In May 2008 Tim Miller met George Kriek, a native of South Africa and a Tennis professional at the Cross Creek Country Club in Mount Airy, North Carolina. Tim who is a native of Mount Airy bonded with George and they remain good friends today. George was the Head Tennis Pro at the Club and Tim was on the courts daily working with George as his coaching mentor. “This was the opportunity of a life time for me. I always wanted to be a coach since high school and this was my one chance to make this dream become a reality,” said Tim.
George is the brother of Johan Kriek a former tennis professional who is a South African-American who won two singles titles at the Australian Open in 1981 and 1982 against Steve Denton an American. He also reached the semifinals at the U.S. Open and French Open, as well as the quarterfinals of Wimbledon. Overall, in his career he won 14 professional singles and 8 doubles titles, reaching a career high singles ranking of number 7 in the world. He defeated the likes of Andre Agassi, Jimmy Connors, John McEnroe, Guillermo Vilas, Stefan Edberg, Michael Chang, Vitas Gerulaitis and Bjorn Borg in his career.  Today he resides in Roanoke,  Virginia and operates a tennis Academy. He has also opened up schools in Charlotte and most recently in Naples, Florida. Meanwhile, his brother George operates tennis camps and clinics providing lessons to youngsters and adults in Mount Airy.
Tim learned coaching and teaching tennis under the direction of George who certainly is extremely knowledgeable of tennis and has a diverse coaching style. According to Tim George can recognize talent and bring out the best in each player. Once Tim learned his lessons well he would go out on his own and establish a coaching business. In 2010 the business was started in Frankfort, KY were Tim would come home from work as a Wire EDM programmer and coach kids giving tennis lessons. Also, he was the assistant tennis coach at Frankfort High School developing his coaching skills.
The family moved to Charlotte in 2012 and made the decision to enter full-time into the Tennis Coaching business. In 2014 the Miller’s launched the Queens Grant High School Tennis program with only 4 boys. The program has expanded since then and has grown into a competitive program under their guidance and direction.  In 2015 the Miller’s met with JJ Snyder, President of MHAA and were commissioned to provide tennis lessons for the youth of Mint Hill. You can find the Miller’s on the courts in Mint Hill offering clinics and individual lessons to our local youth from ages 3-18 for players of all skill levels.
Tim’s MHAA/Tennis USA program has continued to steadily grow with the youth in our area including adult lessons primarily during an evening clinic. George Kriek during his recent visit to Charlotte for business on April 20th travelled to Wilgrove Park to coach the kids in Tim’s program became a huge success. George has been in Mint Hill the entire month of May on Thursday’s to work with the youngsters. MHAA Youth Tennis sign ups are available at MHAA.us on-line. Adult clinics will be offered on Thursday’s going forward. Please text 704-488-7465 for more information about the tennis programs being offered.
