Today we’d like to introduce you to Liam Gomez.
Liam, we appreciate you taking the time to share your story with us today. Where does your story begin?
My story begins in Trinidad, where I was born and raised. I was five years old, playing soccer in my backyard, when my next-door neighbor—a local tennis coach named Jean Merry—walked past. She noticed my coordination and suggested my parents bring me to try tennis.
I still remember my first day on the court. I was incredibly shy and didn’t want to leave my mom’s side. But once I started hitting the ball, something clicked. I loved it. I begged my mom to bring me back the next day, and the day after that. I fell in love with tennis almost immediately.
By seven years old, I was playing competitively, often against kids much older than me. My best friend, Seve, and I played doubles together and singles against each other—matches that were always intense. We’d battle hard, sometimes argue on court, but the moment the match ended, we were right back to being best friends. It was intense competition on court and pure friendship off court. Tennis was never just a game to us—it was our world.
One moment still makes me smile. I was playing a doubles match against two older kids when, in the middle of a point, I looked up at my mom and said, “Mommy, look—I see a rainbow.” I probably should have been watching the ball instead of the sky, but looking back, it feels symbolic. The tennis court was my playground.
I played multiple sports until age 7. That’s when I asked my parents if I could quit everything else and focus solely on tennis—every day. They agreed. Around that time, I began training with one of the most influential figures in my life: Coach Wendell McConney.
Coach Wendell’s first rule was simple and intense: you are not allowed to be average. Not in your actions, your words, or your discipline. That standard applied to everything—what you ate, what music you listened to, how you managed your time. I was ten years old, and those lessons shaped me for life.
At that age, I started traveling to represent my country. Seve and I competed internationally, including a tournament in Martinique against teams from all over the world. It opened my eyes and made me want to train harder.
By 11 and 12, my routine was relentless. I trained from 4:30 to 6:30 a.m. doing strict physical conditioning, then went to school, then returned to the court from 3:30 until 8 or 9 p.m. every day. It built discipline, but it also revealed something deeper: I struggled with anxiety as a kid, yet when I played tennis, my mind became completely quiet. The harder the training, the quieter my mind. To this day, that hasn’t changed.
I trained with a close-knit group during those years, and many of them remain some of my closest friends.
At 14, I left Trinidad to attend a tennis academy for grades 9 through 12. I trained with professional players, worked harder than I ever had, and won Hardest Working Player two years in a row out of nearly 150 athletes. I met people from all over the world—different cultures, languages, foods—and we were all connected by one thing: our love for tennis. Some of those friendships extended beyond the court, with friends visiting my home country and experiencing its culture firsthand.
I later represented Trinidad and Tobago in the Davis Cup from ages 17 to 20—an experience filled with lessons that shaped me as both an athlete and a person.
I played college tennis at Auburn University but suffered an injury that forced me to step away. I returned to Trinidad to heal and began coaching, which I genuinely enjoyed—but I missed competing. After recovering, I moved to New York, returned to school, and won a junior college national championship. During that time, I learned something important: when life got tough, I gravitated toward tennis. The harder things became personally, the harder I trained. Tennis carried me through some very difficult moments.
At 23 (10 years ago) I moved to Orlando. That’s where everything changed.
I began coaching and quickly found fulfillment working with adult recreational players—people who picked up tennis later in life and genuinely loved the game. Many would say, “If I don’t play tennis today, my day isn’t complete.” Helping them wasn’t just about improving strokes; it was about mindset. Tennis is played with the mind first. What you tell yourself on court often reflects how you show up in life. In many ways, I became a mindset coach who teaches tennis.
I’m also an ambassador for the game. I love tennis, I love helping people improve, and I’m deeply committed to growing the game. I’ve competed in over 25 countries, and everywhere I’ve been, I’ve seen the same thing: when people play tennis, they smile.
But I kept hearing a common frustration: “It’s really hard to find people to play with.”
Finding a tennis partner isn’t simple. Location matters. Skill level matters. Intent matters. Over time, I realized that many of the strongest friendships in tennis form when those pieces align—when people enjoy playing together, not just playing tennis.
I kept asking myself: How can I make this easier?
How can I help people play more tennis with players they genuinely enjoy sharing the court with?
That question became the foundation for TennisCloud—a platform designed to connect players based on compatibility and personal preferences, not just proximity. I wanted to remove the friction and guesswork and make it easier for players to create meaningful, enjoyable tennis experiences.
During this time, I was guided by a mentor and local tennis player, Carlos—a successful businessman who deeply understood the recreational tennis world. I spent countless hours learning from him and listening to players, realizing just how different the tennis lives of recreational players are compared to my competitive background. I needed to fully understand their experience in order to serve them well. Carlos would later go on to found the RTT League, a one-of-a-kind tennis experience built entirely around the recreational player.
Around that same period, I also had the opportunity to serve as a hitting partner for 2017 US Open Champion Sloane Stephens at the Australian Open—an unforgettable experience that reinforced my love for the game.
Back in Orlando, my mission became clear: help people play more tennis. There should never be a day someone wants to play and can’t.
Through community partnerships, we created a true home for local players—hosting festivals, weekly round robins, clinics, and new programs that serve players of all levels. I personally organized over 1,000 matchups in 2025 alone and helped grow community groups to more than 1,500 players.
Our app soft launched in November, 2025 and in just over 2 months, tens of thousands of messages have been exchanged between users, leading to countless new matches, friendships, and meaningful connections.
