Leonard Stakhovsky: former ATP professional and tennis coach in Prague
I played on the ATP Tour and in NCAA Division I. Now I coach competitive juniors and adults in Prague - find the fault, fix it, make it hold up in a match.
Leonard Stakhovsky leads Stakhovsky Tennis in Prague. Leonard is a tennis coach and former ATP player, while his older brother Sergiy Stakhovsky is a different person and former ATP No. 31; all coaching programs and tennis camps on this site are led by Leonard.
I am a former ATP professional and NCAA Division I, All-Big Ten player, and I have spent more than 25 years around this game. I coach in Prague, and I coach every session myself - in English, Czech or Ukrainian - so you are never passed off to junior staff. The method is written down and repeatable, and it has done real things for real players: a serve 50% faster, a first tournament win.
Verified playing background
Professional tennis career
Career
Former ATP Professional
College
NCAA Division I
All-Big Ten
First Team
Experience
25+ years in tennis
All credentials are verified against official sources. Profile links will be added as verified and linked.
Coaching philosophy
How Leonard coaches
I start with a diagnosis, never a package. I watch you play and find the one thing - a technical fault, a tactical habit, a bad decision under pressure - that is bleeding you the most points, and I fix that first. Chasing ten small things at once is how most people waste years.
From the first assessment we have a baseline, and everything after that is measured against it. I write the plan down, I explain it to you and your parents to your face, and I change it when your priorities change. Nothing about it is a secret.
I assess before I prescribe. No plan until I have seen you hit.
A short list of priorities you can actually hold in your head, not a full curriculum
The same coach every week. Me. No hand-offs.
Progress measured against your baseline, not guessed at
The plan comes to you in writing, so we both know what we are working on
Why principal-led
Why direct access to a former ATP pro matters
Most Prague academies run on volume. You send an enquiry, you get handed to whichever instructor has a slot open, and the person who assessed you is almost never the person you see next week. The name, the method, sometimes even the price - all of it stays vague until you have signed. I built this to work the other way. I keep the roster at ten players, with just two ITF-track spots, precisely so I can take every session myself, from your first assessment through every correction after it. No junior staff, no rotating faces, nobody in between you and the person answerable for whether you improve.
You do not have to take my playing record on trust - you can check it. I played on the ATP Tour and in NCAA Division I as an All-Big Ten athlete, and I am registered with the Czech Tennis Federation under Player ID 1070535, which anyone can look up. That background is the thing that shortens your learning curve. Years of watching points at that level means I can see a rally and tell you the one thing costing you, rather than drilling generic strokes and hoping something sticks. I coach in English, Czech and Ukrainian, so expats and international players are in their own language from the first hour.
I keep the whole thing transparent. We open with a 90-minute on-court assessment that gives us a measurable baseline; you leave with a written plan and a short list of priorities, and from then on we measure against that baseline instead of guessing. The written method makes the work repeatable. Client-reported results include a serve up 50%, a forehand about 20% faster and a first tournament win. The practice also has a 5.0 Google rating across twelve reviews. This suits players who want a real professional's eye and a clear plan rather than a membership number at a big academy. If what you want is casual social hitting, or someone to feed you balls with no reason behind each one, I am honestly not your coach.
Junior development approach
With juniors I tie technique to match patterns, tournament prep and honest, regular conversations with parents. The plan is built around wherever the player is actually trying to go - a national ranking, better UTR, ITF results, or a route into college tennis in the States.
Junior development programAdult coaching approach
With adults I go straight at whatever is holding your match game back - the specific technical or tactical fault, not a stroke-of-the-week lesson plan. Sessions follow what the assessment turned up and a plan built to give you improvement you can actually see.
Adult coachingLanguages
I coach in English, Czech and Ukrainian. Pick whichever one you think best in, and we stay in it.
Prague training locations
We train on private courts in Prague. I confirm the exact court once you have booked, working around what is free and what suits you.
Playing and coaching credentials
- Professional
- Career-high ATP No. 840 in singles, No. 814 in doubles (ATP profile)
- College - Penn State
- Unanimous First-Team All-Big Ten (2013-14); three-time Big Ten Player of the Week; NCAA Singles & Doubles Championships qualifier (Penn State Athletics)
- College - Oklahoma
- NCAA Division I, University of Oklahoma (transferred to Penn State)
- Registration
- Czech Tennis Federation, Player ID 1070535 (publicly verifiable)
- Coaching languages
- English, Czech, and Ukrainian
- Role
- Founder & Principal Coach, Stakhovsky Tennis
Every credential above links to an independent, verifiable source.
Train directly with Leonard
Everyone starts the same way: a 90-minute on-court assessment with me, not an assigned instructor. You walk off with a straight read on your game and a written plan. I only keep ten places, so there is not always one open.
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