Frans Cronje,
Senior Contributor

Frans Cronje has been a Professional tennis coach for thirty-four years. He received his Professional Tennis Coach certificate in South Africa in 1987, and has since amassed many awards, accolades and professional achievements.

Cronje was the coach for the S.A. Junior Team, who won the African Cup each year from 1996-2005. He was the S.A. 4/14 Team that won the World Cup in Japan in 1997. He was the S.A. Junior Team coach that won the Sportsmanship Award at the Prostejov World Junior Tennis Final in 2003. He was the coach of the S.A. Junior Team that won the Nike Masters Tournament in Nice in 2005. And he was the coach of the S.A. 4/12 Team that won the Nations Cup in Brescia in 2012.

In addition to many coaching, administrative and selection-board positions in his native South Africa, Cronje was appointed in 2002 by the International Tennis Federation to travel with its junior teams throughout Europe. It was the first time a South African was selected for the role coaching the World Junior Team, and Cronje’s team members won singles and doubles titles in France, Belgium, Holland and Germany under his watch.

Cronje has been a featured speaker and workshop leader across the globe, including South African national and ITF coaching events. The Frans Cronje Tennis Academy is used by the South African Tennis Association to train aspiring Professional Tennis Coaches through its successful apprenticeship program.

Cronje has worked with athletes outside of tennis, as well. In 1993, he received his South African national credentials in Advanced Mental Skills for sports training. He subsequently helped non-tennis athletes Hansie Cronje (South African Cricket Captain), Darryl Cullinan (South African Cricket player) and Ruben Kruger (South African Rugby player and member of the South African World Cup-winning team in 1995) improve their mental toughness in competition.

In 2019, Cronje will join the Highland Park School in Dallas, Texas as Director of Junior Development to further his exceptional coaching career in the United States.