Sander Gillé at US Open

Former ETSU tennis player Sander Gillé performed last week at the US Open, one of the highest-level tennis tournaments.

Gillé is a proud ETSU alumnus, who kickstarted his tennis journey in 2008 after moving here from Belgium. Today he ranks 31^st in the world in doubles, according to ATP Tour’s rankings.  

Current women’s tennis head coach Ricky Rojas remains close to Gillé after being men’s assistant coach during Gillé’s enrollment. Coach Rojas saw him in-person at the US Open. “I think it all started here at ETSU. He developed here, he got stronger. You know, played great matches, got better every year. I think that was the first phase of his career.”  

This past week, Gillé participated in the US Open, where he made it to the mixed doubles quarterfinals with his partner Demi Schuurs. The pair lost the first set (1-6), won the second set (6-1), and lost in the tiebreaker (7-10) to Joe Salisbury and Desirae Krawczyk. 

He also won the first round of men’s doubles with partner Joran Vliegan but was eliminated in the second round against Aisam-ul-Haq Qureshi and Jonny O’Mara (6-3, 3-6, 6³-7⁷). Although Gillé was disappointed, Coach Rojas acknowledged how easily doubles matches can go wrong. “It’s a game of inches in doubles.” said Rojas.  

Gillé played at ETSU from 2008-2012. Like many international students, he chose ETSU once he met with the team and connected with the people and atmosphere of East Tennessee. He was a business major and a good student, making it through college with a high GPA.

Coach Rojas reminisced on Gillé’s humble, hard-working attitude and impressive tennis skills. “He’s got a big serve . . . It’s very tough to break his serve. He’s very good and can place it anywhere, has a lot of pace. First and second, the second serve almost feels like the first serve. That’s a big weapon.” 

In addition to ranking 31^st in the world in doubles, Gillé has also won 5 ATP titles and made the semifinals in the ATP Tour Masters 1000 in Toronto. From there, Gillé hopes to break into the top ten rankings and participate in Grand Slam championships. 

You can watch him in action when he participates in this year’s Davis Cup.