Chris Singh looked destined for a big future on the tennis court when he was ranked number one in Australia in his age groups for four consecutive years.
A career on the pro tour beckoned until repeated injuries cut short his career and he was forced to stop playing at 18.
Luckily, Singh’s talents weren’t lost to the game and for the past 10 years he has been helping other players reach their potential.
And earlier this month, the Derrimut resident won the Tennis Coaches Australia Victoria rising star award.
“Coaching wasn’t on my agenda at all,” Singh says.
“[I wanted] to make it as a pro. As soon as that fell through I just wanted to put what I know back into the kids.
“It’s good to be acknowledged for the hard work I’ve done. It’s been a really good team effort as well from the rest of my staff.”
Singh took over as head coach at the Caroline Springs Tennis Club in 2011 and officially launched his iTennis Coaching Academy.
He began with 36 students and that number has now grown to 234.
It’s been a similar story at Sydenham Tennis Club where Singh began coaching in 2013 . . . the club’s coaching beneficiaries have grown from 41 to 138.
Across the two clubs, the iTennis Coaching Academy employs seven coaches and a fitness trainer.
“We have some great programs and some really good coaches,” Singh says.
“We reach out to quite a lot of kids and cater for all age groups. We start as young as three and go all the way up to adult coaching.
“We have our elite kids, we have our hot shot kids, we have kids who just do it socially and we have adults. We’ve pretty much every program on offer.”
Singh, 29, has no plans to slow down.
He hopes to get more courts at his Caroline Springs base and help more juniors transition to elite players.
