Pretoria - ATP touring coach and ex-professional player Jeff Coetzee will be joining Neville Godwin - as a part-time high performance consultant to Tennis South Africa (TSA).
Coetzee will continue to coach on the ATP Pro Tour, but will provide his expertise to TSA whenever he is back in South Africa.
Western Cape-based Coetzee is presently coaching the Colombian doubles team of Juan Sebastian Cabal and Robert Farah, as well as Julio Paralta (Chile) and Santiago Gonzalez (Mexico).
Coetzee, in his 16 years as a playing professional, reached a career high ranking of 12 in doubles and won six of the 16 ATP finals he contested in.
He also represented South Africa in the Davis Cup for almost a decade - playing in 17 ties, with a win/loss record of 13-5.
Earlier this year, Coetzee was the consultant coach to the SA Davis Cup team that beat Denmark 3-1, to gain promotion to Euro/Africa Group 1.
"I am delighted to be part of this initiative with Tennis South Africa. The game and South African tennis has been very good to me over the years, so it is with great pleasure through this partnership to give back some of my expertise," said Coetzee.
"The new high performance initiatives introduced by TSA are long overdue, and I now have increased confidence that the future generation of tennis players in South Africa have a real chance of developing to their full potential."
Together with Godwin, Coetzee will be to work with the new junior national age group squads that were unveiled by TSA in October of this year. He will also help to mentor and develop the next generation of South African coaches.
Richard Glover, CEO of TSA concluded: "Jeff is a world class coach, operating at the highest levels of international tennis. Our best junior players and emerging coaches will benefit hugely from his input and guidance. We are delighted he has agreed to help us further strengthen our new high performance programme."