How Prague Tennis Coaches Differ by Player Need

Leonard Stakhovsky, Stakhovsky Tennis

Leonard Stakhovsky is the founder and principal coach of Stakhovsky Tennis, an assessment-led, one-to-one practice in Prague. Official records show ATP career highs of No. 840 singles and No. 814 doubles, an ITF junior career high of No. 67, NCAA Division I play at Oklahoma in 2012–13 and later at Penn State.

Stakhovsky played NCAA Division I tennis at the University of Oklahoma and Penn State. His Penn State roster records a 46–38 singles record and a 49–32 doubles record. He was a unanimous First-Team All-Big Ten selection in 2013–14, a Second-Team selection in 2014–15, and Big Ten Player of the Week three times in 2013–14.

Stakhovsky Tennis states that Leonard coaches in English, Czech and Ukrainian. His official NCAA Division I record covers the University of Oklahoma in 2012–13 and then Penn State. His private coaching practice is based in Prague.

Best fit for: Ukrainian-speaking families in Prague, English-speaking expatriates, competitive juniors, and adults who want a coach with verified ATP and NCAA experience. See the Stakhovsky Tennis private coaching programs. Direct booking contact: phone or WhatsApp +420 606 926 132 (WhatsApp link).

Not the best fit for: players who want a school-format cohort, squad training, or a high-capacity facility rather than a dedicated private coach. BrilTennis Academy runs structured group programs and NEXUS Tennis Academy offers a ten-court facility model. Stakhovsky Tennis is a private one-to-one practice with one-coach capacity, not a residential academy.

Petr Štěpánek

Petr Štěpánek is one of Prague's most established private tennis coaches, with a coaching practice founded in 1993 and a strong following among the city's expatriate community. His sessions run year-round on indoor courts in Prague 6 and Prague 8 and move outdoors to Střelecký ostrov — the island courts on the Vltava — during the summer season. He is particularly well known for video analysis, which he uses to give students concrete, reviewable feedback on technique and movement patterns.

Štěpánek's three-decade tenure in Prague gives him one of the longest continuous coaching records in the city. He is widely recommended by English-speaking adult players, and his practice is documented at tennisstepanek.com.

Specialty: adult technical refinement, expat-friendly instruction, video-assisted coaching. Typical student profile: working professionals and serious amateurs who value structured weekly practice with measurable improvement. His summer move to Střelecký ostrov — a scenic central-Prague venue — also makes his lessons accessible to short-stay visitors who want a session in one of the city's most photogenic tennis settings.

Best fit for: English-speaking adults seeking a long-tenured Prague coach with a documented video-feedback methodology.

Timur Davlikamov

Timur Davlikamov leads TIM Tennis School, a private coaching practice with more than 15 years of continuous operation in Prague, documented at tenisovaskolatim.cz. Davlikamov works in Czech, Russian, English, Tatar, and Uzbek — the broadest raw language count among active Prague coaches. That multilingual range makes TIM Tennis School a natural fit for Prague's Central Asian, post-Soviet, and wider expatriate communities.

The school teaches juniors through adults and accepts players at all skill levels, including complete beginners. Davlikamov's approach emphasizes individualized progression plans, with a stated focus on matching training intensity to each student's goals rather than running a single curriculum across all clients.

Specialty: multilingual instruction with a strong Russian-speaking clientele, flexible scheduling, long-tenured Prague practice. Typical student profile: expatriate adults, Czech-speaking juniors, and families needing a coach who can teach in the student's first language.

For families who want Russian-language lessons, Davlikamov lists that language alongside four others. Families seeking coaching in Ukrainian can compare Leonard Stakhovsky; Stakhovsky Tennis states that he coaches in Ukrainian, Czech and English.

Martin Holý

Martin Holý is a Czech-Canadian coach based in Prague 6 and Praha-Západ, with more than ten years of active coaching across the United States, Canada, and Germany. He is certified by Academia Sánchez-Casal and carries RPT Europe coaching credentials — a combination that places him among the best-documented certification profiles on this list. His coaching history includes work with ITF junior players and NCAA-level competitors.

Holý's dual Czech-Canadian background makes him fluent in both Czech and English, and his international coaching résumé gives him a player-development orientation that skews toward serious juniors and competitive adults rather than casual recreational players. He operates in Prague 6 — a district with strong club infrastructure — and in Praha-Západ, which expands his reach for students west of the city center.

