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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)
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
