Serve And Volley Travel
Aged 13, Paul Bonnington was in the top 10 tennis players in the country for his age group, tipped for a stellar future in the game. By 15, he was coaching juniors and adults at Meldreth Tennis Club and competing in national events.
Faced with a life-defining decision - go pro or carve out an academic career - he chose academia, heading to arguably the world’s finest sports university, Loughborough, alongside elite athletes Paula Radcliffe and Gary Lough (Mo Farah’s coach). But he always knew he’d return to tennis.
That ‘return’ happened when Cambridgeshire Lawn Tennis Association appointed Paul as Community Tennis Coach at Comberton Village College. Prior to that he’d worked in the Sports Division of the UK’s leading educational travel provider, taking young people around the globe to play international fixtures and receive professional coaching.
After 18 months teaching at various schools, Paul took on his current role as Head Coach at Haslingfield Lawn Tennis Club. Under his inspiring leadership, membership has swelled to 320 players (aged 3 to 80), with former British Number 2 player Danny Sapsford a regular visitor.
Not one to rest on his laurels, Paul’s just launched an exciting new business, Serve And Volley Travel, which will take children and adults to some of the world’s finest destinations for top-level tennis coaching. Since 2017, Paul has been running tours to Biograd na Moru, on Croatia’s stunning Dalmation coast, and Serve and Volley will expand the operation to luxurious resorts, Aphrodite Hills in Cyprus, and Forte Village, Sardinia, which have elite
training academies.
Paul’s inaugural tours launch Spring 2020, with participants promised exceptional coaching in small groups. Serve and Volley is the culmination of an extraordinary tennis career which began when Paul picked up a racquet, aged six, and seems the perfect match for this skilled, passionate sportsman, who, to this day, describes the joy of coaching as ‘tremendously life changing’. The sky’s the limit!
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