Meet the Head Tennis Professionals

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Marcos Ondruska Marcos is a former ATP #27 tour player and South African Olympic and Davis Cup Player. He reached 3 singles ATP Tour finals - Cologne; Scottsdale; Tel Aviv. He reached the 4th round of the Australian Open, (his best Grand Slam performance) losing to Jim Courier in 5 sets. Marcos also won 4 doubles ATP Tour Titles - Auckland (w/Waite); Palermo (w/A. Kratzmann); Tel Aviv (w/Stafford), Long Island (w/Prinosil). He was an Australian Open Semi Finalist (w/De Jager). Marcos scored the decisive point at 2-2 in Davis Cup play for South Africa against India, Austria, and Australia. He had a victory over Ivanisevic in the 1st rd of the Olympics in Atlanta. Other top career wins include Chang, Stich, Rios, Kafelnikov, Gilbert, Wheaton, Korda, Aguilera, and Mancini. Marcos trained part time at the VDM Academy, and took the world-renowned Van Der Meer Tennis University course upon his retirement from the tour. He then launched his coaching career here on Hilton Head with Dennis Van Der Meer. He has since coached American touring pros Brendan Evans, Vincent Spadea, and Jennifer Capriati, as well as Slovenian Luka Gregorc, and South African Fritz Wolmarans.

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Tommy Shimada Tommy Shimada is a former ATP tour player currently working with the Van Der Meer Tennis Academy. He has been working with the Van Der Meer Tennis Academy since 2008, and he previously trained here as a player for nearly ten years. Tom reached a career high ATP world ranking of #40 in doubles, represented Japan in Davis Cup competition for over ten years, won 3 career ATP doubles titles, recorded doubles wins over the Bryan brothers, Roger Federer, and Andy Roddick, and was a 2000 Sydney Olympic participant. After his playing career, he graduated from the University of South Carolina with a degree in Finance and Real Estate.

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Thomas Richter Thomas Richter is a former Top 50 ITA player who has been working with the Van Der Meer Tennis Academy since 2009. He also works directly with our older Academy players preparing them for high-level tournaments, college tennis, and pro circuit events. Originally from Germany, Thomas was an All-Big South Conference athlete at Birmingham-Southern College before transferring to Indiana University, where he was named to the 2008 All-Big Ten team. There, he received his Bachelor's Degree in Business Administration followed by his Master's Degree in Sports Marketing.

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David Lewis David Lewis is a former New Zealand Davis Cup player with a career high ATP ranking of #152 in singles and #133 in doubles. He has competed against many world class players, such as Jimmy Connors, Stefan Edberg and Pat Cash. David has coached in Switzerland for the Swiss Tennis Federation and also in Germany for many years coaching and training promising juniors and professional players. He was the New Zealand Federation Cup Captain and Manager of High Performance for Women, during which time he also coached New Zealand’s top female player, Marina Erakovic. David has coached all levels of the game and is the youngest of three tennis playing brothers. His oldest brother Chris, was a Wimbledon finalist in 1983 losing to John McEnroe and his other brother Mark, was a top 100 doubles player and personal coach to Michael Stich when he won Wimbledon in 1991.