Wake Forest University Men's Tennis

Coaching Career Record Wake Forest (2011-Present) 370-98 (120-34 ACC) Cornell (2010) 26-5 (7-0 Ivy League) Virginia (2002-10) 240-44 (75-13 ACC) Career Accol...

A former ATP world No. 52 singles and No. 29 doubles professional player, Brian Baker joined the Wake Forest men’s tennis staff after spending the last three years at the United States Tennis Association (USTA), in charge of developing junior players. In his role with the USTA, Baker served as the main USA federation coach at the junior grand slams and coached Bruno Kuzuhara to No. 1 in the junior world rankings and a victory at the Junior Australian Open in 2022. Additionally, Baker coached Michael Zheng to the finals of the Junior Wimbledon Championships in 2022 and Learner Tien to the finals of the Junior Australian Open in 2023. Prior to his work with the USTA, Baker had stops as an assistant coach at Belmont and Vanderbilt over a six year span. Baker enjoyed a decorated playing career, as he represented Team USA in singles and doubles at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro. Additionally, Baker won main draw matches at all four grand slams, including reaching the final 16 at Wimbledon in 2012. Of note, Baker owns a singles victory over Novak Djokovic.

A former ITA top-50 singles player and Missouri Valley Conference (MVC) Player of the Year, Vinny Gillespie arrived at Wake Forest after previously serving as an assistant coach at his alma mater, Drake. Gillespie brings a wealth of coaching experience to Wake Forest as he spent the past several years coaching junior players, both in the United States and in the United Kingdom. Along with being named MVC Player of the Year at Drake in 2017, Gillespie earned numerous awards during his playing career, including garnering conference player of the week accolades eight times. As a student-athlete, Gillespie achieved national rankings in singles (No. 48) and doubles (No. 23) during his career.