Neville Godwin


Neville Godwin is a tennis coach and a former professional player from South Africa. He has won one singles title in his career, and reached his highest individual ranking on the ATP Tour in March 1997, when he became World No. 90. His highest ranking in doubles was World No. 57.

Professional career

Godwin turned professional in 1994.
At the 1996 Wimbledon tournament, Godwin had his best finish at a Grand Slam, when he reached the fourth round as a qualifier, defeating Cristiano Caratti, compatriot Grant Stafford and Boris Becker before losing to Alex Rădulescu.
Godwin retired in 2003.

Coaching career

He now lives in his hometown of Johannesburg with his wife, Nicky and two sons, Oliver and James. He coached performance players out of the Wanderers Club for 5 years, before coaching South African player Kevin Anderson to a world top 10 ranking and a US Open final appearance in 2017. In 2017, he won ATP Coach of the Year award. On 12 November 2017, it was announced Godwin and Anderson had split.
He came into limelight again during the Australian Open 2018 when Hyeon Chung, who was being coached by Godwin became the first player from South Korea to reach the semifinals of a Grand Slam slam.
He currently coaches Alexei Popyrin.

ATP career finals

Singles: 2 (1 title, 1 runner-up)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScore
Loss0–1[1998 Hall of Fame Tennis Championships – Singles|]Newport, United StatesInternational SeriesGrassdts|Jul 2001

Doubles: 3 (3 runner-ups)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Loss0–1[1997 Legg Mason Tennis Classic – Doubles|]Washington, United StatesChampionship SeriesClay

ATP Challenger and ITF Futures finals

Singles: 9 (2–7)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfaceOpponentScore
Loss0–1Eilat, IsraelChallengerHarddts|May 1998

Doubles: 18 (11–7)

ResultW–LDateTournamentTierSurfacePartnerOpponentsScore
Loss0–1Binghamton, United StatesChallengerHard