RIRC Tennis Pros
Adam El Midaway
Co-Director Advantage Junior High-Performance Program
Adam was born in Astoria, Queens, and has been an elite competitor and tennis professional for the past 20 years. He trained under top coaches such as Gilad Bloom, Gene Mayer, Stephen Koon and Tim Mayotte and was part of an elite USTA high performance team which consisted of only five players. He ranked #1 in the Eastern Section Boys in the 12’s, 14’s and concurrently ranked #1 in both 16’s and 18’s in the same year. Adam achieved a top five in the nation in 12’s and 14’s and #1 in the 16’s as well as a top 100 ITF junior.
While on the pro tour, he traveled all over the world playing in North America, South America, Europe, Asia and Africa. He reached a career high ranking of 281 in Singles and #330 in Doubles, and overall, he has won 14 singles titles and 12 doubles titles.
Alejandro Ridruejo
Tennis Professional
Alejandro Ridruejo was born in Madrid, Spain, started playing tennis at 3, and grew to be one of the best players in Spain by age 12. At 18, after playing ITF tournaments around Europe, he moved to the US and played D1 tennis at St. Francis College as number 1 in singles and doubles. He has over 5 years of experience as a tennis pro in the NYC Metro area where he worked at John McEnroe Tennis Academy for a year before moving on to upstate and the Hamptons.
He recently completed his Masters in Sports Business Management & Entertainment at Manhattanville College and has ventured out of tennis in order to follow his dream in the fashion industry. He is currently and taking courses at Parsons School of Design and interning at Robert Burke Associates’ offices at Thorsun.
Amanda Bell
Tennis Professional
Amanda started playing tennis when she was 10 and became a NELTA ranked junior growing up in Connecticut and played Division II singles and doubles at Clarion University of Pennsylvania, where the team won the PSAC all 4 years and earned a spot at Nationals. She has coached at the Country Club of Fairfield and Offense-Defense Tennis Camp in Milton, MA and has experience teaching adults and children.
Amanda is PTR Level 1 Certified Professional and has been an Advantage QuickStart Tennis Pro for 9 years, where her specialty is teaching red ball to children 4-6 years old. She is also Co-Director of Advantage Day Camp based at RIRC. Amanda completed an MA in Media Studies at The New School and is currently enrolled in the Professional Tennis Management Program with Queens College.
Anne Hobbs
Tennis Professional
Anne Hobbs was one of Britain’s leading tennis players for more than 12 years. Anne reached a WTA world ranking of 33 in singles and 6 in doubles. A keen competitor with a serve and volley game, Anne represented Great Britain in Wightman and Federation Cups from 1978-1989, and had recorded singles victories over Virginia Wade, Rosie Casals, Jo Durie, Carling Bassett, and Zina Garrison. Anne runs her own program at RIRC which includes private lessons, doubles clinics, and adult tournaments. For more information on Anne Hobbs, please click on the link to her website. www.AnneHobbsTennis.com
Aston Lawson
Tennis Professional
Aston attended Montego Bay Community College, Jamaica. He taught at several All-American Sports five-star resorts and is an instructor at the Nike/Amherst Adult Tennis Camp in Massachusetts. USPTA certified, he has been at RIRC since 1994 and excels in the development of junior players.
Bob Ingersole
Tennis Professional
Bob Ingersole is the President of Ingersole Events & Tennis Management LLC, President of the Junior Tennis Foundation and Director of Advantage Camps. A native of Australia, Bob moved to the United States in 1976 and began playing on the Pro Tour. He is fully certified by both the USPTA & PTR, has taught over 100 nationally ranked juniors, adults and 16 professional tour players. He was twice named USPTA/Eastern Pro of the year. He has also been a Tournament Director for WTA, Challenger, National and Sectional events over the past thirty years. Bob does extensive volunteer work with the USTA at local, national & international levels giving him in-depth knowledge of the junior & collegiate competitive tennis systems. Bob is currently on the USTA Eastern Sections System Review Task Force and served on USTA Eastern Board of Director’s for 16 years. In 2015 Bob was inducted into the Eastern Hall of Fame. He is also currently President of the Metrotennis CTA and the creator of the innovative Star Search Talent identification program, which identifies athletes at a young age and introduces them to tennis. Bob lives with his wife Dina in Roosevelt Island, NY.
Brett Bothwell
Tennis Professional
Brett grew up playing junior tennis in Minnesota and went on to play college tennis at Illinois Institute of Technology, where he received a Bachelor of Architecture. He came to NYC to practice architecture but couldn’t deny his passion for tennis and began playing and hitting as a side job. Today, the passion for tennis and for architecture and design has resulted in his founding of BOLT Sports, a small upstart tennis racquet company with a big engineering idea. Brett has been teaching tennis for over 25 years. He enjoys working with players of all ages and levels. As a coach his emphasis is on building a strong technique at the foundation of every player’s game in order to optimize physical capacity, minimize injury and build confidence.
