The Tennis Professional
José Antonio “Tonio” Fernández is a former Chilean Davis Cup player, international high-performance coach, author, and founder of SPORTmind.
For more than three decades, he has helped athletes develop the clarity, resilience, and self-awareness needed to perform under pressure and grow beyond the game.
Tonio competed professionally on the ATP Tour for 14 years, from 1980 to 1994, reaching a career-high singles ranking of World No. 202 in 1991.
He represented Chile in Davis Cup competition between 1985 and 1991. In 1979, he won the Junior Orange Bowl Boys’ 14s singles title, one of the most prestigious achievements in international junior tennis.
His professional career gave him firsthand experience of the demands, uncertainty, sacrifice, and pressure involved in pursuing excellence at the highest levels of the game.
The Coach
Tonio has dedicated more than three decades to coaching the person behind the player.
He spent 15 years as Director of Tennis at a leading tennis club in Germany. His international experience includes working directly with Steffi Graf, developing promising junior and professional players, serving as an official agent for the Rafa Nadal Academy by Movistar until 2018, and participating in the Tennium Tennis Platform from 2018 to 2020.
Today, Tonio works with competitive juniors, college players, professionals, coaches, and academies through SPORTmind.
His coaching combines technical understanding, strategic development, mental performance, and human awareness—helping each athlete build a game that reflects who they are.
The Student and Author
Tonio has remained a lifelong student of tennis, coaching, mental performance, philosophy, and human development.
His curiosity has led him to study Sport and Tourism Management, Mental Fitness, and multiple approaches to personal and athletic development. His years living and working across different countries have also given him a valuable multicultural perspective.
He is the author of Evolution in Clay and Evolve Your Game and speaks Spanish, English, German, Portuguese, and Italian.
The Philosophy
Tonio believes that lasting performance develops from the inside out.
Technical ability matters, but pressure asks something deeper of an athlete: the ability to regulate the body, direct attention, make clear decisions, and act with courage.
He created SPORTmind to transform these principles into practical rituals that athletes and coaches can apply in training, competition, and everyday life.
His purpose is to help athletes move from pressure to presence — so they can trust themselves, express their strengths, and continue becoming the person and performer they are capable of being.
A Life Rooted in Tennis
Tonio represents the third generation of a remarkable Chilean tennis family.
His grandfather, Armando Ibarra, was one of Chile’s early tennis professionals. His mother, Carmen Ibarra, was Chile’s No. 1 female player for 15 years and a four-time South American champion. His uncle, Patricio Cornejo, was an internationally accomplished professional player and Davis Cup finalist.
This legacy gave Tonio a deep understanding of tennis—not only as a sport, but as a lifelong path of learning, character, and transformation.
