Larry Stefanki (born July 23, 1957), is an American
tennis
Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...
coach and former professional tennis player.
Tennis career
He played for nine years starting in 1979, reaching a career-high ranking of World No. 35 in singles after winning the Indian Wells Masters at La Quinta in 1985 as well as three in doubles. He is one of three Stefanki brothers to have played on the varsity tennis team at the
University of California, Berkeley
The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California), is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in Berkeley, California, United States. Founded in 1868 and named after t ...
, from 1977 until 1979 under coach Bill Wright. As a freshman in 1976 at
Foothill College, he won the California Junior College Championship in Singles and Doubles.
Coaching
He is more renowned as a tennis coach, having trained such players as
John McEnroe
John Patrick McEnroe Jr. (born February 16, 1959) is an American former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the world No. 1 in men's List of ATP number 1 ranked singles players, singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) ...
,
Marcelo Ríos,
Yevgeny Kafelnikov, and
Tim Henman amongst others. Ríos and Kafelnikov both achieved their
number 1 tennis rankings while under his guidance, and Henman reached a career-high of 4 under his tutelage.
Stefanki was also the coach of
Fernando González, after taking over this role from
Horacio de la Peña in May 2006. Under Stefanki the Chilean reached back-to-back finals in
Vienna
Vienna ( ; ; ) is the capital city, capital, List of largest cities in Austria, most populous city, and one of Federal states of Austria, nine federal states of Austria. It is Austria's primate city, with just over two million inhabitants. ...
, the
Madrid Masters and
Basel
Basel ( ; ), also known as Basle ( ), ; ; ; . is a city in northwestern Switzerland on the river Rhine (at the transition from the High Rhine, High to the Upper Rhine). Basel is Switzerland's List of cities in Switzerland, third-most-populo ...
in 2006 and the
2007 Australian Open final —a tournament in which he eased past the likes of
Lleyton Hewitt,
James Blake,
Rafael Nadal
Rafael Nadal Parera (born 3 June 1986) is a Spanish former professional tennis player. He was ranked as the List of ATP number 1 ranked singles tennis players, world No. 1 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) for ...
, and
Tommy Haas— which saw González, 26, reach a career-high of #5 in the ATP rankings.
Stefanki was the coach of American tennis player
Andy Roddick until his retirement in 2012. He is credited with improving Roddick's tactics and all-court game and helping him reach the semifinals of the
2009 Australian Open, the fourth round of the
2009 French Open for the first time, the
2009 Wimbledon final for the third time, winning the 2010 Sony Ericsson Masters in Miami and the 2010 Brisbane International in Brisbane, Australia. Stefanki has recently been working with Olympic developmental hopefuls in Los Angeles.
He and his wife and three sons now live in Encinitas, California.
ATP career finals
Singles: 1 (1 title)
Doubles: 7 (3 titles, 4 runner-ups)
ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals
Singles: 1 (1–0)
Doubles: 1 (1–0)
Performance timelines
Singles
Doubles
References
External links
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Stefanki, Larry
1957 births
Living people
American male tennis players
Tennis coaches from Illinois
California Golden Bears men's tennis players
Sportspeople from Elmhurst, Illinois
Tennis players from Illinois
20th-century American sportsmen