Michael Venus Into French Open Doubles Final, Coaching News, Belinda Woolcock Wins Honda Award

Tagged with: Belinda Woolcock, Ivan Fernandez, Juancarlos Nunez, Michael Venus, UMass, UTEP

Michael Venus (LSU ’09) and his doubles partner Ryan Harrison advanced to the French Open doubles final with a come from behind three set win over Robert Farah (USC ’10) and Juan Sebastian Cabal. Farah and Cabal won the opening set 6-4 with the lone break of serve coming in the third game of the match. Venus and Harrison opened up a 3-0 lead in the second set, after breaking for 2-0 in a three-deuce game, and would go on to take the set 6-3. The third and final set stayed on serve until Venus and Harrison broke for 5-4 in a one-deuce game and then they served it out in a two-deuce game to win 4-6, 6-3, 6-4. 

If Venus and Harrison can defeat Donald Young and Santiago Gonzalez in Saturday’s final it’d be the second straight major for a guy with college ties after John Peers (Baylor ’11) won the Australian Open Doubles Championship. 

 

Cameron Norrie (ATP 243) played his first matches as a professional at the $127K Surbiton (GB) Challenger and after a few days of rain he was able to win his first round match over #71 Malek Jaziri 2-6, 6-1, 6-3. Unfortunately with the schedule backed up he had to come back out a few hours later to play his second round match and lost to #123 Sergiy Stakhovsky 6-4, 7-6(2). Norrie picked up 9 ATP points and €2180. 

 

 

Massachusetts Director of Athletics Ryan Bamford announced the hiring of Juancarlos Nunez as the new women head coach. Nunez, who played at Arkansas Little Rock, had been the assistant women’s coach at Brown for the last two years but prior to that he was the assistant at UMass for six years. Nunez replaces Judy Dixon who retired after 25 seasons. Below are a couple of quotes from UMass’s release.

“We are very pleased to welcome Juancarlos in his return to the University of Massachusetts,” said Bamford. “It is fitting that after Judy Dixon’s remarkable 25-year run at UMass, we name a former assistant coach to replace her. JC has proven in his young coaching career that he is ready for the challenge of running his own program. We are excited to have him back in Amherst to build on the many successes UMass has had under Coach Dixon.”

“UMass is family for me, which makes this a truly exciting opportunity,” said Nunez. “I am deeply humbled and honored to lead the UMass women’s tennis program. Coach Judy Dixon has established a remarkable legacy at UMass and my goal will be to continue building upon the foundation that she leaves.”

 

 

UTEP Director of Athletics Bob Stull announced the hiring of Ivan Fernandez as the Miners new women’s head coach. Fernandez had been the women’s head coach at New Mexico State for the last seven years going 76-79 (.490) though they played in the finals of the conference tournament in each of the last four years. Fernandez replaces Roberto Aspillaga who is gone after going 15-25 (.375) over the last two seasons. Below are some quotes from UTEP’s release.

“Ivan is a great fit for us,” said UTEP Director of Athletics Bob Stull. “He has annually had NM State in the Western Athletic Conference championship picture, and he’s looking forward to leading UTEP Tennis to a new level of achievement. He brings a built-in knowledge of our program and players that will allow him to really hit the ground running, recruiting and planning for the 2017-18 season. He and his wife love this part of the country. He’ll bring stability to our program and he can’t wait to get started.”

“After more than 15 years in collegiate coaching, I am very excited to be named the next women’s tennis head coach at UTEP,” Fernandez said. “I bring many years of experience as a head coach and much-needed stability to a program with a great history. I have been part of the tennis community in this area for the last 12 years and know how important the community is to the success of any program. I am committed to returning UTEP tennis to its former glory and with the continued support of UTEP, Director of Athletics Bob Stull, and the entire athletic department, I know that I will be provided all of the resources necessary to achieve this goal.”

 

 

Recent Florida graduate and NCAA Singles Runner-Up Belinda Woolcock was named the Honda Sport Award winner for tennis which is presented by The Collegiate Women Sports Awards. Woolcock got the award over Francesca Di Lorenzo, Brienne Minor, and Astra Sharma. The full release has more details and is available at this link.