Meet the Panelists for the 2020 New York Tennis Expo Seminars

January 31, 2020 | By Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
Speaker Sessions
Photo Credit: Lee Seidner/LI Tennis Magazine

 

The 2020 New York Tennis Expo will feature two different sets of Speaker Sessions which will take place in the Grant Thornton VIP Lounge of NYCB LIVE, home of the Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum.

Both panels will be headlined by legendary tennis coach Nick Bollettieri, founder of IMG Academy. Former World No. 8 Jack Sock will be on the panel in the morning session, while 2019 New York Open finalist Brayden Schnur will participate in the afternoon session. Hannah Berner, star of Bravo TV’s Summer House, will also be featured on the morning session panel. Both sessions will also include top industry coaches and former collegiate players.

The Expo doors open at 10:30 a.m. on Sunday, February 9, and the first panel is scheduled for 11:00 a.m.

Click Here to register for your FREE ticket and receive free parking

The Speaker Sessions will feature in-depth discussions on a wide array of topics, including junior, high school, college and professional tennis, health & fitness, sports psychology and more. Audience members will be able to ask questions and interact with the panelists, making this a can’t-miss opportunity to pick the brains of these experts.

11:00 a.m. – 12:00 p.m.
Coaches Roundtable Live #1 – Grant Thornton VIP Lounge
Nick Bollettieri, Jack Sock, Hannah Berner, Julia Elbaba, Steve Kaplan, Rob Polishook


2:00 – 3:00 p.m.
Coaches Roundtable Live #2 – Grant Thornton VIP Lounge
Nick Bollettieri, Brayden Schnur, Gilad Bloom, Jay Harris, Dr. Tom Ferraro, Alex Pop-Moldovan


 

Nick Bollettieri

Nick Bollettieri is considered by many to be one of the best tennis coaches of all time. He  helped shape the careers of Andre Agassi, Serena Williams, Maria Sharapova, Jim Courier,  Boris Becker, Monica Seles, Anna Kournikova, Tommy Haas, and many other global tennis  champions. In 1978, he founded the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy—now IMG Academy,  the first full-time tennis boarding school that provides young athletes with an opportunity to  train at the highest level while also pursuing their academic aspirations. IMG also focuses  on total athletic development, including strength and conditioning, leadership training, mental toughness sessions, more, as well as high level competition among some of the most talented players in the world.

 

 

Jack Sock

Photo courtesy of ATPWorldTour.com

Jack Sock is an American professional tennis player, who has been ranked as high as eighth in singles and second in doubles. A native of Lincoln, Nebraska, Sock turned pro in 2011 and has won four ATP singles titles. He has advanced as far as the fourth round in singles at both the French and US Opens, and has become one of the top doubles players in the world. He won the Wimbledon doubles title in 2014 alongside Vasek Pospisil, and teamed up with Mike Bryan to win Wimbledon and the US Open in 2018. That year, Sock and Bryan won the ATP World Tour Finals Doubles titles. He has also won the 2011 US Open Mixed Doubles title with Melanie Oudin, and at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Sock won the Gold Medal in Mixed Doubles with Bethanie Mattek-Sands, and the Bronze Medal in Men’s Doubles alongside Steve Johnson.

 

 

 

 

Brayden Schnur

Photo courtesy of ATPWorldTour.com

Brayden Schnur is a professional tennis player who hails from Ontario, Canada. He achieved a career-high ranking of 92nd in the world last year, and is a former star at the University of North Carolina. In Chapel Hill, Schnur was a three-time All-American before turning pro in 2016. He has reached the finals of four ATP Challenger Tour tournaments, and has won 5 Futures titles. He had the best year of his career on the ATP Tour in 2019, which began with his run through qualifying and an appearance in the New York Open final, and saw him make his Grand Slam main draw debut at Wimbledon.

 

 

 

Hannah Berner

Hannah Berner is a former professional and collegiate tennis player turned content creator,  video producer, podcast host and newest cast member of Bravo’s hit series “Summer  House,” now in its third season. She was born in Brooklyn, New York and played  competitive tennis for the University of Wisconsin. She has emerged on the comedy scene  by directing, editing and acting in videos on Instagram and writing viral tweets. This past  November Hannah launched her podcast “Berning in Hell” where she interviews her guests  about their deepest insecurities, anxieties and fears.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Julia Elbaba

Julia Elbaba, a native of Oyster Bay, New York, is currently a professional tennis player. As a five-time All-American at the University of Virginia, she was the first person in program history to rank No. 1 in singles nationally in Division I tennis. In 2014, she became a National Champion when winning the ITA National Indoor Collegiate Championships in New York. She represented the United States at the 2014 Master’U BNP Paribas in Aix-en-Provence and was undefeated in singles and doubles, and took home the gold medal for USA.

