HE’S BEEN WHERE THEY WANT TO GO
6/30/2020 4:14:00 PM | General, Men's Tennis
Van der Merwe Uses Pro Experience in Coaching Baylor Players
By Jerry Hill
Baylor Bear Insider
Izak van der Merwe has been where most of Baylor's tennis players would like to go.
A three-time All-American at Old Dominion, the South Africa native won a combined 35 titles in a nine-year pro career and had all-time-high rankings of No. 94 in doubles and 113th in the world in singles.
"Coaching comes naturally to Izak," Baylor head coach Brian Boland said of the 36-year-old van der Merwe, who has been the Bears' volunteer assistant coach for the last two years. "More than anything, he's been able to express some of the incredible experiences he's had at the next level, which I know all of our players are interested in playing professional tennis."
The fact that he has "been in their shoes" is the biggest reason why van der Merwe left his job as a financial analyst with Texas Instruments in Dallas two years ago to start a coaching career with a ground-level position at Baylor.
In much the same way he didn't want to be a teaching pro for recreational players, "and be a ball machine," van der Merwe said the corporate finance world wasn't a good fit for his skills and strengths.
"The experience I built up in college and the pros, you're not really using that if you're just feeding balls to recreational players," he said. "I came to Old Dominion as a 17-year-old and had to fight my way through college tennis and then into the pro circuit, so I can relate to the stress and the pressure those players are going through."
Enrolling at ODU in January 2002, van der Merwe quickly established himself as one of the Monarchs' top players. Inducted in the ODU Hall of Fame in 2014, he set school records for doubles victories (92-45) and combined singles and doubles wins (192-84) and is the only player in program history to reach the NCAA semifinals in singles and doubles.
As a senior in 2005, his run to the NCAA semifinals included wins over top-ranked Sam Warburg of Stanford, defending champion Benjamin Becker of Baylor and 11th-ranked Benjamin Kohlloeffel of UCLA, the ITA National Rookie of the Year. The year before, he teamed with Zoltan Csanadi to make the doubles semifinals.
Playing against Becker and 2005 NCAA champion Benedikt Dorsch, also of Baylor, "drove me to get better," van der Merwe said. "My goal was to get to the top of college, because I knew if I got to the top of college tennis, I would at least have a shot at the pros."
Turning pro in June 2005, van der Merwe had immediate success, winning three doubles titles and one in singles at a Futures tournament in Zimbabwe. His all-time-high singles ranking of 113th came in August 2011 after making the semifinals of back-to-back Challengers in Brazil.
"Some people grow up thinking, 'Man, I want to be No. 1 in the world,''' van der Merwe said. "I didn't ever put a number on it, but I think top 100 is always in the back of your mind as a benchmark. I just remember watching Wimbledon as a kid. Watching Pete Sampras play, I got inspired and said, 'I want to do that.'''
Graduating from ODU in 3 ½ years with a degree in finance, his mindset the first three years was that if pro tennis works out, it works out. "And if not, I'm going to go do something else," he said.
"I'd have a couple bad weeks and start thinking, 'Hey, is this the time when I have to go do something else?''' he said. "That never helped me as a player, with my development. What you really want do is say, 'Hey, I'm losing here, let me find some teachable moments and some lessons out of this and go get better.'''
It was actually a straight-set loss to Becker at a Challenger in Cremona, Italy, in May 2009 that helped him move forward with a significant mindset change.
"That's the time when I decided this is what I wanted to do. I've wanted to do this my whole life. I'm here, I'm doing it, so stop thinking about doing something else," he said.
2011 proved to be his career pinnacle, winning Challenger singles titles in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Charlottesville, Va., and four doubles titles. He also reached the main draw at Wimbledon with former Virginia All-America Treat Huey.
Van der Merwe lists playing for South Africa in 13 Davis Cup ties as one of his top accomplishments, including a straight-set victory with Raven Klaasen in 2012 over Canadians Daniel Nestor and Vasek Posposil. After most of his 2013 season was wiped out by foot surgery, he played in a handful of tournaments the next year before leaving for good when an MRI showed that he had "basically the knee of a 50-year-old."
"At that point, I was 30, and I had to decide if I wanted to do surgery and stay out of the game for another five or six months," he said. "I was ready to settle down a little more, because that nomadic lifestyle, traveling all around the world, can be very taxing."
Finishing up a master's in business administration at UT-Dallas, van der Merwe worked at Texas Instruments for three years before deciding to change paths again. That road took him to Waco to join Boland's staff at Baylor.
"I have recruited some great players in this program over the past couple of years," Boland said, "but I have never recruited anyone better than Izak van der Merwe. This guy has had an unbelievable impact on our program."
As a player, "you focus on yourself, you have blinders on," van der Merwe said. But, as a coach, "you're thinking deeper about the players. You're thinking about their mindsets, about their skill sets, about their hearts, where they need work."
"Coaching, I think, is more challenging," he said. "It's not that you don't know what to do or you don't know what to coach. The fundamentals are there, it's just how do we get the guys to really buy in? That's the cool thing about coaching is building those relationships, building the trust between you and the player. Those are the things we focus on, and that's been very rewarding for me."
After winning a Big 12 tournament title and advancing to the NCAA quarterfinals during van der Merwe's first season at Baylor, the Bears were 13-3 when the 2020 season ended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, all the pieces are in place for a run at a national championship.
"I think we have the tools to have a lot of success," van der Merwe said. "I'm glad that Baylor has been open to having players hang around for another year, because I think it's important for them to finish what they started as a Baylor Bear. I'm excited to get together again with this team and see what we can do with them."
