Another athlete has joined the ranks of professionals from Coronado as Coronado High School alum Ryan Seggerman won his first ever Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP) tour tennis match with his doubles partner Patrik Trhac at the Indian Wells Masters 1000 tournament in May.
“As wild card entries into the draw, we felt like we had a lot to prove, and to have gone up against the No. 6 team in the world and get the win in front of friends and family, it just meant the world to me,” Seggerman said.
Currently ranked 93rd in the world for doubles, and 411th for singles, the 6’4’’ Crown City native is in the ATP top 100 and has been ranked as high as 89th globally for doubles.
“Now that we are top 100, we are knocking on the door of grand slams and more of the tournaments we have always dreamed of playing, so it’s just exciting to get to go out on court every week and travel the world with clear goals and objectives in mind.”
“Our results so far in 2024 have been pretty positive, although as we have started to play bigger events, naturally we have started to play better teams and take more losses than we were accustomed to last year,” he said. “Now that we are top 100, we are knocking on the door of grand slams and more of the tournaments we have always dreamed of playing, so it’s just exciting to get to go out on court every week and travel the world with clear goals and objectives in mind.”
Coronado roots
Seggerman said that he holds his time on the island in high regard for multiple reasons, including being surrounded by other athletes who motivated him.
“Obviously it’s wonderful to have perfect weather year round to play tennis in, and I was fortunate enough to have another amazing player on island to look up to for my whole junior career in Billy Rowe,” he said. “He was a grade older and a much better player than me, and I spent so much of my time in middle and high school looking up to him and trying to match his level, so that definitely was a big factor in my development and motivation when I was younger.”
In addition to the competition he was constantly surrounded by on the Island, Seggerman said his coaches played a major role in his development as a player.
Specifically, Seggerman said he made the biggest stride in his game when he was 16-18 years old under the weekly coaching of Grant Doyle, hailing from the Rancho Santa Fe area.
Seggerman also pointed out the multiple high school coaches who aided his development, whether that be mentally or physically.
“My high school coaches, Coach (David) Brummitt and Coach (James) Irey were fantastic; Emmanuel Mensah, Mario DiLonardo and Joel Myers were all really great resources to me here in town, and Steve Adamson and Angel Lopez were two other coaches I worked with in San Diego when I was younger and helped me a ton,” he said.
These coaches were among the many that watched Seggerman go on to win the CIF Individual title in 2017 for the Islanders, an experience that Seggerman still considers a highlight of his career thus far.
“For me it was the perfect way to cap off four years of high school tennis and to segue me into college tennis,” he said. “We had won the first two team CIF titles in Coronado tennis history in my freshman and senior year, and I don’t think an Islander had won the individual championships since Randy Nixon, maybe 35 years earlier.”
From collegiate to professional tennis
Segue into collegiate tennis he did, as Seggerman committed to continue his career at Princeton University.
“I took my official visits to Princeton, Harvard and UNC (The University of North Carolina) Chapel Hill. After those three visits, I felt really strongly that either Princeton or North Carolina was the right spot for me, and the financial aid at Princeton made that option a lot more affordable than the package I would have gotten at North Carolina, so that made the decision easy,” he said.
Although Seggerman originally turned down the UNC Tar Heels, he was able to use his fifth year of eligibility to start his masters at the University of North Carolina after a full four years with the Princeton Tigers.
“I was able to complete my first year of my MBA program while getting to compete on a tennis team that has more guys with professional aspirations than Princeton,” he said, “ I began playing the base level of professional tennis tournaments, the futures tour, and had some success on the singles court but a lot in doubles. My partner and I went 28-0 together in our first seven tournaments and our ranking was moving at a good clip.”
As Seggerman continues to learn the ropes of professional tennis, he is looking into some of the major tournaments and grand slams as he lays the groundwork for a long career.
