The club's membership has steadily grown and its tennis facilities now consist of six clay courts, six indoor hard courts and a stadium-style tennis court.

Gard'ner began his path to coaching at 15 when his own coach took him under his wing and started teaching him how to make a career out of the sport he loved.

He was an assistant coach at the Waimairi Tennis Club in Christchurch, New Zealand, before going to Germany to coach for three seasons from 1992 to 1994.

He returned to Waimairi, one of his country's biggest tennis clubs, where he became resident tennis professional for the next six years.

He says tennis has enabled him to meet people like world's No. 1 Roger Federer and Eunice Kennedy Shriver, a member of America's famous Kennedy family, who also founded the Special Olympics.

"Tennis coaching can be a career. It has taken me all over the world and I have managed to meet some amazing people. It's a great profession," he says.

Despite hitting literally tens of thousands of tennis balls over more than 20 years, Gard'ner says he never tires of coaching.

"There are two roles I have here: One is to teach tennis and the other is to teach coaches how to teach tennis," he says.

"I just get a great buzz out of seeing people - no matter what level they are - develop and learn new skills, especially players new to the sport. They are learning skills they can use for the rest of their life because there are people in their 70s still playing tennis."

In addition to the Shanghai Racquet Club, Gard'ner is also a national tester and clinician and director of the Professional Tennis Registry for China's mainland. PTR is the largest global organization of tennis teachers and coaches. It provides certification and professional development workshops for tennis coaches, which aims to help spread tennis globally.

It has more than 13,000 members in 126 countries. The recent success of Chinese tennis stars like Zheng Jie, who reached the recent Wimbledon women's semifinals, has led to a rapid increase in interest in the sport.

While he has moved into more administrative roles in Shanghai, Gard'ner says he still loves getting on the court and teaching.

"I have never seen what I do as work, and as I get older and the body slows down a bit, I will probably get more into the administrative side," he says.

"But one of my passions is still to teach tennis and teach coaches, and I don't think I will ever pull myself away from that."

(Shanghai Daily July 31,2008)