PHILADELPHIA – The University of Pennsylvania’s head women’s tennis coach, Sanela Kunovac, has announced the hiring of Axel Damiens as an assistant coach.
“It is with great pleasure that we welcome Axel into the Penn Tennis family,” said Kunovac. “Axel’s love of the game of tennis, his competitiveness, his deep interest in bettering himself and those around him, and his background in Ivy athletics will help him be a wonderful coach and mentor to the players. I’m excited to welcome him to the team.”
Damiens, who spent a year as a volunteer assistant at Princeton, returns to the Ivy League from Florida State University where he was a graduate assistant for the men’s tennis team.
While at FSU, Damiens assisted in putting together the top-ranked recruiting class in the country, including the highest UTR-ranked player in collegiate tennis. He also helped oversee a team from which eight student-athletes earned ACC academic honor roll honors and had the conference’s highest team GPA in the sport. Damiens helped guide six men to ITA All-Academic awards, coaching three ranked singles players and one ranked doubles team as well as earning a final team ranking of 54. Six student-athletes he worked with were Davis Cup players.
Prior to joining the Seminoles, Damiens worked with the Princeton men’s tennis team as a volunteer assistant coach in July 2019. During his time there he helped coach a team that was ranked as high as number 18 nationally and saw a doubles team ranked as high as number six. The team compiled a 14-4 record before the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
“It’s an honor to be part of such a prestigious university and such a successful tennis program,” said Damiens. “I am beyond excited to be back in the Ivy League and to work with some of the best student-athletes in the world. The commitment to success at Penn is obvious, and I am proud to be a part of it. I am grateful for Coach Kunovac giving me that opportunity and everyone who has helped me get to this point.”
Damiens was a first-team All-Big West honoree during his college tennis career at Cal Poly (2014-18), then served as a student assistant coach during the 2018-19 season. He earned first-team all-league doubles honors as a senior in 2018 while serving as a team captain. Damiens finished as one of five players in program history to reach 50 singles wins and was top eight in program history in combined singles and doubles winning percentage. He helped Cal Poly to an ITA team ranking as high as 33rd during his career and, in the classroom, was a multi-time Dean’s List honoree. Damiens’ season as an assistant coach at Cal Poly, during which he finished his business administration degree with a marketing concentration, saw Cal Poly place five players on All-Big West Conference teams and finish the season ranked 70th by the ITA.
Outside of Cal Poly, Damiens—who is originally from Feucherolles, France, west of Paris—played in several ITF professional tournaments and in professional league tennis in France. He was named to the all-decade team.
Damiens hails from a family of athletes. His father, Christophe, was an All-America tennis player at Mississippi State and his mother, Aurelie, played professional handball. His sister, Romane, is a collegiate handball player in Paris where she was named national tournament MVP.
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