NCAA Champ Quinn Starts Pro Career On Challenger Tour

American Ben Shelton went from claiming the NCAA Singles Championship to being a Top 40 player in the Pepperstone ATP Rankings in just 10 months. Is Ethan Quinn next?

The 19-year-old Quinn, who played for the University of Georgia, held his nerve to save four championship points at the 2023 NCAA Singles Championship in May and turned professional one month later. This week, Quinn is in action at the ATP Challenger Tour 75 event in Chicago, Illinois, where he will face Chinese teen Shang Juncheng in the quarter-finals Friday.

Playing in just his sixth Challenger tournament, Quinn will continue to see opportunities at that level, thanks to the ATP/ITA Accelerator Programme. He is just getting his career started following a memorable 16 months in Athens, Georgia.

“There’s nothing like college tennis. There’s so much energy, and there’s so much thrill,” Quinn told ATPTour.com recently at the NCAA championships in Lake Nona, Florida. “Every single point, there’s something happening. Just that energy amongst the crowd, and the animosity as well. It’s pretty special. In juniors, you don’t really hear many people chirping at you. And in college tennis, really anything goes. You have to kind of build on that and play through the struggles and whatever people may be saying, positive or negative.”

One constant voice for Quinn has been coach Brad Stine, who has worked with players such as Jim Courier, Kevin Anderson, Sebastien Grosjean, and Mardy Fish. Stine, who currently coaches World No. 15 Tommy Paul, is a big reason why Quinn is where he is at today.

“I’ve been with Brad since I was probably six or seven years old, so he’s definitely built my game up,” Quinn said. “We always worked on developing my power before I was developing my consistency. And a lot of people who watch me kind of talk about the live arm that I have for my forehand and my serve, just the easy power that I’m able to get. I attribute that a lot to Brad, a lot of times he didn’t really tell me to hold back.

“By having that urge to just rip it and keep going for my shots kind of helped develop me get that power that you need at the next level to transition. He’s been able to kind of go through everything that comes after the power, consistency, the mental, the preparation that you need going into matches, he gives me a lot of insights with Tommy Paul.

“He gives me a lot of stories and sends me some of the messages that he sends to him. That kind of opens my eyes to what the professional guys have to listen to and hear from a professional coach. He’s been a major help for me.”

From College to the Tour 🤝

With the experience he took from College and the support of the ATP/ITA Accelerator Programme, the reigning NCAA champ @ethanqu1nn has turned pro and is ready to make moves👏#ATPChallenger pic.twitter.com/nRnhbTTRvK

— ATP Challenger Tour (@ATPChallenger) July 8, 2023

Despite having a renowned coach in his corner at a young age, Quinn did not want his life to just be about forehands and backhands. He elected to stay in school, attending San Joaquin Memorial High School in Fresno, California.

“I felt like I needed that separation from tennis and the outside world. I wanted to have the outside factors that many kids I feel like who do homeschool don’t really get,” Quinn said. “A lot of the homeschooling kids that I would compete against would be playing for four or five hours a day. Training, lifting, doing their school online, but not really having those built friendships.

“I felt like for me personally, I needed the ability to go see people and hang out with people and kind of talk about things beyond tennis. I feel like when I was able to, I was playing my best tennis when I was able to separate tennis.”

Following high school, Quinn moved more than 2,000 miles away from his California home to play for the University of Georgia, where he earned ITA All-American honours in singles and doubles this year. Quinn finished the 2023 season on a 17-match winning streak and put the icing on the cake when he became the fifth Georgia Bulldog to win the NCAA singles championship.

As a result of his hard work at the collegiate level, the World No. 477 will continue to have opportunities to compete on the ATP Challenger Tour. This season, the ATP and ITA announced the Accelerator Programme, which aims to increase the development pathway for top players in the American Collegiate system. Quinn is one of 21 players who will be granted six to eight Challenger main-draw spots in the next year.

“I’m very appreciative of them doing it,” Quinn said. “When I found out that they were doing it with the ITA, I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, this is amazing’. Getting that ability to kind of transition into the pros a lot easier, is something I’m very thankful for.”

Boasting a hefty serve and cracking forehand, Quinn can easily show his variety with a backhand drop shot or his deft feel around the net. The teenager will have a chance to display those skills on a big stage this summer, when he makes his Grand Slam singles debut at the US Open. Following his college title, Quinn was rewarded with a main draw wild card to the season’s final major.