Endeavour Hills tennis star Andrew Coelho is following his dreams overseas as his family watches from afar.By Marc McGowan
THE professional tennis tour may offer fortune and fame, but the lure of mum’s cooking still remains strong.
Endeavour Hills resident Luisa Coelho – mother of up-and-coming tennis star Andrew Coelho – is forced to follow her son’s life through technology for much of the year as he chases his dreams.
If Luisa is not on the phone to Coelho, she is surfing the web to find his results and sometimes to identify what country he is in on that particular week.
Over the past 12 months, Australian Institute of Sport scholarship-holder Coelho, 20, has competed in such diverse nations as the United States, India, Korea, New Zealand, Portugal, France, Uzbekistan, Ireland, Norway and Spain.
On top of that, his long-time girlfriend Michaela Johansson – also a promising professional tennis player – is Swedish.
Coelho, who is of Portuguese heritage, is based in London for numerous months every year, but despite missing her talented son greatly, Luisa is full of support.
“I’m pretty proud that he’s trying to make it; it’s been his dream since he was little to play tennis,” she said.
“We’re in regular contact, but it’s pretty tough – we miss him a lot.
“He either rings or we (text) message each other most days and he keeps in contact with his sisters by email and Facebook.”
Even on the rare occasion Coelho does return to Endeavour Hills, he is still very much in tennis mode.
“When he’s home, he’s not really home,” Luisa said.
“We usually all get together, but he’s still training every day and leaves pretty early in the morning and then comes back for dinner.”
Luisa revealed it was her cooking that Coelho missed most when he was globetrotting.
Coelho has three sisters – Kathy, 27, Tanya, 25, and Melanie, 22 – and they all dabbled in tennis in their youth.
Kathy enjoyed the most success of the trio in the sport, being selected in a local development squad and playing at pennant level with former professional Lisa D’Amelio.
Among Coelho’s career highlights are appearances in the doubles draw of the Australian Open for the past three years – reaching the second round in 2006.
But his first-round match-up with world number-one doubles pairing Mike and Bob Bryan on centre court at Melbourne Park last year provided the biggest thrill.
“We’d love to see him make the main draw in singles at the Australian Open, but seeing him play on centre court against the Bryan brothers was very exciting,” Luisa said.
“You get goosebumps hearing the crowd cheering for Andrew.”
Coelho’s next big goal is to play in tennis’ most famous event, Wimbledon, which starts this month.
He faces an agonising few weeks as he waits to find out whether his ranking – currently 301 – will be enough to gain him a place in the qualifying draw.
As usual, mum will have to watch from afar as Coelho pursues his goal.
“He’s trying his best, so we’ll see – hopefully he gets in,” Luisa said.
“There’s nothing we can do other than try to support him.”
