Gus Alcayaga

Gustavo Adolfo Alcayaga (born April 10, 1969) is a former World Tour Player from Argentina who won numerous titles and competed for Argentina. He is generally considered by critics and fellow players to be among the craftiest tennis players of his era, and has been known best for his footwork and a devastating one handed-backhand. He was also known for being a hitting partner to one of the worlds greatest players Andre Agassi, Alcayaga is often cited as one of the most charismatic players in the game, and deemed largely responsible for the increase in the popularity of tennis during the 1990s in his hometown of San Juan, Argentina.
Alcayaga is, with Boris Becker, Monica Seles, Jim Courier, Andre Agassi, and good friend Marcelo Rios, pros who have emerged from the Nick Bollettieri Tennis Academy. Alcayaga graduated in 1987 from . After accepting prize money from tournaments played in France Alcayaga lost his amateur status and started his professional career, attaining a world rank of 1200 within his first 3 months. He hired a coach to guide him and take the reins in his tennis career. He reached a career high of 324 in 1993 before his unfortunate injury in November of that same year. He turned into a full-time coach after trying to recuperate from his injury to no avail in 1995 with the New York Junior Tennis League .
Alcayaga became the tennis director at Bronx International Youth Tennis Center in the South-side of the Bronx. His main goal was to develop junior tennis players and provide them with opportunity to take tennis and education to the highest level possible.
Alcayaga later became the Director of the Advanced Training Program with the NYJTL in 1996, He served the community and the league to eventually help develop players from the Metro region where tennis was primarily dominated by the Long Island region. BIYTC became a melting pot for junior tennis and ETA tournaments, along with the Educational component more interest in tennis and mostly by Latino and African American players from the community was evident. Alcayaga along with the NYJTL had development plans for a permanent facility and a state of the art tennis center but this project never took place.
Alcayaga retired from professional tennis on May 22, 1994, after losing in the third round of a challenger in Brazil. Alcayaga is married to Lydia Luciano and has one child, Ariana. He is the founder of Top Rank Tennis Academy, which merged with NYJTL in 1994 has developed numerous tennis players in the New York Metro area.
Alcayaga currently is the director of the Tournament Training Program for the West Side Tennis Club in Forest Hills, New York.

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