Denis Kudla

Denis Kudla (/ˈkuːdlə/ KOOD-lə; born August 17, 1992) is an American tennis coach and former professional player. He had a career-high ATP singles ranking of world No. 53, achieved in May 2016. He had a career-high doubles ranking of No. 133, achieved in August 2018. He won nine Challenger singles and nine doubles titles in his career.

He is currently coaching Reilly Opelka.

Kudla's family moved from Ukraine to Fairfax, Virginia on his first birthday. He began playing tennis at age seven, in part because his older brother Nikita played tennis, but also because many of his father's friends played. He used to tag along as Nikita took informal lessons from their father in Fairfax's Van Dyck Park. Kudla's father, Vladimir Kudla, took his family out of Ukraine shortly after the Soviet Union collapsed. Kudla's parents moved to the US not speaking a word of English, but learned it within a few years.

His mother got permission to pick him up from elementary school one hour early so that they were able to go from Fairfax to the Junior Tennis Champions Center (JTCC) in College Park, Maryland. She used to wait for him during his two-hour practices. She drove home while he slept, and then she used to wake him up for dinner and homework.

His family moved to Arlington when he was 13 years old, where Kudla was set to matriculate at Washington-Lee High School. A schedule of six hours of tennis court time each day was going to leave no room for a traditional high school life. He was home-schooled on-site at JTCC, graduating from Laurel Springs School, the NCAA approved online private school. He had to commute on his own to practice in College Park via the Metro, lugging two racket bags and changing trains twice during rush hour. "My parents were strict, but not crazy strict. I was never spoiled. I wanted tennis. It was always my dream." One of Kudla's favorite experiences was visiting the White House for the 2013 Easter Egg Roll as he got to meet President Barack Obama, and NFL Pro Bowlers Anquan Boldin and Adrian Peterson. Kudla worked out early in his career with trainer Greg Petrosian in Boca Raton, Florida.

By age ten, Kudla had enrolled at the US Tennis Association's prestigious Junior tennis training center at College Park, Maryland.

In 2008 as the number one seed, he won the 16-and-under age bracket at the Orange Bowl, beating future University of Virginia tennis player, Mitchell Frank. Both players were training together at College Park. Kudla won the match, which was his first in major international competition. Kudla became the first American to win the Boys’ 16s title since Donald Young in 2003.

Kudla also participated in the 2008 BNP Paribas Showdown vs Junior A. Ore at Madison Square Garden, as they were the under-card for Roger Federer and Pete Sampras who competed against each other afterwards. Soon after, Kudla turned pro even though he had great interest from the University of Virginia as he was the 2nd ranked senior in the nation. Kudla reached a career-high combined junior ranking of world No. 3. He believes the turning point in his junior tennis career was when he came from behind to beat junior tennis prodigy Trey Hatcher of Knoxville, Tennessee 7–5, 7–6 at the Boys 12s National Hard Court Championships in 2003.