An Exclusive Tennis Academy Moves to Palmer Ranch

Eagleton/Ferreira Tennis Academy offers intense, year-round training

John Eagleton and Ellis Ferreira seek to prepare their players for the highest levels of competition. The two coaches only accept 15 players at a time into their exclusive tennis academy. Players train 7 hours a day for a year.

Coaches Eagleton and Ferreira are disciples of the European style of play. They train their players on clay courts and teach the rotational system, which helps develop greater strength and power behind each ball. Tennis’ most successful players – Nadal, Djokovic, Federer – use this system. Coaches Eagleton and Ferreira emulate European techniques because of the success of such players. They lament the fact that the US has lost so much ground in tennis during the last decade and they attribute that to the US’s aversion to clay courts. They took great care to provide evidence for this decline when I visited them and we made a graph based on the ATP data over time.

Decline in Americans in Top 100 ATP

Shocking, isn’t it?

Eagleton and Ferreira’s ultimate goal is to get more US players back into the top 100 and they are doing that through the use of clay courts and the rotational system. Eagleton/Ferreira Tennis Academy also offers full boarding. Educational programs are offered by Emerson Preparatory School.

Coaches Eagleton and Ferreira are immigrants themselves, having come from South Africa to train and teach in the United States. This makes them uniquely fitted to helping foreign athletes who want to train in the US.

Mr. Eagleton came to the US a few years before Mr. Ferreira and began playing at the University of Miami. Already ranked the #3 junior in the world before he came to the States, Mr. Eagleton became a 4-time all-American while at the U. Afterwards he played for 8 years in the ATP and went on to coach 20 professional players.

Mr. Ferreira was in the top 5 in South Africa before he came to the University of Alabama on a tennis scholarship. He turned all-American while at Alabama and went on to have a distinguished professional career, reaching number one ranking in 2000. That year he won the Australian Open and was a finalist in the US Open, and he was 30! He was world champion in 2001.

John Eagleton & Ellis Ferreira

For more information on the Eagleton/Ferreira Academy, visit their website. To learn more about the P-1 Visa and its requirements visit our P1 Visa Website.

P Visas for Athletes and F Visas for Students

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One of our biggest sources of clients at Jaensch Immigration Law Firm is foreign athletes, their relatives and foreign coaches.  Many athletes and coaches are lured to this area because of the top-notch local sports academies.  There are several visas for athletes and coaches and one is called the P1 Visa, which we specialize in.  To read more check out our website dedicated to Sports Visas.

Another popular option for people who move to Sarasota is to go back to school.  There are a lot of clients of every age who, to qualify for a visa, decide to go back to school.  They don’t have to take a full course load, just a few classes a week. These people would usually want to apply for an F visa.

If you are wondering how to live more permanently in the Sarasota area, visit our website: VisaAmerica.com.

Team USA Immigrants: Getting Citizenship was Toughest Part of Going to Olympics

Source: Flickr

As seen in the National Journal, more than 40 members of the US Olympic Team are foreign-born. For them the most difficult part of getting to the Olympics was becoming a US citizen. Read about some of these amazing athletes’ stories via the link provided.

Immigration Sarasota welcomes comments on sports immigration below.