Welcome to Season 13, Episode 22, of the ParentingAces Podcast, a proud member of the Tennis Channel Podcast Network. This week Lisa chats again with high-performance junior and WTA coach, Tom Downs (click here for our Season 10 podcast with Tom).

Tom is currently working as a private coach based in Dallas, Texas, and is working with former ITF Junior #3 and current WTA player Liv Hovde.

Prior to coaching tour players, however, Tom was a high-level junior himself in his home country of Australia. He came to the US to play college tennis and soon realized he had a gift and a passion for coaching.

As you'll hear in our interview, Tom was fortunate to come into the orbit of well-known coach, Harold Solomon, early in his career, and considers Harold a mentor to this day. Tom became the Director of Coaching at the Harold Solomon Tennis Institute in 2008 where he spent the next 8 years building up his coaching muscle. He was the hitting partner/coach for several top female players including Sam Stosur, Renae Stubbs, and Elena Dementieva.

From 2016 until the start of the Pandemic in 2020, Tom worked with juniors, college players, and pros in South Florida. During that time, he had the good fortune to work with then-junior Peyton Stearns, helping her develop into a top collegiate player at the University of Texas where she became the NCAA DI Singles Champion in 2022. Tom worked with Peyton again as she transitioned onto the pro tour, sitting courtside as she won over 20 matches including two 25k ITF tournaments.

To contact Coach Tom Downs, you can email him at tassietom123@gmail.com or text him at 813-382-2241.

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CREDITS

Intro & Outro Music: Morgan Stone aka STØNE

Audio & Video Editing: Lisa Stone

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