The founder of the Melbourne International Tennis School and director of coaching, Michael began his tennis journey under the tuition of one of the world’s greatest coaches of all time, Tony Roche.
Michael spent many years being coaching by Tony and then becoming Tony’s understudy as he learnt all his coaching philosophies and life skills from his mentor.
A very handy ATP player himself, Michael began his coaching journey as a hitting partner for several of the world’s best tennis players including Ivan Lendl, Stefan Edberg, Boris Becker to name a few. Michael gained valuable experience on the road as a player and hitting partner and then landed his first big coaching gig with former top 10 player Mark Philippoussis which then led him onto bigger things by coaching former world number 1 Maria Sharapova. Michael has since moved on to work with both the Vietnamese and Chinese Davis cup teams as well as being named Victorian and Australian Coach of the year in 2001.
Michael now heads the company which has a base in Melbourne and Singapore and mentors his staff of over 10 coaches of which have all developed under the MITS philosophy, a prerequisite for coaching in his organisation.
Highlights:
- Coach of Maria Sharapova (2003 -2005)
- Coached US Open and Wimbledon Finalist Mark Philippoussis (1990-1993 and 1997)
- Worked with former world no 1 Ivan Lendl and Australian Davis Cup Coach Tony Roche (1986-1991)
- Hitting partner to many Top 20 players including Mecir, Vilas, Edberg & McEnroe (1984-1994)
- Played Australian Open (1987)
- Coached many Victorian and Australian Institute of Sport scholarship holders.
- Coached/worked with ATP/WTA players Yuxuan Zhang (Chn), Yuan Meng (Chn), Monique Adamczak (Aus), Di Wu (Chn), Yi-Miao Zhou (Chn), Dane Kelly (Aus), Zhuang Shuai (Chn).
- Voted “Victorian Coach of the Year, 2001″ by Tennis Coaches Association of Victoria.
- Voted “Australian Coach of the Year, 2001″ by Tennis Coaches Association of Australia
- Tennis Australia Junior Davis Cup Coach (2002)
- Keynote Speaker at the Beijing Sports University Tennis Coaches Conference (2004 to current)
- Worked with Chinese Davis Cup Team (2006)
- Consultant for Tianjin Tennis Association (2006-2007)
- Vietnam Davis Cup Coach 2013-current
- Level 2 in First Aid.
- Tennis Australia Certified
- Tennis Australia Talent Development Coach (TDC)