Cunha e Silva Tennis Academy

Origins and a coach’s vision

Spend any time around Portuguese tennis and the name João Cunha e Silva appears early in the conversation. A former top hundred singles player and two time ATP doubles champion, he carried Portugal’s Davis Cup hopes through the late 1980s and 1990s before shifting his energy into coaching. In 2016 he formalized the project he had been running at the Oeiras Tennis Complex and launched the Cunha e Silva Tennis Academy. The founding impulse was direct and practical. Create a serious training center that stays personal, where the days are built by coaches who understand the stress of match play and how to convert drills into pressure proof habits.

From the start, his work with leading Portuguese pros shaped the blueprint. Long collaborations with players like Frederico Gil, Rui Machado, and Pedro Sousa taught the staff how to build a player’s identity over seasons instead of weeks. That experience anchors the academy’s values today. Clear technical standards, match relevant training, and daily routines that carry over to tournaments. The mission is to offer highly qualified, personalized solutions that meet each athlete where they are and guide them toward where they want to go.

The setting: Oeiras, Lisbon, and why location matters

The academy operates at the municipal tennis hub in Oeiras on Lisbon’s Atlantic fringe, roughly twenty to twenty five minutes from the city center and Lisbon’s international airport. For families, that geography solves real world problems. Travel days are shorter, weekend tournaments around Lisbon are easy to reach, and visiting parents can be on site without complex logistics. International players fly in, train, and are on court the same afternoon with minimal time lost to transfers.

Climate is part of the value proposition. Lisbon enjoys mild winters and warm, dry summers, with long stretches of outdoor friendly training. January typically brings cool but playable conditions, while late spring and summer provide ideal windows for volume and tournament blocks. Fewer rain disruptions than northern European hubs translate to more predictable practice planning across the year.

For players comparing Portugal’s options, Oeiras offers a capital city feel with a neighborhood rhythm, while Algarve destinations like The Campus Tennis Academy in Algarve bring a resort environment further south. Cunha e Silva’s base appeals to families who want the balance of a serious program inside a larger metropolitan area with universities, culture, and professional sport events close by.

Facilities and on site resources

The day to day setup favors volume, variety, and easy transitions between court, fitness, and recovery. The court mix includes six clay courts, three synthetic courts, and two indoor hard courts. A mini tennis space supports the youngest starters. Four padel courts sit alongside, which players sometimes use for light agility work and parents use during long training blocks.

Off court, a functional gym is fitted out for tennis specific strength and conditioning. There is a player lounge for downtime between sessions, a physio area for treatment and screening, and a small pro shop for essentials. The on site cafe and restaurant simplify nutrition during double session days. The overall vibe is that of a campus within a community sports complex. Accommodation is not inside the facility, but that is intentional. The academy prefers to keep training central and let families choose the housing solution that fits their budget and lifestyle in Lisbon’s surrounding neighborhoods.

Recovery is integrated, not treated as an afterthought. The academy collaborates with physiotherapists and sports medicine professionals who understand the load management of junior and pro calendars. Players returning from niggles can follow individualized return to play protocols. Adults booking intensive weeks can coordinate preventative work to support higher volume and avoid overuse during short stays.

People and coaching philosophy

João Cunha e Silva serves as general manager and head coach. He remains a regular presence on court, which sets the tone for a practical, match driven environment. The staff echoes that approach. Technical work is precise and clear, but never isolated from the demands of competition. Fitness and mental preparation are layered into the tennis day. Training blocks are built around tournament calendars, so players feel how sessions stack toward performance rather than floating as disconnected workouts.

The philosophy can be summed up in three ideas:

• Build fundamentals that hold under pressure. Grip work, spacing, footwork, and height control are trained until they survive tempo changes.
• Train the player you have, not a generic model. Patterns of play are matched to body type, temperament, and court preferences.
• Use accountability loops. Match play, internal level tests, and tournament results feed back into the next training cycle.

The academy often references successful European development pathways without copying them wholesale. For a Spanish style emphasis on point construction and daily intensity, athletes and families may look at the heritage of programs like the Academia Sánchez-Casal player pathway. Cunha e Silva’s team blends similar rigor with a distinctly Portuguese context, using Lisbon’s competition calendar and mixed surface access to raise adaptable players.