Brittany Thompson
Tennis Professional
Brittany Thompson hails from Dallas, TX, and was top 20 in her state as a Junior. She played Division 1 tennis at Long Island University for all 4 years and made it to the US Open playoffs, a nationwide tourney for amateurs to earn a spot in the US Open. Before coming to RIRC, she was Director of Juniors at Manhattan Tennis Academy and Junior Coordinator at McCarren Tennis Club.
Carole Wright
Tennis Professional
Co-director of the All City Junior Tennis and Sports Camp at Roosevelt Island and the Assistant Director of the All-City Junior Tennis Program, Carole has been running junior tennis programs for children for over 25 years. She is one of the best women tennis players to come from New York. She was twice the National Indoor Women’s Champion, the Mixed Doubles Indoor Champion and the Canadian Women’s Singles Indoor Champion. She has been at Roosevelt Island Racquet Club since 1992. Prior to moving to RIRC, Carole ran programs at Crosstown Tennis. In her spare time, Carole creates handcrafted tennis ornaments. You can visit her web site at www.cwstainedglass.com
Evan Vrsajiko
Co-Director Advantage Junior High-Performance Program
Evan Vrsajiko played Division I tennis for St. Francis College and has been a US Open hitting partner for Lukasz Kubot, Jennifer Elie and Adam El Midaway. Prior to coming to RIRC, he worked with Patrick McEnroe at the USTA Player Development Program at the USTA BJK National Tennis Center from 2013-2015, and was Junior Director of Cunningham Tennis. He is USPTA P1 certified.
Evan ‘s special skill is developing suitable training programs for students based on their age, objectives, and individual skill sets. He has worked with many advanced junior players, emphasizing not only tennis skills, but fitness, endurance and match strategy, and often traveling players to tennis matches, competitions, and tournaments as required.
Flavio Carretero
Tennis Professional
Flavio Carretero was born in Madrid, Spain where he started playing tennis at the age of 4. He rose to become a highly ranked Junior in Spain, before attending college in the U.S. where he played for Harford Community College for two years as the team achieved a Top 10 Ranking in the nation. He then received a scholarship to play for the University of Mount Olive, graduating with honors.
He has a total of 9 years of coaching experience in the U.S. and has been teaching in the New York City metro area for the past 4 years, working at Future Stars Camp, The Bailiwick Club in Greenwich and Rye Racquet Club. He is currently pursuing a Master’s Degree in Sports Business Management.
Harrison Suttle
Tennis Professional
Harrison brings over 10 years of teaching experience to RIRC and is a former Division III player at the College of Wooster. He has worked as a full-time teaching professional at Midtown Tennis Club in Manhattan and James River Country Club in Virginia. He is USPTA certified and has passion for junior development and teaching adults of all levels.
Israel Matute
Tennis Professional
Israel “Izzy” Matute started playing tennis in New York City as a teenager. He is now a USPTR certified professional and has over 16 years of playing and teaching experience. Israel has been part of the RIRC community for a long time, following a period of teach at Manhattan Plaza Racquet Club. He has competed at different men’s tournaments making it to the finals at the USTA Eastern Challenger Series (2009) and The Blizzard Bowl (2014) at RIRC among others. Israel enjoys sharing his knowledge of tennis to all ages and levels.
Javier Luna
Tennis Professional
Javier Luna was a ranked junior in the USTA Eastern Section. He follows in his father Xavier Luna’s footsteps as he embarks on his tennis teaching vocation. After attending the University of Delaware for two years, he currently attends Baruch College in Manhattan.
Jeremy Bolger
Tennis Professional
Jeremy Bolger is a life-long New Yorker and grew up in Greenwich Village. He played #1 in college for Roger Williams University and at Hunter College. Jeremy has worked at RIRC on and off for at least 20 years. In addition to being a part of the RIRC staff, he is a top real estate agent with Brown Harris Stevens and owner of the Ground on the LES, Manhattan’s only indoor soccer field and bar.
John Guerrero
Tennis Professional
John Guerrero, born in Venezuela, was top 200 in the ITF world junior rankings. He played NCAA D-1 men’s tennis at U. of New Orleans and Lamar University, graduating with a degree in Finance. He also played 3 seasons in the prestigious German Club tennis league as well as some of the top junior tournaments in the world including the French Open and Orange Bowl.
He is a certified USPTA Elite coach and completed the USTA High Performance coaching program. Before joining RIRC, he coached at the John McEnroe Tennis Academy and was the Assistant Director of Tennis at TCR in Riverdale. When not on the court, he is Real Estate Agent at Christie’s International Real Estate Group in NYC.
Justin Samples
Tennis Professional
Justin began playing tennis at the age of 12 through the NJTL program in Atlanta, GA. He played competitively throughout high school and on scholarship for 4 years at Morehouse College where he studied Physics and Mathematics. Currently certified by the PTR and USPTA, Justin has been coaching tennis and fitness skills to players of all ages and skill levels since 2015. Outside of tennis, Justin enjoys teaching full-time high school physics and computer science in the Bronx.
