Men’s Tennis Adds Two Assistant Coaches
10/17/2024 2:18:00 PM | Men's Tennis
Ismael Merino and Marco Kroes join the Columbia staff
NEW YORK – Bidyut K. Goswami Head Coach of Men's Tennis Howard Endelman '87CC announced the addition of Ismael Merino and Marco Kroes to the Columbia staff as assistant coaches Thursday.
Merino was previously an assistant coach at East Tennessee State, where he earned his BA and MBA degrees. During his time at ETSU (2013-18), Merino helped lead the team to four conference championships as a player and two as an assistant coach.
Most recently, Merino worked as the head tennis coach at Centercourt Club and Sports in Chatham, New Jersey where he created holistic training sessions for high performance players and created training blocks for home-based professional players, including those competing on the ATP Tour and at the US collegiate level. Merion worked at Centercourt with current Columbia stars Michael Zheng and Nicolas Kotzen.
Prior to his time at Centercourt, Merion was a traveling private high-performance tennis coach focusing on both the physical and mental aspects of the game.
During his college career, Merino earned back-to-back SoCon Second Team honors in doubles. In 2016, he teamed with Sebastian Yllera as the duo went 9-1, which was the second highest winning percentage on the team. In 2015, he was paired with Robert Herrera. The duo won 16 matches including a win over 5th ranked Georgia. Merino also earned 2014 Atlantic Sun Second Team honors, was named to the 2014 Atlantic Sun All-Freshman Team, and was named the 2014 Atlantic Sun Scholar-Athlete of the Year. In both 2014 and 2015, Merino went a perfect 7-0 in conference singles play. Merino grew up in Lima, Peru and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Kroes comes to Columbia after a successful career as a professional traveling coach on the ATP Tour. Kroes became the first Olympic coach in the world to work for two countries at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo as he coached both the Netherlands and Belgium.
As a traveling ATP Tour coach, Kroes mentored, among other top players, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Rohan Bopanna and Wesley Koolhof. Tsitsipas achieved an ATP Singles career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world, while Bopanna and Koolhof each achieved ATP Doubles career-high rankings of No. 1 in the world.
During his career, Kroes has coached players to sixteen ATP Challenger Tour titles, 15 ATP World Tour Doubles finals and 6 ATP World Tour championships. Under Kroes' direction, Koolhof captured the doubles title at the Nitto ATP Finals in 2020 and Koolhof and Nikola Mektic were finalists at the 2020 US Open. The duo won the 2020 ATP Finals and finished the year at No. 3 in the doubles race.
FOLLOWING THE LIONS
Stay up to date on all things Columbia Men's Tennis by following the Lions on X (@CULionsMTEN), Instagram (@culionsmten) and on Facebook (@ColumbiaAthletics).
Merino was previously an assistant coach at East Tennessee State, where he earned his BA and MBA degrees. During his time at ETSU (2013-18), Merino helped lead the team to four conference championships as a player and two as an assistant coach.
Most recently, Merino worked as the head tennis coach at Centercourt Club and Sports in Chatham, New Jersey where he created holistic training sessions for high performance players and created training blocks for home-based professional players, including those competing on the ATP Tour and at the US collegiate level. Merion worked at Centercourt with current Columbia stars Michael Zheng and Nicolas Kotzen.
Prior to his time at Centercourt, Merion was a traveling private high-performance tennis coach focusing on both the physical and mental aspects of the game.
During his college career, Merino earned back-to-back SoCon Second Team honors in doubles. In 2016, he teamed with Sebastian Yllera as the duo went 9-1, which was the second highest winning percentage on the team. In 2015, he was paired with Robert Herrera. The duo won 16 matches including a win over 5th ranked Georgia. Merino also earned 2014 Atlantic Sun Second Team honors, was named to the 2014 Atlantic Sun All-Freshman Team, and was named the 2014 Atlantic Sun Scholar-Athlete of the Year. In both 2014 and 2015, Merino went a perfect 7-0 in conference singles play. Merino grew up in Lima, Peru and Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Kroes comes to Columbia after a successful career as a professional traveling coach on the ATP Tour. Kroes became the first Olympic coach in the world to work for two countries at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo as he coached both the Netherlands and Belgium.
As a traveling ATP Tour coach, Kroes mentored, among other top players, Stefanos Tsitsipas, Rohan Bopanna and Wesley Koolhof. Tsitsipas achieved an ATP Singles career-high ranking of No. 3 in the world, while Bopanna and Koolhof each achieved ATP Doubles career-high rankings of No. 1 in the world.
During his career, Kroes has coached players to sixteen ATP Challenger Tour titles, 15 ATP World Tour Doubles finals and 6 ATP World Tour championships. Under Kroes' direction, Koolhof captured the doubles title at the Nitto ATP Finals in 2020 and Koolhof and Nikola Mektic were finalists at the 2020 US Open. The duo won the 2020 ATP Finals and finished the year at No. 3 in the doubles race.
FOLLOWING THE LIONS
Stay up to date on all things Columbia Men's Tennis by following the Lions on X (@CULionsMTEN), Instagram (@culionsmten) and on Facebook (@ColumbiaAthletics).
Players Mentioned
/ Men's Tennis
/ Men's Tennis
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