A week in the life

The schedule is simple to understand and easy to scale. A typical day runs a two hour morning tennis block from 9 to 11, followed by fitness and mobility work, then a second two hour court session from 3 to 5. Players seeking more can add evening hits from 5 to 7 or 7 to 9, subject to court availability and recovery needs. Juniors and adults may share certain drills or live ball phases, which keeps intensity high and exposes younger athletes to mature rhythms. Visiting pros passing through Lisbon will sometimes join sessions, a small but meaningful lift in quality for live points and serve return work.

Weekly planning balances skill acquisition with sharpeners. Early in the week, players see more basket and constrained point play to force solutions. As the weekend approaches, the mix shifts toward sets, tie breakers, and scenario games that model tournament stress. Film review is used pragmatically, often in short clips to emphasize spacing, height, and first step reactions rather than long classroom sessions.

Programs and who they suit

The academy offers several pathways that can be combined across a season.

• Intensive Training Program, weekly. A focused regimen for motivated juniors and adults who want a professional training day. Expect two court sessions Monday to Friday, a Saturday hit, and daily one hour fitness with a tennis specific coach. This option fits trial periods, tune ups before tournaments in Iberia, or a structured training week during school holidays.

• Annual Intensive Training Program. A year round high performance plan built on the same double session structure, plus one private lesson each week and coach supported tournament play roughly once per month. It is designed for serious juniors who handle academics through homeschooling or online platforms. Quiet study rooms are available, and the weekly timetable leaves midday windows for coursework. Accommodation is off site, with the staff advising on nearby apartments or vetted homestays.

• Competition and pre competition squads. The junior ladder moves players from foundational skill groups into pre competition squads and then into full competition teams. The goals are consistent technique under pressure, individualized patterns that fit the player’s strengths, and routines that travel to tournaments. Physical preparation, nutrition, physiotherapy, and mental training are integrated so that athletes feel a coherent day rather than a set of unrelated services.

• Tennis school for all ages. For young starters or adults building fundamentals, the tennis school offers mini tennis, initiation, intermediate, and advanced groups, as well as private lessons and social events. It is a sensible entry point for a child who might later shift to the competition pathway.

Families comparing models often look at boarding schools or large residential academies like the Rafa Nadal Academy high performance. Cunha e Silva’s proposition is different. It favors a city based routine where families retain control of housing and schooling, which keeps costs manageable and supports a wider range of personal choices.

Player development in depth

Technical foundations

Footwork and spacing receive daily attention. On clay, the staff emphasizes shaping the ball, using height to open patterns, and learning to recover out of slides. On indoor and synthetic courts, the tempo increases and sessions target serve plus one, return aggression, and first strike forehands. Grip adjustments, contact point discipline, and rhythm drills are used to make stroke changes visible and measurable. For year round athletes, individual private lessons are built into the week to accelerate key technical shifts without disrupting group rhythm.

Tactical identity

Every player develops a playbook tied to their physical and mental profile. A counterpuncher learns to produce depth and time on slower courts, attaching specific target zones to neutral ball patterns. A first striker spends more time on serve combinations, return positioning, and transition patterns that shorten points on faster courts. Match play is frequent, and monthly tournament plans validate training choices against real outcomes rather than practice winners.

Physical preparation

Fitness is daily and designed around tennis rather than generic weight room templates. Sessions target mobility, elastic strength, acceleration, change of direction, and endurance blocks sized to the athlete’s calendar. Younger players build movement literacy before loading. Older juniors progress to power and speed cycles with clear rest-to-work ratios. Recovery tools include mobility flows, soft tissue work via physio partners, and sensible sleep and nutrition routines.

Mental skills

Mental training is embedded into practice windows. Players rehearse concentration cues, between point resets, and emotion regulation in live play, not just in classroom settings. Coaches track visible markers such as pre point routines, body language under pressure, and commitment to patterns after errors. The staff’s travel experience with professional players informs both the language and the expectations. The goal is to make mental skills as observable as a forehand grip.

Education and logistics

Because there is no school on campus, the academy is candid about academics. Year round players arrive with homeschooling or online schooling set up. The staff provides quiet spaces for study and a weekly grid that leaves midday time for coursework. This transparency helps families avoid the false choice between education and sport. For housing, the team assists with local options near Oeiras or in central Lisbon, allowing different budgets and family setups to find the right fit.

