Tennis coach Mark de Jong arrested on suspicion of murder

Mark de Jong, the coach of Robin Haase (above), was arrested on suspicion of murder. Photo / Getty Images.

The coach of a top tennis player has been arrested on suspicion of murder in a story that is sending shockwaves through the sport.

Mark de Jong, the coach of Dutch tennis player Robin Haase, was put under arrest after they both landed in Amsterdam on Thursday morning.

The Telegraph described a sense of disbelief among players as news spread around the Miami tournament, which Haase and de Jong were at as recently as Wednesday.

The victim was millionaire Koen Everink, a staple around tennis tours, who was stabbed to death, then discovered by his daughter on March 4.

"Koen was very close to three Dutch players ...," former player and fellow Dutch coach Raemon Sluiter told The Telegraph. "I didn't know Koen that well myself, but I knew him to speak to, because, as players, we Dutchies spend a lot of time together when we are on the road."

De Jong previously told some around the sport that he had been at Everink's home on March 3, and was perhaps the last one to see him alive. But Thursday's news seemed to come as a complete shock.

"I have no words for it," Haase told Dutch Quote magazine about the murder earlier this month. "He was going to start a business again, and would soon have been travelling with another tennis player. No, I thought he had found his peace, so I had no indications that he was being threatened or anything like that."

De Jong, 29, is a former journeyman player on the Challenger circuit who switched to coaching a couple of years ago, and has been working with the world No 59 Robin Haase since the end of 2014.

Everink had previously made headlines in Holland after being involved in a fight with former heavyweight kickboxing champion Badr Hari at a dance music festival in Amsterdam which left him with a shattered ankle.

According to the Telegraph, he had not worked since the injury but was beginning to get his life back on track.

-News.com.au