April 24, 2008
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Duvenhage is in his third season as head coach of Vanderbilt’s men’s tennis program. Last season, Duvenhage led Vanderbilt to the second round of the NCAA Tournament with an upset over No. 18 Tulsa in the first round.
How did you first get into coaching?
I had just finished my first semester of graduate school, and the women’s tennis coach at the University of Miami quit right before Christmas. They were in a bind, so they came to me and said, “Can you get us through the year and we’ll pay tuition,” which was a huge help because tuition was steep at Miami. I finished out the semester and we got to the quarters of NCAAs. To my surprise, I discovered that I really enjoyed it and decided to throw my hat into the search that summer of 1983. They decided to hire me, and a lot of it was because of the help of (John Hammill), whom I played for at Miami. I don’t think that without his help at the age of 23 that I would have gotten the job, but he supported it and they gave me the job and the rest is history.
You coached in the professional ranks for a few seasons, what is it about college tennis that brought you back?
Teaching. I had primarily three guys that I worked with on the pro tour. The rules change when (the players) pay your salary. Without a doubt what got me back into college tennis was the opportunity to teach.
How much has your former college coach at Miami, John Hammill, influenced your coaching style?
He is a great coach, and I sometimes think to myself that I can’t discern anymore what was him and what is me. In other words, if I think of an idea, I ask myself, what is the origin? Is this something that I came up with myself or is this from him? I can’t tell. What really set him apart as a tennis coach is that he was clearly primarily about life and secondarily about tennis. And that remains a foundational principle of what I try to do.
College tennis has clearly changed since you played, what do you think has been the biggest change?
Two things. No. 1 is technology, and No. 2 is the parity. When I played, we were at the tail end of wooden rackets and the standard-sized racket head. As far as parity goes, nowadays, anybody can beat you on any given day.
