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Hello! My name is Rafael Cunha, I am a 25 years old tennis coach from Portugal currently working in a high-performance academy in Caldas da Rainha, Portugal. I was a top junior in Portugal but unfortunately didn\’t have the means to pursue a professional career so, when I turned 18, went to university to study Sports Sciences applied to Tennis Coaching specifically.
I\’ve been fortunate to be in a very professional and high-performance envioronment since my start as a tennis coach and all the experience and coaches I\’ve worked with have been a massive help to my growth as a tennis professional.
Qualifications
- Bachelors Degree in Sports Science Specialized in Tennis Coaching – Escola Superior de Desporto de Rio Maior, September 2016, July 2019
- Accredited Coach by the Portuguese Tennis Federation (Level 1)
- Accredited Coach by the Portuguese Padel Federation (Level 1)
About Me
During my time at the academy I’m currently at, I’ve worked with several top players, including Frederico Ferreira Silva, who reached a career-high of #168 ATP; Patrick Schoen, European U18 Champion in 2023, and a top 30 Junior in the world before joining a NCAA D1 team. My tasks with them were in the beginning supervised by the academy’s head coach, Pedro Felner, someone who has taught me a lot and I’m very thankful for the opportunities he has given me. Obviously working with these 2 players in particular, be it in a Sparring Partner role or being actively involved in the coaching process, motivated me a lot to keep learning and researching about the sport.
Despite this, I’ve found a lot of success working with U14 and U16 players and have achieved good results with those age brackets and I find it very rewarding to start working and growing together with a certain player or a group of them.
I’m currently looking for new challenges and a change in my professional life in general and that’s the main reason for the creation of this profile
Outside tennis, I’m a fan of sport in general but apart from tennis, football and motorsport (F1 in particular) have a special place in my heart and I try to organize my life to be able to attend a race per year.
I’ve attached a youtube link for a video containing me working with 2 different levels, as well a few minutes of me hitting and going through every stroke.
Experience
1. Intern Tennis Coach – Felner Tennis Academy, October 2018 – August 2019
- Integrated Felner Tennis Academy coaching team during the internship process
- Coach of high competition athletes and training; performed biomechanical analysis in high competition athletes
- Statistical analysis of competitive matches
- Accompaniment of athletes to national competitions
2. Effective Tennis Coach – Felner Tennis Academy, October 2019 – September 2021
- High performance tennis coach
- Fitness Coach tasks relative to tennis
- Accompaniment of athletes to national competitions
3. High-Performance Tennis Coach and Head of Athlete Transition Project – Felner Tennis Academy, October 2021 – Present
- Coach of high performance athletes
- Coach of Pedro Libório, national #1 Under-16, 18, senior and #335 ITF
- Coach of Patricia Gui, national #1 Under-12 and 14 and part of the National Team.
- Coach of ITF Junior Tournament Winners Mariia Nozdrachova and Daniel Domingos
- Sparring Partner of Frederico Ferreira Silva (#168 ATP) and several top junior players.
- Assistant Coach and Sparring Partner to European U18 Champion Patrick Schoen. #39 ITF Junior and #1195 ATP.
- Coach of Matilde Figueiredo. Started playing tennis at 11 years old, reached national U14 Girls Top-10 by 13 years old.
- Extensive experience in monitoring international tournaments (Futures, ITF’s Junior and Tennis Europe)
- Responsible for creating and managing a sucessful project for the transition of athletes from the stages of training to competition
- Responsible for the Internal Coaches Formation of the Academy
- Responsible for creating graphical designs and managing the academy’s social networks