RICARDO ACIOLY

DIRECTOR OF STRATEGIC DEVELOPMENT

Ricardo’s ATP Tour playing experience and success as one of the best Professional Coaches in the World continues to raise our Tennis Program to the highest level. His experience as a Director on the ATP Board of Directors, as an ATP 500 Tournament organizer and as a TV Commentator brings to the Academy someone who has had great experience and influence at the highest level of International Professional Tennis over many years.

He has what is considered by many one of the most complete careers in tennis, having been recognized Internationally as a Player, Coach, Tennis Executive, Tournament Promoter and Sports Commentator.

As a Junior Ricardo was always one of the best Brazilian Players of his age group and was a runner-up at the Orange Bowl, considered at the time the World Junior Championships. He then went on to play Division 1 College Tennis and was the N1 Players and Team Captain for the University of South Carolina, a top 20 team on the NCAA Division 1 rankings.

After graduating with a double major in Business, more specifically in Systems Analysis and Marketing, Ricardo went on to play on the ATP Professional Tour for 8 years. He became a member of the Brazilian Davis Cup Team, the Brazilian Olympic Team and was ranked in the Top 50 in the World in doubles. A 6 times finalist in Tournaments at the ATP Tour level he won titles in Vienna, Geneva and Guaruja and was a finalist in Washington, Brasilia and Maceio. He competed in the Seoul Olympic Games and played multiple times in all Grand Slam Tournaments (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and US Open).

As a full time ATP traveling Coach Ricardo worked with several Top Players in the World like former ATP N1 Marcelo Rios, WTA’s N2 Gabriela Sabatini, Fernando Meligeni (ATP 24) and quite a few other players in the ATP Top 100 like Nicolas Pereira, Andre Sá, Javier Frana, Hernan Gumy and Alexandre Simoni just to mention a few. The results of his work with his players are very significant having achieved a Semifinal in the French Open, a Semifinal and a Quarterfinal in the Australian Open, a 4^th pace in the Atlanta Olympic Games and more than 10 titles on ATP Tour level Tournaments in Singles and Doubles.

He was the Brazilian National Coach for the Sydney Olympic Games and Davis Cup Captain for Brazil for 6 years. During his tenure as Captain of the Brazilian Team he worked with players like Gustavo Kuerten (former N1 player in the world), Jaime Oncins, Flavio Saretta and Ricardo Mello, all of whom were top 50 players. Under his leadership Brazil reached the semifinal in the World Group, the best performance in the country’s history and had its biggest win away from home when they defeated Spain in Lerida, against a team that had 4 Top 10 Players at the time: Carlos Moya, Alex Corretja, Albert Costa and Felix Mantilla.

Ricardo also worked and developed a number of Top Juniors that went on to have a successful careers on the ATP Tour like Marcelo Melo (World N1 in Doubles), João Souza (ATP N 68), Franco Ferreiro (ATP top 50) and quite a few others that had significant results in the ATP and ITF JR circuits.

As a Tennis Executive Ricardo is the only South American in history to have served as a Director on the ATP Board of Directors and is also a two time member of the ATP Player Council. He is a current ATP Coach, Agent and Alumni member. He has organized and promoted a number of professional events on the ATP’s Challenger Tour, Champions Tour and currently serves as Director of Relations on the organizing committee of the Rio Open ATP 500, the biggest professional tennis tournament in South America. Ricardo is also known worldwide as a Tennis Commentator for Globo Brazilian TV and does the play by play for matches during the US Open, Wimbledon and all Masters 1000 ATP Tournaments.