Brian Baker named USTA national men's tennis coach
A former top-60 player Brian Baker has been named a national coach for men's tennis, just a few weeks after the USTA hired Jermaine Jenkins as a national women’s coach. The 33-year-old from Nashville will now at the USTA National Campus at Lake Nona in Orlando, Florida, under the head of men's tennis Kent Kinnear, using his Collegiate coaching experience to help the upcoming stars at the most prominent site of the American tennis. After a solid start of a career, Brian was forced to deal with one injury after another, hitting rock bottom many times but bouncing back to achieve a decent career and write one of the best tennis stories of the previous decade.
Baker had to undergo numerous surgeries on a left high, hernia, right elbow and left and right hip between 2005-08, playing just four matches in 2007 after missing the entire previous season and deciding to step down from the Tour and open new horizons, serving as an assistant men's coach at Belmont University from 2008-11. After a massive break from tennis, Brian came back in 2011 to win the very-first Futures he entered and the game was on, reaching the final at Knoxville Challenger at the end of the year and preparing for more in 2012.
Following some good results in Futures, Baker claimed Savannah Challenger title after barely being ranked inside the top-300 and the best was yet to come a few weeks later, reaching the final of the ATP 250 event in Nice, also as a qualifier, losing to Nicolas Almagro in straight sets. After winning a match at Roland Garros, Baker went on to Wimbledon where he reached the fourth round as a qualifier, cracking the top-100 for the first time in a career! Still, his bad luck returned in January 2013 when he suffered a severe right knee injury at the Australian Open, playing just five matches by the end of the season and staying away from the Tour until 2016, working at Belmont University again in 2015. That knee injury proved to be impossible to overcome and Brian was forced to end his career in Houston 2017, returning to Belmont for another year before embracing the new role at the USTA National Campus in Orlando.
"Brian’s experiences as a player and as a coach will be a tremendous addition to our Team USA Pro Department, as he works closely with players and their coaches progressing to break their way into the ATP Top 100," Kent Kinnear said. "His tennis mind, his analytical abilities and his drive and determination for improvement will all be incredible assets for our staff and for our country’s up-and-coming pro players."
from Tennis World USA http://bit.ly/2SeV51b
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