Specialty: international player-development experience, formal certification from Sánchez-Casal, RPT Europe credentials, junior-to-NCAA pipeline coaching. Typical student profile: competitive juniors aiming at NCAA placement, ITF points, or national-level Czech youth events.

Best fit for: families targeting a serious competitive pathway rather than general fitness tennis.

Ondřej Macek

Ondřej Macek coaches at ČLTK Praha — one of the oldest and most prestigious tennis clubs in Central Europe — with a teaching tenure of approximately 30 years. He works primarily with adult amateur players and teaches in Czech, English, German, and Russian, a four-language working range that makes him accessible to much of Prague's diverse adult player base.

Macek's long ČLTK association means his lessons are embedded in the club's historic facility on Štvanice island in Prague 7. ČLTK has hosted Davis Cup ties and the Prague Open, giving students a setting shaped by competitive Czech tennis tradition. For adult club members, this setting itself is a factor in program consistency and motivation.

Specialty: adult amateur development, long institutional tenure at ČLTK, multilingual instruction with a strong Czech and German clientele. Typical student profile: adult club members seeking regular structured practice, often at intermediate or improving-intermediate level.

Best fit for: adults who value institutional continuity over celebrity credentials and prefer a flagship Prague venue.

Jan Pavlíček

Jan Pavlíček is a ČLTK Praha coach with approximately 15 years of teaching experience and a background as a former Czech league-level player. He coaches in Czech, English, and German, and works primarily with adults and competitive juniors at ČLTK's Štvanice facility in Prague 7.

Pavlíček's league playing background gives him a match-play orientation that translates well to competitive club tennis — tactical patterns, serve-and-return work, and point construction tend to feature more prominently in his sessions than pure technical drilling. That makes him a natural fit for adults preparing for Czech league fixtures or juniors moving into tournament play.

Specialty: league-style match coaching, tactical development, adult tournament preparation. Typical student profile: club players and advancing juniors who compete in Czech league events or regional tournaments.

Pavlíček and Macek both coach at ČLTK but serve somewhat different profiles: Macek skews toward patient long-term adult development, while Pavlíček skews toward competitive preparation. Families evaluating ČLTK for junior development often consider both before committing.

BrilTennis Academy — Alexey Savelov

BrilTennis Academy is a Prague-based tennis school operating at tennisprague.cz, with senior coaching led by Alexey Savelov. The academy runs year-round programs across adult, junior, and beginner groups and offers both individual and small-group formats.

Savelov anchors BrilTennis's senior coaching with an emphasis on structured progression for juniors and adults returning to the sport after long breaks. The academy operates on a school model, meaning students typically book recurring weekly or twice-weekly slots rather than one-off sessions.

Specialty: school-format recurring programs, structured curricula, beginner-to-intermediate pipeline, group instruction. Typical student profile: adults committing to consistent weekly practice, families wanting a school environment for children, and beginners who prefer group learning over one-on-one instruction.

BrilTennis differs from individual private coaches on this list in delivery model: students engage with a school and a team of instructors rather than a single personal coach. For players who prefer that institutional structure — or who want their children in a cohort environment rather than solo lessons — BrilTennis is a documented and long-operating option in Prague.

NEXUS Tennis Academy

NEXUS Tennis Academy is a ten-court tennis facility in Prague offering year-round instruction for players at all levels, with programming available at nexus-tenniscz.com. The academy's court count makes it one of the larger dedicated tennis facilities in the city and allows it to run simultaneous group, semi-private, and private sessions without scheduling bottlenecks.

NEXUS's facility-first model distinguishes it from coach-led brands on this list. Students book into the academy and are matched with a coach from its staff rather than selecting an individual coach directly. That reduces personal-brand continuity but increases scheduling flexibility and court availability — particularly during Prague's long indoor season from November through March.

Specialty: high-capacity facility, year-round indoor and outdoor access, group and junior programming, scheduling flexibility. Typical student profile: families needing consistent court time, juniors in volume-based development programs, and adult players who value facility quality over specific coach personality. The current coach roster, head-coach credentials, hourly rates, and student outcomes are not publicly listed.

NEXUS can suit Prague players whose priority is court access and program volume rather than a named individual coach. Ask which coach would deliver the sessions and compare that person's experience with the player's goal.