My friend Ivan Ronaldson, who died of a heart attack at the age of 51, was an inspiring real tennis professional. He accompanied dozens of future stars in clubs, including Hampton Court, Fontainebleau, France and PaFed Hall in Essex. Prior to his coaching career, Ivan was a brilliant junior player who won a series of the national age group titles.
Real tennis is the precursor of Lawn Tennis; It was played from the medieval times and enjoyed Henry VIII. The game has not changed much today, with players who hit balls with hand -stitched balls with asymmetrical wooden rackets over a hanging net and of the walls of the field.
Born in Melbourne, Australia, Ivan was the eldest son of the British parents, Lesley (no Lee) and Chris Ronaldson, real tennis professionals and later world champions. They returned to the UK in 1979 and after a period in Throne, Scotland, the professionals of the Royal Tennis Court, Hampton Court.
After Papplewick Prep School in Ascot, Berkshire, Ivan boarded the Canford School in Dorset, where his uncle Steve was the real tennis professional of the school. He helped his cousin to develop the powerful, strategic game that became the characteristic of the young person: Ivan won three times the British Onder-12S, the Onder-14s twice and the under 16s twice.
As a teenager, Ivan also helped his parents to run the club, wipe the court, book lessons and social games and imbibe their philosophy that this was a calling, not just a job. With the court usually booked 16 hours a day, Ivan got used to dealing with people from all backgrounds: on-site security staff, captains of the industry, the widows of the generals in the Grace-and-Favour apartments, and the young Prince Edward, who regularly played in Hampton, in 1993, Sophie.
After school, Ivan spent a year from 1992 studying economics and business accounting at Reading University, before opting for a real tennis career. He spent two years as a professional player of the Holyport Club in Berkshire (1993-95) before he became a learning procedure in Fontainebleau (1995-98) and Hampton Court (1998-2002).
For four years construction of the new Pested Hall Club (2002-05), he spotted talent on various gifted young people, including the future world champion Ladies Claire Fahey. He enjoyed similar success in the US at the Prince’s Court (2005-22) and then the Westwood Country Club, both in Virginia. In 2019 he coached the American junior side to their first from Alen Cup victory on their British counterparts for 25 years.
A larger than lifelong character with a razor -sharp brain and gift for friendship, Ivan has always got the maximum pleasure from every situation. He enjoyed chess matches and played the devil’s lawyer in political debate with friends and family.
In 2005 he married Elf Woodall, an employee of the US government. She survives, just like their two children, Liliana and Bruce, his parents and two brothers, Ben and Luke.
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