César Coutinho is an internationally respected tennis coach, developer, and performance expert with over 20 years of hands-on experience training athletes and coaches across the globe. Known for his innovative and results-driven approach, César has played a pivotal role in shaping the careers of national champions, international talents, and world-ranked professionals.

In 2004, he founded César Coutinho Tennis, a development-focused program that has guided players from their formative years to elite levels. His coaching has contributed to the rise of athletes like Gastão Elias (ITF Junior No. 6, ATP No. 57), while his consulting has supported ATP and WTA professionals, including Tommy Robredo (former ATP No. 6). He has coached and mentored players in Portugal, Belgium, England, Finland, Australia, Brazil, Chile, Norway, and the USA.

From 2016 to 2022, as Performance Director in Belgium, César implemented a development model that produced record national titles and youth national team selections, helping players like Nand Vandepoele and Indira Lepage reach national No. 1 rankings and international recognition.

In 2020, he launched CCTennis Performance, a world-class training program based in Belgium and Portugal, which earned TopSport Structure status from the Belgian Tennis Federation in 2022. The program focuses intensively on player development, offering structured, age-specific training that bridges the gap between foundational stages and high performance.

From 2018 to 2024, César served as Coach Education Director at the Portuguese Tennis Federation, leading a national transformation of coaching education. He introduced the world’s first blended-learning tennis coaching certification, redesigned all certification levels with a competency-based structure, and created the “From Grassroots to the Top” framework—integrating technical, tactical, physical, and mental development across all stages of a player’s growth. His leadership helped propel Portugal to its best-ever international tennis results.

A respected author and educator, he wrote Sucesso no Ténis, the first Portuguese sports science book focused on tennis, and Inside Out, a breakthrough publication connecting science with technical development. His workshops and symposiums have drawn record attendance and influenced thousands of coaches and teachers worldwide.

César holds the highest degrees of coaching education from Portugal and Belgium, a degree in Sports Science and a Master’s in High Performance from the University of Lisbon. He also developed a PhD coursework in Biomechanics at the University of Western Australia, where he researched the tennis serve under the mentorship of biomechanics expert Bruce Elliott. From 2004 to 2013, he was a professor at the Faculty of Human Kinetics, where he designed forward-thinking tennis education programs that influenced player development models nationally.