RIP Mike DePalmer Jr

[atatu]

Just saw this, very sad and it's sobering when someone who is relatively young passes away. He was great player and coach.

Mike DePalmer Jr., Former Pro & Boris Becker Coach, 1961-2021 - Obituary | ATP Tour | Tennis

Mike DePalmer Jr, who worked with a number of future ATP/WTA Tour stars at the IMG Academy (formerly named the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy) and was a touring coach with Boris Becker for six years, passed away on Saturday due to stage 4 cancer aged 59.

www.atptour.com

 

[Larry Duff]

That's very sad, respect

 

[NicoMK]

Ouch, it hurts. One more who got caught by cancer... and you're never old enough to die from cancer. I remember him as Boris's coach. Very sad. RIP Mike DePalmer.

 

[am1899]

Sad news.

 

[Shiner]

We were fortunate enough to have Mike at our club, TTCA, in Knoxville for the last 2+ years. He took over our Saturday morning clinic and almost none of us knew who he was! Most of us are 3.5/4.0 players. So here comes this new pro, leading our clinic, and the balls are coming at us SOOO much faster than we were used to!!! And he didn't let up. He took us to the next level, helping all of us improve our games... Forehand, Backhand, Volley, Overhead, Serve, Thought Process, Singles and Doubles Strategy, AND... he was awesome to be around!

He also taught my kids (and all of the other kids) at camps and clinics for 2 seasons. One of my boys thrived when he was taught by Mike because Mike always pushed him! I'm sure he touched a lot of people's lives before I got to know him, and he definitely had a huge impact on all of us over the last 2+ years. Yesterday morning was a very sad time for all of us.

 

[Moose Malloy]

Very sad, Mike Sr died last year(he was a great collegiate tennis coach)

Jimmy Arias told a nice story about Mike Jr. yesterday during Citi Open (they go way back to time at Nick B's). Said that his brother was struggling to improve to get to a level good enough to get a scholarship and Mike was like "I will drill with you every day for x amount of hours and you will get there." Jimmy said his brother got the scholarship, pretty much due to Mike's generosity.

When I first joined this board in 2005 his name came up a number of times as potential coaches for many of the young talents of the time. I'm sure he could have still been an elite coach after his time with Boris, maybe he was just tired of the travel.

 

[NicoMK]

We were fortunate enough to have Mike at our club, TTCA, in Knoxville for the last 2+ years. He took over our Saturday morning clinic and almost none of us knew who he was! Most of us are 3.5/4.0 players. So here comes this new pro, leading our clinic, and the balls are coming at us SOOO much faster than we were used to!!! And he didn't let up. He took us to the next level, helping all of us improve our games... Forehand, Backhand, Volley, Overhead, Serve, Thought Process, Singles and Doubles Strategy, AND... he was awesome to be around!

He also taught my kids (and all of the other kids) at camps and clinics for 2 seasons. One of my boys thrived when he was taught by Mike because Mike always pushed him! I'm sure he touched a lot of people's lives before I got to know him, and he definitely had a huge impact on all of us over the last 2+ years. Yesterday morning was a very sad time for all of us.

Very nice story. Thanks for sharing it.

 

[Shiner]

I found some great pics of Mike. Here's one of them.