Coaching Carousel Turning, Tennys Sandgren Headed To French Open, Brayden Schnur Wins In Nigeria

Tagged with: Brayden Schnur, Chris Johnson, Coaching Carousel, Liberty, Mark Guilbeau, Tennys Sandgren, Virginia Women's Tennis

The NCAA Tournament hasn’t even started yet but coaching openings are popping up all across the country. We knew that Virginia had a men’s head coaching opening after Brian Boland announced he was headed to the USTA and on Friday we found out that the women’s job is going to be open as well. Virginia Athletic Director Craig Littlepage announced that Mark Guilbeau had resigned after 12 seasons with Virginia coming off a season in which it failed to qualify for the NCAA tournament for the first time since 2008. Guilbeau led the Cavaliers to back-to-back conference championships in 2014 and 2015 and his 201 wins are second all-time in school history behind only Phil Rogers who won 260 matches in a 22-year period that came to an end right before Guilbeau’s hire. According to Virginia’s release, Guilbeau had one year remaining on his contract and the school would be paying it out. Below are some quotes from Virginia’s release:

“I am grateful for the opportunity to have coached at the University of Virginia for the past 12 years,” Guilbeau said. “We had a tremendous amount of success throughout these 12 years and for that I am extremely thankful. Our success was made possible by hard-working and caring student-athletes, the support of athletics department administration and staff, our women’s tennis volunteer coaches, the staff at the Boar’s Head Sports Club and a great group of fans and friends of the program.

“I especially want to thank associate head coach Troy Porco for his relentless and never-tiring work along my side for the past 12 years. I have been blessed to work with Troy and I leave UVA a better person for having experienced his caring and commitment as a coach and a person. The Virginia women’s tennis program will have great opportunities ahead and I wish the greatest success for the program moving forward.”

 

Liberty Athletic Director Ian McCaw announced that men’s head coach Chris Johnson had resigned after 11 seasons. Johnson, who was named Big South Coach of the Year in 2015, went 117-124 in his tenure in Lynchburg which also included a six-year stint as women’s head coach. 

“God has called me to Liberty twice and I am eternally grateful for each one,” said Johnson. “I can think of no greater calling than to train Champions for Christ. Thank you to everyone who supported me and my family during this journey. We are forever grateful. Go Flames!”

 

  

Former Tennessee Volunteer Tennys Sandgren will be playing in his first Grand Slam main draw after winning the USTA’s French Open wild card. The wild card went to the player who earned the most points over a four week period and in that timeframe Sandgren qualified for the ATP 250 in Houston, made the finals at the $100K Challenger in Sarasota, and is currently in the finals at the $75K Challenger in Savannah. Sandgren missed a large chunk of 2014 after having hip surgery and he’s slowly worked his way back up the ladder. Sandgren’s current ATP ranking of 134 is a career high. Barry Buss of the Tennis Life did a couple of recent interviews with Sandgren that are worth a read – the first is after he won the Tempe Challenger in February and the second after he qualified for the main draw in Houston.

 

 

Former North Carolina Tar Heel Brayden Schnur won his fifth career Futures singles title, fourth since September, with a 7-6, 6-4 win over Fabiano De Paula at the $25K Nigeria F1 Futures in Abuja. Schnur only dropped one set all week and that was in the same match where he came back from 5-3 down in the third to defeat Takanyi Garanganga 6-3, 6-7, 7-6(2). Schnur entered the week with a career high ATP ranking of 306 and when these 27 points are added in he should be close to 270.