Track record and role models

The academy does not lead its marketing with celebrity alumni lists, but it benefits from the head coach’s status in Portuguese tennis and from his long coaching relationships. Juniors can study the progression of national level players who converted strong domestic results into ATP and ITF success. The day to day message is that there is no shortcut, only a sequence of well chosen habits repeated over time.

Culture and community

The tone courtside is hardworking and personable. Oeiras functions as both community club and performance center, which means juniors see a mix of ages and levels throughout the day. That exposure helps build maturity and a sense of place inside the sport. The on site cafe keeps double sessions realistic for families, and the player lounge offers a quiet corner to decompress between hits. Parents have several vantage points to watch training without crowding the courts, and coaches make themselves available to discuss micro goals for the next block.

The academy also understands that life outside practice affects performance. New international athletes receive help with airport transfers, phone cards, grocery logistics, and tournament entries. These small details reduce friction in the first weeks and allow players to focus on training.

Costs, value, and accessibility

Transparency on pricing is a plus. As a benchmark, a six day intensive training week has been listed around 590 euros, and a per day option from approximately 98 euros suits short stays or trial periods. The annual high performance plan has been published near 22,800 euros per year. These figures exclude accommodation and can change, but they give families a clear planning baseline compared with larger European academies. Because housing and schooling remain outside the academy’s direct costs, families can scale up or down based on their situation.

Scholarship conversations are handled case by case. The staff is open about where they can extend support, often tying assistance to long term commitment, competitive results, or national federation partnerships. For Portuguese families, proximity to a major city eases transport costs and opens additional sponsorship possibilities. International players often find that Lisbon’s cost of living compares favorably with other Western European capitals.

What sets it apart

• Location and climate. Easy airport access, a mild Atlantic climate, and a mixed surface environment that covers clay, indoor hard, and synthetic courts. This variety helps players adapt across surfaces without seasonal gaps.
• Leadership on court. A head coach with ATP tour experience and long term coaching relationships, present on the ground daily. The philosophy is match driven and individualized rather than curriculum heavy.
• Integrated support. Daily fitness, medical partnerships, and mental and nutritional frameworks are embedded in the routine, so the athlete experiences one coherent program.
• Transparent pathways. Clear weekly and annual intensive options, plus competition squads and a tennis school that can feed into performance programs.

For families benchmarking across Europe, it is helpful to compare this city based model with destination style academies such as the Academia Sánchez-Casal player pathway in Barcelona or the resort centered The Campus Tennis Academy in Algarve. Each model has strengths. Cunha e Silva’s value is the combination of serious training and access to the cultural and academic fabric of Lisbon.

Future outlook

The academy’s direction is steady rather than splashy. Expect continued refinement of training blocks, deeper collaboration with physiotherapists and strength coaches, and more structured competition calendars for the annual group. Technology use will likely remain pragmatic. Video for short, targeted feedback. Wearables to monitor load and recovery where they add clear value. The program is not designed around boarding or a closed campus. It leverages Lisbon’s quality of life and transport links to create a sustainable training routine that can last years, not weeks.

As the Portuguese tennis ecosystem grows, opportunities for joint camps with other Iberian programs may expand. Exchange weeks with partners in Spain, including institutions with a strong tradition like the Rafa Nadal Academy high performance, would give athletes fresh sparring and new reference points while keeping the academy’s core identity intact.

Who thrives here

Choose Cunha e Silva Tennis Academy if you want a focused training day led by an experienced tour professional in a practical, accessible setting close to Lisbon. It suits players who value heavy on court volume, straightforward coaching language, and tournament accountability. It fits families who prefer to manage schooling and housing themselves to keep flexibility and control costs. If you need full boarding with an embedded school and a closed campus, consider the large residential models on your shortlist. If you want a grounded, competition oriented base with a personal touch and a coach who has lived tour realities, this Oeiras option deserves serious consideration.

Bottom line

Cunha e Silva Tennis Academy delivers a clear promise. Serious training that remains personal, built by a staff that knows how to transition skills from quiet drills to noisy tie breaks. Lisbon’s climate and access support year round work. The facilities are complete without being extravagant, the pricing is transparent, and the pathways are easy to understand. For juniors, aspiring pros, and dedicated adults who want to develop in a capital city rather than a remote campus, it is one of the most practical choices in Portugal.