Eng Revered for Supportive Coaching Style

Eng is also a huge proponent of integrating technology into his lessons. From radar guns and racquet sensors to drones and video playback, Eng utilizes the latest resources to support his teaching.      

“He uses a lot of detailed evidence and statistics to support his analysis of tactics and technique,” said Barathan Sundar, a high school senior from Southborough, MA who has trained with Eng since eighth grade. “As a fan of professional tennis myself, this makes his advice easy to follow and also really interesting to understand. Doug has the most in-depth knowledge of things like court geometry and movement patterns of anyone I've ever worked with.”

“Lots of the kids I work with are pretty smart and are going to science-based schools, so they get hooked on it. It sometimes helps that the feedback isn’t coming from my mouth but from the machines,” Eng said. 

Like Nijhuwan, Sundar has also developed a unique relationship with Eng. The Caltech-bound Sundar had the opportunity to work side by side with Eng off the court.

“Since he's also an academic researching tennis/sport science with MIT and Lesley University, we worked on a series of research papers about optimizing lower body movement through certain exercise sequences,” Sundar said. “It's become pretty clear to me that Doug is not only incredibly intelligent, but is very good at clearly articulating how the different fields of science shape the sport.”

Eng has demonstrated time and time again that nothing is off limits when it comes to being a presence for his students. He has even shot college recruiting videos with drones, helped with SAT prep and created fitness and training plans for his students. 

“Doug is extremely helpful and is always willing to answer any questions you have about anything,” said Eric Zhang, Barrington (RI) High senior will be playing tennis at Kenyon College in the fall. “As a player, I feel like there has never been a time where he doesn’t know the answer to a question I’ve asked. The amount of knowledge he possesses as a coach is absolutely incredible. I believe he is one of the best coaches in New England and even in the country.”

On top of it all, Eng has delivered free or heavily discounted coaching for countless students when necessary. 

“So many kids come from less advantaged backgrounds, and if you can help them, by all means, help them,” he said. “My mission is to save parents money, lower their costs and not make them need to spend that much on tennis.”

Eng added, “My favorite part of all this is watching my students that find joy in everything they do. Tennis is supposed to be fun, and when it finally clicks and they feel like they’ve accomplished something, that’s very rewarding.”

Eng, whose father is from China, is part of our celebration of Asian American & Pacific Island Heritage Month. For more local and national AAPI Heritage month content, click here.