By Jean DePlacido
After instructing tennis students at Nick Bollettieri's Academy for the past 16 years,
Jeff Russell felt the time was right to take a gamble and open his own tennis academy. So he started United Tennis Academy in Bradenton, Fla.
When the facility opened a year ago, the former Bishop Fenwick tennis star from Peabody had only four hard courts and only six full-time kids. But by last September that number had jumped to 28 students and Russell not only needed more courts, but had to hire additional instructors.
"Nick treated me like a son, but the culture there had changed a bit and became more about money than creating players," said Russell. "When the philosophy changed it wasn't as much of a challenge to me, so it was time to do my own thing.
"Our program is serious business, but we're a smaller operation. We're going to keep it small to keep the quality level high. I never want to grow too big because I need to have a relationship with every person here."
Russell currently has 36 full-time students and is proud to say he knocks each of them. "It goes way beyond knowing them by name, but also what their goals are and the things they need to work on most," he said.
Russell and his partner, Gabriel Trifu of Romania (a former Top 100 ATP tennis professional), built their facility up from the four original courts to eight hard courts and two clay. They decided on the name "United" to emphasis the bond between coaches, students, parents and educators.
Their reputation is growing along with the number of students. "When our numbers started to jump ,we had to scramble to get more courts and bring in more people," said Russell, who now has four full-time instructors including Sandra Casic, who recently retired from the Women's Tournament where she was in the top 30.
"We're still growing, too. A 14,000 square foot building will be built on our site with a separate fitness staff, gym, cafe, physical therapy, and a lounge for the kids."
Russell's tennis academy is conveniently located right on the campus of Bradenton Preparatory Academy, where many of his young tennis players attend school.
"It's a perfect setup because they can play tennis in the morning, then go to classes or come to us after school gets out," said Russell. "We're talking about real serious tennis players that have high aspirations.
"Our youngest is only eight, and they go all the way up to the pros. We currently have touring professionals - both men and women - that we work with on a daily basis."
Russell played college tennis at Central Connecticut State and then went to Bollettieri's to train. He had dreams of turning professional.
"I wanted to play tennis, make some money and travel to see the world," said Russell. "I spent two months in Bradenton before Nick asked if I wanted a job. He was offering me the same things I was looking for with one big difference — the money was guaranteed. I accepted, and it was a good decision that I never regretted. I learned so much from him over the years."
At United Tennis Academy, Russell and Trifu have created an environment to develop the complete athlete by training their students to be physically strong and fast while acquiring sound techniques to help them attain their goals.
UTA instructors offer individual attention and support their desire to become champions. Parental involvement in encouraged as well as close contact with instructors at Bradenton Prep, because they want to teach students more than tennis.
Recently UTA dominated the Next Generation Super Series Junior Tournament at Longwood Run in Sarasota, where the students won titles in eight of the 11 age brackets.
NCAA women's singles champion Mallory Cecil, a Duke University student, trained at UTA along with 1998 Wimbledon semifinalist Mirjana Lucic. At age 14 Lucic won the Junior US Open singles and Australian Open singles and doubles titles. She is the youngest person to win the Grand Slam Championship in the Australian Open with doubles partner, Martina Hingis. Her best singles ranking was 32nd in the world and 19th in doubles.
Last month Russell spent three weeks in Scotland, Wales, and France going to challenger tournaments with Cecil, who just turned pro.
"She's been with me since last September, and I needed to help her get off the ground," said Russell. "I try to leave most of the traveling to my coaches these days, but Mallory needed special attention because she made some big changes in her game.
Among the most promising up-and-coming young stars is 16-year-old Skylar Kuykendall, who won the Girls 16s title in International Tennis Federation's Aruba tournament and has raised her ranking from 1,200 on the junior ITF circuit to her current ranking at 290.
Russell moved to Florida in 1993 and worked with many elite juniors and pros. Some of the better known include Tommy Haas (No. 2 on the ATP), Xavier Malisse (No. 19); Jill Craybas (No. 39 on the WTA), and Alexandra Stevenson (No. 18).
Over the years Russell has traveled to over 40 countries on six continents with top players, who competed in various ITF, ATP, and WTA events including all four Grand Slams.
