Teaching Professional
Joao Riquelme Yanez
Joao Riquelme Yañez grew up in Villa Alemana, Chile where he started playing tennis at the age of 8. His brother, Reinaldo, surprised him with a tennis racquet and he instantly fell in love with the sport, starting to play in his back yard with his dad.
During his junior career, Joao was top 3 in Chile in all age divisions from 14’s to 18’s, ranked #1 in Chile for U14 and ranked #15 in South America in U16. He turned pro at age 17, making him one of the youngest tennis professionals in Chile and had a ranking of #1400 in the world.
Joao went on to attend college at the University of Texas San Antonio for two years where he led his team to win the C-USA Conference Tittle for the first time in history, qualifying for the NCAA national team championship and reaching the all-time best team ranking for his school (#50). After his sophomore year, he returned to Chile to play tennis for the Universidad Andres Bello where he obtained a bachelor’s degree in Physical Education. In 2018, his team won the Chile National Championship, where he played #2, going undefeated in both singles and doubles.
Joao has been teaching tennis for over 8 years in Chile, US and Switzerland, in this last, he worked as an assistant coach at Pro Tennis in the city of Bern. He started his coaching career in Chile in 2013 as assistant coach at the Javiera Carrera’s Club in Chile. In 2015-2016 he worked as an assistant coach for Euro Spin Tennis, in San Antonio, Texas. After coming back to Chile, he founded his own academy, acting as academy director. He was also the tennis director of Club 7 Pinos where he worked for 3 years before deciding to come back to US. He currently lives in Tulsa, OK. He is the son of Reinaldo Riquelme and Marisol Yañez.He has two brothers, Reinaldo and Angelo, and two sisters, Amanda and Nataly.
“Tennis is my passion. I want to teach players that if you put your mind into it, with passion, hard work and discipline you can achieve anything you propose not only in this sport but in life, and to always dream big.” – Joao Riquelme
Hourly rate: $70