Izak van der Merwe
Izak van der Merwe enters his seventh season with the Baylor men's tennis program and second as associate head coach. He previously served as the assistant coach and volunteer assistant coach for the Bears.
Head coach Michael Woodson announced the promotion of van der Merwe to associate head coach in June of 2023 after five years with the program that saw 15 first-team ITA All-Americans and one second-team member over that stretch.
During the 2024 season, van der Merwe helped guide the program to its 26th-straight NCAA tournament appearance. Additionally, two Bears, Tadeas Paroulek and Zsombor Velcz earned All-Big 12 honors as both were named Big 12 Second-Team Doubles, while Paroulek was individually featured in singles. van der Merwe led the duo to impressive heights as the season was highlighted by then-unranked Velcz and Paroulek defeating the No. 1 doubles partner in the country against Wake Forest in March.
In the 2023 season, van der Merwe assisted Baylor as it qualified to the NCAA Championship tournament and its 12th-straight ITA Team Indoor Championship appearance.
van der Merwe mentored Paroulek and Velcz to All-Big 12 seasons in 2023, with both student-athletes landing on the singles and doubles all-conference lists. The team also had a banner spring semester in the classroom, posting a program-record 3.69 GPA with four Bears perfect at 4.0.
van der Merwe was honored as the ITA Regional Assistant Coach of the Year in 2022 and joined Woodson and senior Sven Lah in receiving regional honors for the season. The Bears won the 2022 Big 12 tournament for the third-straight year. The 2022 squad also hit the NCAA quarterfinals for the third-straight year.
In 2021, van der Merwe helped guide the Bears to a historic season which produced the program's all-time record for wins in a single season (34), as well as trips to the NCAA National Championship and ITA National Team Indoor Championship, and the program's first No. 1 overall ranking since 2005. The Bears also earned a share of the Big 12 regular-season title and won the Big 12 Tournament Championship for their 23rd and 24th all-time league trophies.
Along the way, the Bears produced four ITA All-Americans, six All-Big 12 selections, three Big 12 individual champions, the Big 12 Newcomer of the Year, five Big 12 Championship All-Tournament Team representatives, two NCAA Championship All-Tournament Team members and a selection to the ITA National Team Indoor Championship All-Tournament Team.
For his efforts, van der Merwe was named the Texas Region's ITA Assistant Coach of the Year for 2020-21, while Michael Woodson was recognized as the region's top head coach.
Despite the 2020 season being cut short, the Bears recorded a 13-3 record and a perfect 10-0 mark in Waco.
In 2019, van der Merwe was a part of the team's 13th NCAA quarterfinal appearance and ninth Big 12 postseason title run. He mentored Big 12 Individual Champion and All-Big 12 honoree Will Little at No. 4 singles as well as All-Americans Jimmy Bendeck and Sven Lah. He guided Little and All-Big 12 honoree Matias Soto to an 8-4 record on the doubles court.
Izak van der Merwe (pronounced EE-zah-k vun dur Mer-vuh) competed on the ATP World Tour from 2005 to 2014, earning a career-high No. 94 doubles ranking and No. 113 singles ranking and winning a total of 17 ATP Challenger Tour singles and doubles titles. He was a singles semifinalist at the SA Open in 2011 and a quarterfinalist at the U.S. Grass Court Championships a year later.
He also competed as part of Team South Africa in 13 Davis Cup ties from 2006 to 2014 where the team made four World Group Playoff appearances.
A Johannesburg, South Africa native, van der Merwe played collegiate tennis at Old Dominion and was the school's first two-time ITA Collegiate Tennis All-American and the only Monarch to reach the national semifinals in the NCAA, All-American and & ITA Indoor national championships.
He earned All-America status in doubles (2004) and singles (2004, 2005) and capped off his Monarch career with a 73-27 singles record and 73-33 doubles record. He was inducted into the Old Dominion Sports Hall of Fame in 2014.
Van der Merwe earned a bachelor of business administration degree in finance from ODU in 2005. He graduated with his masters of business administration degree from University of Texas at Dallas in 2015.