 

 

 

 

 

Steve Kaplan

Steve Kaplan is the owner and managing director of Bethpage Park Tennis Center, as well  as director emeritus of Lacoste Academy for New York City Parks Foundation, and  executive director and founder of Serve & Return Inc. Steve has coached more than 1,100  nationally-ranked junior players, 16 New York State high school champions, two NCAA  Division 1 Singles Champions, and numerous highly-ranked touring professionals. Many of t  the students Steve has closely mentored have gone to achieve great success as prominent  members of the New York financial community, and in other prestigious professions. In  2017, Steve was awarded the Hy Zausner Lifetime Achievement Award by the USTA. He  may be reached by e-mail at StevenJKaplan@aol.com.

 

 

 

 

 

Rob Polishook Pic

Rob Polishook, MA, CPC is the founder of Inside the Zone Sports Performance Group. As a mental training coach, he works with athletes helping them to unleash their mental edge through mindfulness, somatic psychology and mental training skills. Rob is author of 2 best-selling books: Tennis Inside the Zone and Baseball Inside the Zone: Mental Training Workouts for Champions. He can be reached by phone at (973) 723-0314, by e-mail rob@insidethezone.com, by visiting insidethezone.com, or following on Instagram @insidethezone.

 

 

 

 

 

Dr. Tom Ferraro

Dr. Tom Ferraro has been a psychoanalyst and sport psychologist in full time private  practice and is a pioneer in the field of depth sport psychology. He practices out of Williston  Park and has been affiliated with numerous professional organizations including the  Women’s United Soccer Association, the New York Lizards, Tour Edge Golf Company and  NYU Winthrop Hospital. He works with a variety of professional and elite athletes in the  fields of tennis, golf soccer, lacrosse, figure skating, gymnastics, swimming, Taekwondo,  fencing and more. In addition he is a syndicated columnist, an author and his work has  been featured in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal and The London Times and  Golf Digest has said “Dr. Ferraro is one of the nation’s leading mental game gurus.” He has  a newly published chapter in the book ‘In Depth Sport Psychology’ by Routledge in 2019  and will be appearing in an NBC Sports show leading up to the Tokyo Olympics.

 

 

 

 

Gilad Bloom 1

Gilad Bloom, a former Israeli Davis Cup player and two-time Olympian, played on the ATP  Tour from 1983-1995, reached the fourth round of the U.S. Open in 1990, reached a highest  ranking of 61 in singles, was Israel Singles Champion three times. Bloom has been running  his own tennis program since 2000 and also was director of tennis at John McEnroe Tennis  Academy for two years. He can be reached by e-mail at Bloom.Gilad@Gmail.com.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Jay Harris

Jay Harris is the Co-General Manger/Director of Tennis at SPORTIME Roslyn and the Director of John McEnroe Tennis Academy’s College Recruiting Combine. He was the Head Men’s Tennis Coach at Brown University for eight years, before joining the SPORTIME team in 2010. The most successful coach in Brown history, he led the program to two Ivy League titles and seven straight NCAA Tournament appearances, and two of his Brown University players later advanced to the Quarterfinals of Wimbledon. Prior to Brown, Harris coached at Bowling Green University where he led the team to two Mid-American Conference titles. He played collegiate tennis at the University of Cincinnati, graduating with a Bachelor’s degree in Psychology, before earning his Master’s degree with a concentration in Sports Management and Sports Psychology from Miami University. He was recently named USTA Eastern’s Tennis Professional of the Year in 2019.

 

 

 

 

 

Alex Pop-Moldovan

Alex Pop-Moldovan is the Director of High Performance and the Pickleball Director at  Glen Head Racquet & Fitness Club. He possesses over 15 years of on-court experience  instructing juniors, adults and professional tour players. He is currently the coach of Florin  Mergea, who won the Silver Medal at the Rio Olympics in 2016, and has worked with top  junior and college players on Long Island including Spencer Brachman, Brian Shi, Cannon  Kingsley and Jasmine Abidi. Beyond tennis, Pop-Moldovan is an accomplished beach  tennis, pickleball and squash player.

 

 

 

 


Long Island Tennis Magazine Staff
USTA NTC
Century

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