Baylor Bear Insider
Izak van der Merwe has been where most of Baylor's tennis players would like to go.
A three-time All-American at Old Dominion, the South Africa native won a combined 35 titles in a nine-year pro career and had all-time-high rankings of No. 94 in doubles and 113th in the world in singles.
"Coaching comes naturally to Izak," Baylor head coach Brian Boland said of the 36-year-old van der Merwe, who has been the Bears' volunteer assistant coach for the last two years. "More than anything, he's been able to express some of the incredible experiences he's had at the next level, which I know all of our players are interested in playing professional tennis."
The fact that he has "been in their shoes" is the biggest reason why van der Merwe left his job as a financial analyst with Texas Instruments in Dallas two years ago to start a coaching career with a ground-level position at Baylor.
In much the same way he didn't want to be a teaching pro for recreational players, "and be a ball machine," van der Merwe said the corporate finance world wasn't a good fit for his skills and strengths.
"The experience I built up in college and the pros, you're not really using that if you're just feeding balls to recreational players," he said. "I came to Old Dominion as a 17-year-old and had to fight my way through college tennis and then into the pro circuit, so I can relate to the stress and the pressure those players are going through."
Enrolling at ODU in January 2002, van der Merwe quickly established himself as one of the Monarchs' top players. Inducted in the ODU Hall of Fame in 2014, he set school records for doubles victories (92-45) and combined singles and doubles wins (192-84) and is the only player in program history to reach the NCAA semifinals in singles and doubles.
As a senior in 2005, his run to the NCAA semifinals included wins over top-ranked Sam Warburg of Stanford, defending champion Benjamin Becker of Baylor and 11th-ranked Benjamin Kohlloeffel of UCLA, the ITA National Rookie of the Year. The year before, he teamed with Zoltan Csanadi to make the doubles semifinals.
Playing against Becker and 2005 NCAA champion Benedikt Dorsch, also of Baylor, "drove me to get better," van der Merwe said. "My goal was to get to the top of college, because I knew if I got to the top of college tennis, I would at least have a shot at the pros."
Turning pro in June 2005, van der Merwe had immediate success, winning three doubles titles and one in singles at a Futures tournament in Zimbabwe. His all-time-high singles ranking of 113th came in August 2011 after making the semifinals of back-to-back Challengers in Brazil.
"Some people grow up thinking, 'Man, I want to be No. 1 in the world,''' van der Merwe said. "I didn't ever put a number on it, but I think top 100 is always in the back of your mind as a benchmark. I just remember watching Wimbledon as a kid. Watching Pete Sampras play, I got inspired and said, 'I want to do that.'''
Graduating from ODU in 3 ½ years with a degree in finance, his mindset the first three years was that if pro tennis works out, it works out. "And if not, I'm going to go do something else," he said.
"I'd have a couple bad weeks and start thinking, 'Hey, is this the time when I have to go do something else?''' he said. "That never helped me as a player, with my development. What you really want do is say, 'Hey, I'm losing here, let me find some teachable moments and some lessons out of this and go get better.'''
It was actually a straight-set loss to Becker at a Challenger in Cremona, Italy, in May 2009 that helped him move forward with a significant mindset change.
"That's the time when I decided this is what I wanted to do. I've wanted to do this my whole life. I'm here, I'm doing it, so stop thinking about doing something else," he said.
2011 proved to be his career pinnacle, winning Challenger singles titles in Johannesburg, South Africa, and Charlottesville, Va., and four doubles titles. He also reached the main draw at Wimbledon with former Virginia All-America Treat Huey.
Van der Merwe lists playing for South Africa in 13 Davis Cup ties as one of his top accomplishments, including a straight-set victory with Raven Klaasen in 2012 over Canadians Daniel Nestor and Vasek Posposil. After most of his 2013 season was wiped out by foot surgery, he played in a handful of tournaments the next year before leaving for good when an MRI showed that he had "basically the knee of a 50-year-old."
"At that point, I was 30, and I had to decide if I wanted to do surgery and stay out of the game for another five or six months," he said. "I was ready to settle down a little more, because that nomadic lifestyle, traveling all around the world, can be very taxing."
Finishing up a master's in business administration at UT-Dallas, van der Merwe worked at Texas Instruments for three years before deciding to change paths again. That road took him to Waco to join Boland's staff at Baylor.
"I have recruited some great players in this program over the past couple of years," Boland said, "but I have never recruited anyone better than Izak van der Merwe. This guy has had an unbelievable impact on our program."
As a player, "you focus on yourself, you have blinders on," van der Merwe said. But, as a coach, "you're thinking deeper about the players. You're thinking about their mindsets, about their skill sets, about their hearts, where they need work."
"Coaching, I think, is more challenging," he said. "It's not that you don't know what to do or you don't know what to coach. The fundamentals are there, it's just how do we get the guys to really buy in? That's the cool thing about coaching is building those relationships, building the trust between you and the player. Those are the things we focus on, and that's been very rewarding for me."
After winning a Big 12 tournament title and advancing to the NCAA quarterfinals during van der Merwe's first season at Baylor, the Bears were 13-3 when the 2020 season ended due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, all the pieces are in place for a run at a national championship.
"I think we have the tools to have a lot of success," van der Merwe said. "I'm glad that Baylor has been open to having players hang around for another year, because I think it's important for them to finish what they started as a Baylor Bear. I'm excited to get together again with this team and see what we can do with them."
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