael Chang. In 2008 he was recruited as director of coaching at the United States Tennis Association, where he now acts as a consultant.
Higueras said: “I’m delighted to be coming to Scotland for the first time to help the GB National Tennis Academy in Stirling as well as participating in the Tennis Scotland Coaches’ Conference.
“Leo Azevedo is a great friend of mine and I have a lot of respect for him as a coach. Therefore, when he asked me to visit the GB National Tennis Academy I didn’t give it a second thought.”
The conference will provide coaches at all levels of the game with top-level coaching insight at the Gleneagles Arena on February 15 and 16.
Higueras will be joined by a range of expert speakers at the conference which more than 100 coaches are expected to attend, including Azevedo, Andy Murray’s strength and conditioning coach Matt Little, All England Tennis Club head coach Dan Bloxham, and Jo Ward, former WTA and GB Fed Cup star.