Lyza Velykorodna
Tennis Professional
Lyza was born in Ukraine where she played as a top junior, winning several national championship trophies. She came to the US in 2019 to attend Georgia Gwinnett College and play on their Varsity Tennis Team. While on the team, their school won three NIAAA national Championships and she was selected to NAII All-American two years in a row. She moved to New York City in Fall of 2022 where she joined the staff of RIRC on a temporary basis. After teaching at Sportime Amagansett in Summer of 2023, she joined the staff at RIRC full time in Fall of 2023.
Matt Aaron
Tennis Professional
Matt was born in New York City and grew up in both the city and Long Island. He spent his summers in college teaching at various country clubs throughout the North Shore of Long Island and played on Lafayette College’s Division 1 Tennis Team in Easton, PA. Upon returning to NYC after college, he worked in the financial industry while also continuing to teach tennis at numerous clubs throughout the area, most recently at Stadium Tennis Center where he helped oversee their weekend junior programs. He has his MBA from NYU and most recently obtained his PPR Pickleball Certification.
Michelle Tikhonko
Tennis Professional
Michelle was born in New York, and later relocated to Russia with her father, Igor Tikhonko, when he became Director of the WTA and ATP Kremlin Cup in Moscow. She spent time training with the national team of Belarus and, in addition to her father, was taught by Alexander Dolgopolov Sr., and Alexander Bogomolov Sr. & Jr. She rose to be top 10 in Russia as a 12 & under junior, and top 30 in European 14 & under. She eventually rose to top 400 in the world in ITF Junior rankings. As an instructor, she has taught in Belarus, Germany and the United States for several years, and comes to us from Midtown Tennis Club where, in addition to her pro duties, was Director of the Junior Program.
Mike Williams
Tennis Professional
Michael started playing tennis at 5 years old and never looked back. He was as a nationally ranked junior player until he attended Clemson University where he proudly captained the tennis team. After his college career he played on the satellite tour in which he earned a singles ranking of 1081 in the world and a top 1000 doubles ranking. Michael became a USTA “Gold Ball” recipient in 2013 when he won the Men’s “Open” Doubles Championship at the National Tennis Center.
After stepping away from professional tennis he turned his focus to teaching others the game he loves. From touring professionals, to aspiring amateurs, to beginners, Michael has twenty years of teaching experience in the New York City area and abroad. He has been a sparring partner for such greats as John and Patrick McEnroe, Martina Navratilova, Venus Williams, Andy Roddick and Jim Courier. His coaching influences include Bob Ingersole, Chuck Kriese, and Nick Bollettieri. Michael is dedicated to helping players of all levels by focusing on the fundamentals of the game and designing programs that will help each individual reach their highest level. Mike can be reached at mwilliams@advantagetennisclubs.com
Miko Sarznynski
Tennis Professional
Miko has been teaching successfully in the Metropolitan Area for the past 15 years working for numerous organizations such as Tennis Approach, Super Stars Tennis, and the JMTA on Randalls Island. He is a USPTA certified Tennis Professional and utilizes his background in philosophy to help his students gain a better knowledge of technique and tactics on the tennis court.
Natasha Prokhnevska
Tennis Professional
Natasha has been playing tennis since she was 6 years old, after watching Maria Sharapova win Wimbledon and deciding she wanted to be a tennis player. As a Junior, she was top 25 in the US and played in college for Georgia Tech, competing all 4 years on the team in singles and doubles. During her senior year, Georgia Tech was ranked 12 in the country, and successfully made it to NCAA sweet 16s. After graduating with a B.S. in Biochemistry she did post-graduate work at Emory University and taught tennis in midtown Atlanta. While teaching at RIRC part-time, she works full-time at Mt. Sinai Medical Center doing research on improving therapeutics for liver cancer patients.
Paul Rose
Tennis Professional
Paul grew up in Montego Bay, Jamaica where he discovered his passion for tennis after competing in various tournaments and turned that passion into teaching. In 1986, he attended a summer program at the University of Tennessee under Mike De Palmer.
Paul moved to the United States in 1987 and started coaching tennis at the Port Washington Tennis Academy where he worked with some of the top juniors in the Northeast. In 1989, Paul joined the staff at Midtown Tennis Club, taking a brief hiatus to focus on teaching tennis to his three daughters. All three went on to play college tennis, and his eldest daughter was ranked as high as top 800 in the WTA rankings. He remained at Midtown for over 30 years until its’ closing in December 2022.
Peter Wang
Tennis Professional
Peter Wang, born in Hong Kong, is a USPTA certified tennis instructor who strives to help young children learn to love in tennis through his enthusiasm for the game. Peter is an integral part of our children’s QuickStart Program since Spring of 2021, and he finds that creativity and patience from the coach is important in teaching small children the mechanics of the game.