Introducing Simon Pender, Grantham Tennis Club & Gym's new LPDC Head Coach who will be starting next month. 

Simon is a Level 5 Master Performance coach and, over the past decade, has been responsible for leading and developing clubs, coaches, parents and players across the South West and South Wales region for the LTA performance team. During this time he worked closely with a number of top GB players, including Katie Swan and Gabriella Taylor, as well as captaining GB junior teams on several occasions. Before his time at the LTA Simon worked as county performance manager for Gloucestershire Tennis as well as spending time abroad working with an academy in the USA.

Before his career as a coach he was part of several GB teams at junior and senior level alongside players such as Martin Lee and Arvind Parmar. He gained an ATP ranking early in his career before injury sidelined further ambition. Preceding this, Simon was a very high ranked junior, top 30 for singles and top 10 for doubles respectively, leading to direct entry into all junior Grand Slam events. Alongside his achievements at Wimbledon and the French Open junior events he was an Olympic junior medalist.

Simon believes in developing the all round player, focusing on personal characteristics as well as performer and player qualities and believes that the long term approach to player development is so crucial to player welfare.

In his spare time he loves watching football, studying, going for walks and spending time with his friends and family. He is really excited to be joining a club with such wonderful spirit and looks forward to meeting you all.