“This hire is extremely exciting news for the progress of our national training programs,” said Louis Borfiga, vice-president high performance athlete development for Tennis Canada. “Simon’s coaching experience will be instrumental in helping our athletes develop and reach their full potential. His hiring is yet another step taken to ensure that Canada becomes a leading tennis nation.”

Bartram, a fully certified Level 3 coach and Club Pro 2, has been the tennis director at The Toronto Lawn Tennis Club since 1990 and the head coach of Ontario’s national training centre under 12 and under 14 programs since 2005. Bartram is also a former recipient of the Tennis Canada Coaching Excellence Award for his work with Daniel Nestor and other members of the Sunshine Cup winning team. He has coached Vanessa Webb, a former Top 100 player on the Sony Ericsson WTA Tour and Patricia Hy-Boulais, a former Top 50 player on the WTA Tour.

Bartram’s role as national coach will be to assist in the development of top-level coaches and high performance players in Canada. He will provide on and off court coaching support to the top U12 and U14 athletes and their personal coaches, as well as leadership and coaching support to top transition and professional players. Bartram will retain his position at the Toronto Lawn Tennis Club while spending one and a half days a week working at the national training centre in Toronto. He will also be responsible for leading the high performance coaching certification program under Ari Novick, Tennis Canada’s director of coaching development.

“I am so passionate about both The Toronto Lawn Tennis Club and the chance to help develop world champions,“ said Bartram. “I feel very grateful that I will be able to fulfill both of these responsibilities and I am really looking forward to being part of this exciting time for Canadian tennis.”

Hatem McDadi, vice-president of tennis development for Tennis Canada, is thrilled to have Bartram onboard. “Having Simon involved with these Tennis Canada programs will help all parties,“ said McDadi. “Tennis Canada acquires a first-rate high performance coach and leader to oversee two key strategic areas and The Toronto Lawn Tennis Club ensures that they are on the cutting edge of coach education and high performance coaching.”

The creation of the national training centre in Montreal and the regrouping centre in Toronto was made possible by a landmark $1 million annual investment increase for high performance development in Canada. The milestone decision by the Tennis Canada Board of Directors followed the recruiting of world renowned tennis leaders Louis Borfiga and Bob Brett in 2006. Borfiga joined Tennis Canada in August 2006 from the French Tennis Federation where he led their largest national training centre. The ultimate goal is to produce world champions by guiding top juniors in making the transition to the professional game.