Former ATP player Ondruska takes over as Van Der Meer tennis director

Marcos Ondruska understands what it takes to succeed at Van Der Meer TennisUniversity better than most. That's no surprise, seeing as how the 39-year-old spent the latter half of his 20s training at the Hilton Head Island tennis complex while playing out his final years touring.

So it was a no-brainer for the center's founders, Dennis and Pat Van der Meer, to bring back a familiar face in Ondruska when their tennis director position became available.

"I was pretty excited about, because I have a history of being at Van Der Meer and being on the island," Ondruska said. "I know what I'm getting myself into."

The job generated quite a bit of interest from applicants, but it was Ondruska who received one of the first phone calls from Pat Van der Meer, even though he hadn't applied.

"I've known Pat for a long time," Ondruska recalled. "We've always had open lines of communication. We just started talking."

It didn't take long after that for the former tennis star to accept Van Der Meer's offer. He recently made his return to the island -- where he was based from as early as 1991 -- and has been in his newfound job for about six weeks.

"I've loved it," he said. "It's been great. There's just been a lot of things to put together to get things running cleanly."

The native of Pretoria, South Africa, has big expectations for the future of Van Der Meer, starting with its success at the highest levels. He said he hopes to have at least two boys and two girls ranked in the top 100 at all times.

"I want to have Van Der Meer be a place where we can actually create and generate some outstanding world-class tennis," he said.

Success on the court isn't his only vision, though. He wants to be able to teach his students about achievements away from the net for when they no longer need his instruction.

"I'm in the process of putting together a program that's not totally based on hitting balls," he explained. "(I want to) teach students about the sport of tennis and also success.

"So whether they make it in tennis or not, they'll actually have a foundation for how to be successful when they go to college. ... That's my goal."

Ondruska certainly has the qualifications to teach the game. He was the top-ranked junior in both boys 16s and 18s in South Africa, played in the Junior Davis Cup against the United States in Johannesburg and won his first ATP Challenger at just 16 years old in Durban.

He began traveling internationally at the same age, playing in ITF and ATP tournaments while competing on South Africa's Davis Cup team for a decade. He also reached three ATP Tour finals in singles and captured four doubles titles.

The former star -- who peaked at No. 27 in the world in ATP singles in 1993 -- also represented South Africa in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, where he earned a first-round victory over Goran Ivanisevic. He began training at Van Der Meer the following year up until his final campaign in 2001.

Little did he know he would return as the tennis academy's director just more than a decade later.

"When you're in your early- to mid-20s, you don't know what you're going to do when you're 40 years old," he said with a laugh.

This story was originally published June 13, 2012 at 12:47 AM with the headline "Former ATP player Ondruska takes over as Van Der Meer tennis director."