TENNIS _|

Carlos Lozano became involved with the sport of tennis after trying soccer as child growing up in Mexico.

When he realized he did not like soccer and his cousin had played tennis, a 10-year old Lozano took up the sport. For about 28 years, Lozano has been playing or coaching and is currently the Director of Tennis for the Rockbridge Club.

He first started coaching tennis after graduating from Brigham Young in 2003 where his first job was at TopSpin Racquet and Swim club in Lexington. He spent 12 years there as the director of tennis before accepting a job as the Director of Tennis in Hilton Head in 2015 where he spent 10 months before moving back to Columbia in October 2015 to accept his current position in Columbia.

Lozano became involved with the South Carolina chapter of the United States Tennis Association in 2003. This was thanks in part to his mentor Charly Rasheed, who was involved with the player development committee which Lozano decided to join. Since then, he has become more involved in at the different levels of organization within the US-TA South Carolina chapter, which has allowed him to understand its importance to the community.

Lozano certainly feels that he has made an impact on the many levels, but he feels that as the central area tennis director, he is able to bring a unique insight to the USTA S.C. Board and Committee through his various roles as a tennis director, player, and parent of a son who plays tennis. This allows him to see what can be improved in the Lexington area and staying connected with all the midlands area tennis clubs to help make the midlands tennis community better.

Lozano has always been passionate about coaching high level players and see this as a reflection of his coaches growing up who had a tremendous impact on his tennis and his life. Therefore, he believes that he can be an influence in a tennis player’s career and help them craft a future as a tennis player.

In addition, the competitive aspect is another reason why he enjoys being a tennis coach. He loves competing in tournaments, but the most important of being a coach is that it now allows his son the opportunity to have a good coach.

As the coach of the South Carolina Junior tennis team, Lozano led them to victory at the USTA Southern Junior Cup. He previously coached the South Carolina Junior tennis team twice at this event. For Lozano, this was a tremendous achievement that he was proud to be part of.

He considers coaching the South Carolina Junior Tennis team for the USTA Southern Junior Cup to be a privilege and every time has been a unique experience for him. Lozano hopes to have the pleasure to coach at that event again and even defend the title. He has been the recipient of the 2014 John Newcombe Tennis Pro of the Year, which was extremely important to him as his mentor, Charly Rasheed, also was the recipient of that award.

This made Lozano happy to know that he was following in mentor footsteps.