Does Tennis need many like Dennis Van der Meer?

By Fernando Segal (2/4)

We know this, behind every great player stands a great coach. Behind hundreds of thousands of coaches around the world stands one man who believed in coaching the coaches, long before it became a global priority.

That man was Dennis Van der Meer.

In tennis evolution, few individuals have had such profound and lasting impact. Not through trophies won or headlines made, but by empowering others to pass on the game with knowledge, clarity, and passion.

Dennis taught how to teach tennis in better ways, and in doing so, helped shape generations of coaches, who in turn, shaped millions of players.

1933 born in South-West Africa as son of Isak Jacobus van der Merwe, a minister of religion, which was fundamental in the way that he developed after his projects. He played for Western Province junior tennis team, later on the senior one.

In 1961, Van der Meer emigrated to USA where he settled in California and taught at the Berkeley Tennis Club. At that time Dennis changed his surname from Van der Merwe to Van der Meer. In 1970s he went to South Carolina where he bought property on Hilton Head Island to set up a tennis academy and founded 1973 Van Der Meer Tennis University, 1976 Professional Tennis Registry, and 1978 Professional Tennis Registry Foundation.

Van der Meer had a vision far ahead of his time. While others were focused on stars and scoreboards, he saw the coach as the true multiplier of tennis. He believed that if you could improve the coach, you could elevate the game itself. Everywhere.

The mission: To educate, certify, and support tennis coaches globally.

Dennis was a systems builder; he was a powerful communicator, a tennis advocate. A multiplier. He had the extraordinary ability to simplify complex ideas, to demonstrate with precision. His coaching clinics were legendary for what he taught but more for how he made people feel: seen, respected, and capable of making a difference.

He worked with players like Billie Jean King and Amanda Coetzer, but his greatest achievement was democratizing coaching. Whether you were training champions or running community programs, he believed in your power to transform lives through tennis.

He created books, instructional videos, and developed methodologies that coaches worldwide still use today. He gave language to what had long been intuition and guesswork.

He taught us that tennis grows when coaches grow.

Dennis left us physically in 2019, but his legacy is with us permanently, in our minds and hearts.

Let us honor him by building upon what he began like Tennis Leader, developing more a global coaching systems that are accessible, inclusive, and effective. Let's be that coach as the engine of growth.

Tennis means a global culture, a movement, a force for growth. We need a revolution of values, structure, and purpose in each next visionary, builder, and true leaders of tennis world like him.

We can make it!