Walker Adds Williams to Staff
8/10/2015 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
FORT WORTH, Texas – TCU women's tennis head coach Lee Taylor Walker has added Christopher Williams to his staff as a volunteer assistant coach as announced on Monday afternoon.
Williams joins the Horned Frog staff after spending the last three years coaching tennis professionals on the ATP and WTA tour.
"Christopher has coached at the highest level of college and professional tennis and we are very fortunate to have him join our program," Walker said. "He is an excellent resource for a variety of reasons. He has experience as a player on a NCAA runner-up team and he has a great knowledge of both the ATP and WTA tours and an understanding of the special nuances of how those operate. Lastly, he has quality experience on mental toughness development and training. Ben (Stapp) and I look forward to a great year and maximizing the amount of fun and success we can have with our team."
For the past year, Williams has been coaching Olivia Rogowska on the WTA tour as the Australia native reached a career-high singles ranking of No. 102 and a career-high doubles ranking of No. 86 under Williams guidance. Williams has also been the Director of Mental Training at the Bishops Gate Tennis Academy since August 2014.
"I feel so fortunate that Lee and Ben are allowing me to be a part of this tremendous TCU program," Williams said. "Great things are happening here because of forward thinking. I am eager to contribute and continue learning about the elite performances in all areas from the student athletes to staff and administration here at TCU."
Before coaching Rogowska, Williams coached former teammate and Tennessee All-American Rhyne Williams from 2012-14. During that time, Williams was able to achieve a career-high singles ranking of No. 114 and play in five main draw singles brackets. Williams also achieved a career-high doubles ranking of No. 141 and won two ATP Challenger titles.
Williams' coaching career started as a volunteer assistant coach for his alma mater, Tennessee. During his two seasons with the team from Aug. 2010 to May 2012, Williams helped coach four players to All-America honors and saw two different singles players and one doubles tandem achieve the No. 1 Wilson/ITA ranking. The team was SEC Regular Season Champions, while also finishing runner-up at the ITA National Indoor Team Championship.
Williams spent his first two years of college at Wofford, before transferring to Tennessee for his final two seasons. While in Knoxville, Williams helped his team to a 2010 SEC regular season and tournament championship and an NCAA runner-up finish. In 2009, the team advanced to the NCAA Sweet 16 and finish ranked No. 8 nationally.
Williams received both his bachelor's and master's degrees from the Tennessee, graduating in July 2010 with a bachelor's degree in sociology and in May of 2012 with a master's degree in kinesiology.
