Eastern Michigan Hires Jayson Wiseman; Gary Sussman Headed to Marist; JJ Wolf Picks Up His First ATP Point

Tagged with: Eastern Michigan, Gary Sussman, Jayson Wiseman, JJ Wolf, Marist

The coaching carousel is almost done spinning for the upcoming season with two more openings filled in the last week though one of the hires created another opening.  Jayson Wiseman, who was the women’s head coach at Evansville for the past two seasons, was announced as the new women’s head coach at Eastern Michigan. Wiseman had a tough first season at Evansville going 8-20 but in his second season the team more than doubled its win total and went 17-14. Wiseman replaces Ryan Ray whose contract was not renewed after going 97-150 (.393) over the past 11 seasons. Below is a quote by Jayson Wiseman from EMU’s release: 

“I am thrilled to be a part of the Eastern Michigan family. I am looking forward to helping our student-athletes develop and reach their goals on and off the court,” added Wiseman. “Today we begin building an attitude and tradition of success that EMU Athletics embodies. I am humbled by this incredible opportunity with which I have been entrusted. I want to thank Scott Wetherbee, Dan McLean, Erin Kido, and everyone at EMU for this honor and responsibility. I’d also like to thank Mark Spencer and Sarah Solinsky for the opportunity and support they gave me to rebuild the program at the University of Evansville.”

 

Marist made a coaching hire on Tuesday with the announcement of Gary Sussman as the new women’s head coach. Sussman, who was formerly the Vice President of Public Relations for the NBA’s Brooklyn Nets, replaces Jason Sacher whose second tenure at Marist ended after one season with the squad going 8-8. Below is a quote from Marist’s release:

“I am very excited for this opportunity”, said Sussman. “Marist is a tremendous academic environment with great student-athletes, and I am looking forward to the upcoming MAAC tennis campaign.”

 

 

As of today there are three men’s and three women’s head coaching openings that still need to be filled. On the men’s side there is Georgia State with assistant coach Jonny Wolf filling in as interim coach, St. John’s with Lauren Leo who is the women’s coach filling in as the interim coach though it sounds like she may take over as the men’s coach on a permanent basis, and Youngstown State. On the women’s side there is Youngstown State, Eastern Illinois, and now Evansville. I have a list of all the head coaching changes on my coaching carousel page so if you need to get caught up you can check it out here. 

 

 

Ohio State sophomore JJ Wolf (14.32) earned his first ATP points on Tuesday with a straight set win over Great Britain’s Luke Bambridge (ATP 547/14.43) in the opening round of the $75K Columbus (OH) Challenger. Wolf won 86% of the points on his first serve while converting all four break opportunities in the 6-4, 6-2 win which earned him 7 ATP points. Up next for Wolf will be the fourth seed Denis Kudla (ATP 173/15.00). 

Ohio State junior Martin Joyce (13.50) won his first match at the Challenger level with a tough 7-6(4), 7-6(1) win over India’s Prajnesh Gunneswaran (ATP 244/14.87). There were no breaks of serve in the match though each player had a handful of break points. Up next for Joyce will be Great Britain’s Alexander Ward (ATP 566/14.63). 

Mikael Torpegaard (14.52) was the defending champion in Columbus but he bowed out in the first round falling 7-6, 6-4 to Filip Peliwo (ATP 267/14.63). Torpegaard was defending 80 of his 124 ATP points so when the new rankings come out next week he’ll drop from 360 to around 620.