Today, TennisCloud is available for both iOS and Android and continues to grow. Our platform is built around one clear mission: making tennis more accessible and enjoyable for all.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
It definitely hasn’t been an easy path.
There were—and still are—many challenges. Finding the right development team. Raising the necessary funds. Learning how to turn a vision into functioning technology without over-engineering it. I quickly realized that the real challenge wasn’t only building technology, but deeply understanding what mattered most to the people using it.
What helped guide us was listening closely to the community—understanding what players truly wanted and needed, and then creating consistent experiences with that in mind. Only after proving those experiences in real life did it make sense to translate them into software.
Before the app even launched, I spent nearly a full year completely consumed with connecting players manually. People began reaching out to me directly and trusting me to set up practices and matches on a daily basis. At times, I was coordinating over 50 players at once. My inboxes were flooded with requests, and I wouldn’t stop until I had set something up for every single person.
That period was by far the most challenging—and the most important.
It forced me to understand the inner workings of what actually gets people on court. I learned about players’ pain points and hesitations. I learned what made someone feel comfortable committing to a match and what caused them to hesitate. Most importantly, I learned what people cared about when choosing who to play with—skill level, intent, compatibility, and feeling at ease.
In addition to connecting individuals, I was also organizing multiple group events every week at the Fort Gatlin Tennis Center. These events were designed to remove friction—no logistics, no confusion—just hassle-free playing experiences. They became a reliable entry point for newcomers and a consistent space for our community to connect, play, and grow together. These events were hosted in partnership with the RTT & Fort Gatlin Coach Staff.
But the biggest challenge by far was creating an environment people could truly trust—one where they felt confident that when they showed up, they would enjoy themselves, get a great workout, connect with like-minded people, and continue improving their game. Building that kind of trust takes time, consistency, and care, and it became one of the most important parts of my journey.
I also placed an enormous amount of pressure on myself to make sure every single person had a positive experience. I wanted people to feel confident that every time I connected them, they would have a great playing experience. The bar I set for myself—and for the technology we were building—was extremely high.
That year of hands-on work became TennisCloud’s secret sauce.
The system we created—and eventually the algorithm behind the app—was built from real human behavior, not assumptions. Humans can be complex, but in one important way we are simple: we all want to feel like we belong. Everything we build starts there.
There were moments of doubt. Moments of exhaustion. Moments where the vision felt much bigger than the resources I had at the time. But those challenges didn’t slow me down. They sharpened my focus, grounded my approach, and taught me to earn trust one experience at a time.
As you know, we’re big fans of TennisCloud . For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about the brand?
I am a tennis coach of rec players with over a decade of experience.. I also host over 10 weekly tennis events for players of all levels. I’m known for my high-energy approach to coaching, the way I push and motivate others and my friendliness in and around the tennis community. I’m most proud of my work ethic and my relentless to grow the game of tennis and to create a more welcoming environment for all. I live and breath this shit, that’s what separates me, nobody can outwork me, nobody has more passion and drive than I do to make this happen.. I wanna see tennis impact people’s lives for the better, I wanna give people access to the world’s greatest lifelong sport.. If not me, who’s gonna do it. I am most proud of the core values TennisCloud has.. inclusivity, accessibility and we have a welcoming community-first approach. Our free app helps rec players connect, communicate and play more tennis.
What matters most to you? Why?
What matters most to me is making tennis feel accessible, welcoming, and human.
User-friendliness is important because people already have enough complexity in their lives. When someone opens TennisCloud, it should feel easy, natural, and unintimidating—like a door opening, not another system to figure out. If technology gets in the way of connection, it’s failed its purpose.
A community-centric approach matters because tennis is better when it’s shared. The strongest memories I have in this sport aren’t just about wins or losses—they’re about the people I met, the friendships that formed, and the sense of belonging that came with being part of something bigger. Everything we do at TennisCloud is driven by the community. We listen closely, we adapt, and we build based on real needs—not assumptions.
Creating a welcoming and inclusive environment is deeply personal to me. I’ve seen firsthand how intimidating tennis can feel to newcomers, and I’ve also seen how powerful it is when someone finds a place where they feel comfortable showing up as they are. Whether someone is brand new to the sport or has been playing for decades, they deserve to feel supported, included, and excited to come back.
Our vision is simple but meaningful: to grow the game of tennis by bringing people together. That means working in partnership with local tennis clubs, coaches, and organizations—not in competition—to create more opportunities for people to play, connect, and stay involved for life. Tennis is one of the few sports you can play at any age, and it’s widely considered the world’s healthiest sport. Making access easier and experiences more enjoyable helps ensure people stay active, social, and engaged long-term.
Listening to our community as we continue to build the TennisCloud app is one of the most important things to us. The platform evolves alongside the people who use it. As the community grows, so does TennisCloud—always guided by real feedback, real experiences, and real relationships.
At the core of everything we do is a belief I live by:
“At TennisCloud, we believe tennis is more than just a sport—it’s a lifestyle, a therapy in motion, and a powerful tool for personal growth and connection.”
That belief shapes every decision we make—because when people feel welcomed, connected, and supported, tennis becomes more than a game. It becomes a lifelong home.
Contact Info:
- Website: https://www.tenniscloud-app.com
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tenniscloudapp/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/people/TennisCloud-App/61563382262129/
