About Marin Tennis Academy
Marin Tennis Academy is a premier tennis development program that uses tennis as a vehicle to build character foundations for life, and to learn how to create true confidence and humility through overcoming challenges on the tennis court. We use individualized approach with every player to build strong foundations in five areas of tennis development that can save players many years in their development as champions on and off the court.
Andrej Loncar (Director)
Andrej Loncar is the founder of Marin Tennis Academy. Andrej has been working with children on character development, maturing and building true confidence trough tennis for almost 20 years. Andrej founded his first tennis academy in Washington DC where he has coached top national and international junior players for over a decade.
Andrej believes that tennis is a vehicle to develop as a person, and to build strong character foundations for life, and to learn how to focus on the long-term process of development rather than short term outcomes.
Andrej played division I college tennis at American University where the team reached national ranking of top 60. Andrej had also worked at the Nick Bolletierri Tennis Academy as well as the Junior Tennis Champions Center at College Park where he collaborated with some of the coaches in the world.
Andrej’s mentors and role models include his former coach Martin Blackman who is now the head of the USTA player development program, and legendary coach John Wooden of UCLA. Both men championed the strongest of character, humility, generosity, and taught generations of young people how to mature, handle adversity and perform clearly and powerfully under pressure.
Joe Dorn (Head Coach)
Tennis Playing Career
Joe Dorn grew up in Washington D.C, playing tennis at the Junior Tennis Champions Center in College Park, MD along with top 100 ranked professional players like Frances Tiafoe and Denis Kudla. Joe credits his parents for exposing him to tennis at an early age. Joe was consistently ranked #1 in Washington D.C. and top 10 in the Mid-Atlantic Region. Nationally, Joe was ranked top 47 in the nation. He won the 16's National Clay Court Doubles Gold Ball with partner, Anton Kovrigin. As a senior, Joe was a 4 star recruit on Tennisrecruiting.net. Joe attended Maret School in Washington, D.C. and enjoyed playing for his High School team.
Joe earned a tennis scholarship to Vanderbilt University where he played mostly #4 and #5 singles and #2 doubles his freshman year. While at Vanderbilt, the team's highest ranking was top 30 and they qualified for the year-end NCAA tournament.
After a year at Vanderbilt, Joe transferred to Claremont McKenna College for a more balanced college and tennis experience. While at Claremont, Joe won a Division III NCAA Team National Championship and Individual Doubles Championship. Clairmont was consistently top 5 in the nation and Joe played #1 doubles and #2 singles. Joe Majored in American Studies and studied one semester abroad in Spain.
Coaching Bio
Joe has coached at numerous summer camps and spent a year as the Assistant Men's Coach at Claremont McKenna College. Currently, Joe lives in Santa Fe, NM where he coaches high school juniors and adults at a local club.
In his time away from the court, Joe loves to travel, rock climb, and go to the movies. He looks forward to exploring the beauty of the San Francisco Bay Area and getting to share his tennis experience with junior players.
Coaching Philosophy
I want to support the players as they navigate the ups and downs of junior tennis circuit. I am very approachable, and I speak honestly about my experience with junior tennis, helping the juniors understand the path to college tennis. Also, I want to see the junior players gain more awareness around their own tennis, which connects to their everyday lives. Finally, I want players to enjoy the process of hard work and to approach tennis with the long view in mind, rather than focusing on immediate results.
Avi Vemuri (Senior Coach)
Tennis Playing Career
Avi grew up in Portland, Oregon where he fell in love with tennis after watching his older brother and dad play the sport. As a junior, Avi reached career high rankings of #1 in Oregon, #2 in the Pacific Northwest, and #166 nationally. He was a 4 star recruit through most of high school, and competed in tournaments such as USTA Clay Court Nationals, USTA Hard Court Nationals, and Intersectionals. After high school, Avi went on to play for the Claremont-Mudd-Scripps Stags from 2015-2019. During this time, Claremont was consistently a top 5 team nationally, and finished as national runner-ups in 2017 and 2019. Avi finished his career with a .800 win percentage, which ranks 9th all time in Stags history. At Claremont Mckenna, Avi studied Economics with a concentration in Computer Science.
Coaching Bio
Avi began coaching during high school both independently to local kids, as well as at University of Portland summer camps. Throughout college, he continued to coach both private lessons and summer clinics. After college, Avi took a job at The Hill School, an independent boarding school in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, where he was the Head Boys and Girls Tennis Coach, as well as a Computer Science Teacher. While at Hill, he led the boys team to their program first Mid-Atlantic Prep League Championship, and coached one boy and one girl to individual league championships. Outside of tennis, Avi likes to play other sports such as basketball and soccer, spend time with family and friends, and travel.
Coaching Philosophy
I believe in a player-first, individualized approach to coaching. My philosophy is that honesty and open-communication develop trust, which is critical to the player-coach relationship. Through tennis, I aim to instill valuable life skills such as work ethic, resilience, and emotional maturity. With regards to tennis, I believe in developing a mastery of fundamentals, mental and physical toughness, and a strong tennis IQ.