Billy Martin

The program’s all-time leader in head-coaching wins, Billy Martin enters his 34^th year directing UCLA men’s tennis in 2026-27. It also marks his 44^th year on staff, as he assisted friend and mentor Glenn Bassett for 10 years prior to taking the reins in 1994. Owner of a 694-183 (.791) career record, Martin passed Bassett April 25, 2019 with win No. 593. The longest-tenured active head coach at UCLA is only the fourth in the history of the men’s tennis program, following legends Bill Ackerman (1921-1950), J.D. Morgan (1951-1966) and Bassett (1967-1993). Martin became just the third active head coach to be inducted into the UCLA Athletic Hall of Fame, joining Al Scates and Valorie Kondos Field, in 2015. Perhaps the most amazing accomplishment in Martin’s career is his ability to consistently compete for championships, as his teams have posted top-five finishes at the season-ending NCAA Championships in 24 of 32 completed seasons.

Martin’s finest season at the helm came in 2005, when he led UCLA to its first NCAA title since 1984. The 4-3 come-from-behind victory over top-seeded and undefeated Baylor in College Station, Texas marked UCLA’s 16th NCAA team championship in men’s tennis, and the school’s 97th overall. The win snapped Baylor’s 57-match winning streak, the second longest in NCAA history. It also avenged the Bruins’ 4-0 loss to the Bears in the 2004 NCAA final.

In addition to the dramatic run to the title in 2005, Martin has had several near misses at the NCAA Championships, including 2013, when the top-seeded Bruins were narrowly edged by No. 2 Virginia 4-3 in the championship match in Champaign, Ill. Under Martin, UCLA has recorded a runner-up finish on four total occasions (1996, 1999, 2004 and 2013). After reaching the final in just his third year as head coach, Martin was named the 1996 ITA National Coach of the Year, as the Bruins finished with a 27-1 overall record.

UCLA made its Big Ten Conference debut during the 2024-25 academic year and Martin’s Bruins made an immediate impact. They won 17 of their final 20 matches, highlighted by an improbable run to the Big Ten Conference Tournament championship. The team ultimately claimed its title by beating host and top-seeded Ohio State in a 4-3 thriller that snapped the Buckeyes’ 76-match home winning streak. Unseeded UCLA went on to reach the NCAA Championships quarterfinal round, taking down crosstown rival USC at Los Angeles Tennis Center (LATC) to get there.

During the coronavirus-shortened 2020 dual-match campaign, Martin collected the 600th win of his coaching career. He has guided 20 teams to 20 or more wins in his 32 completed seasons. The 2018 group logged a 30-3 record en route to the national semifinals.

Another significant highlight in Martin’s career was his outstanding success in the highly-competitive Pac-12 Conference, where he owned a 181-41 (.815) record. Under Martin’s watch, UCLA captured 15 regular-season conference titles, including two stretches of four in a row from 2004-07 and 2016-19. His teams swept through conference regular-season play from March 25, 2016-March 26, 2021, a streak that spanned 33 matches. UCLA finished out of the top three in the Pac-12 standings just three times during Martin’s tenure, and won four conference tournament titles (2013, 2014, 2016 and 2018). He was named Pac-12 Coach of the Year five times (1996, 2012-14 and 2018).

In addition to his numerous team accomplishments, Martin takes great pride in helping his players achieve their individual goals, as well. In 2006, Benjamin Kohlloeffel notched a 6-1, 6-4 win over Virginia’s Somdev Devvarman to become the 10th NCAA men’s singles champion in school history – and first since Martin, himself, in 1975. Kohlloeffel’s victory put his coach in an elite category, as Martin earned the career “triple crown” by leading his school to three different titles at the NCAA Championships (team, singles and doubles). Next to nab the NCAA singles title was Marcos Giron, who turned in a 6-4, 6-1 victory against Pepperdine’s Alex Sarkissian in 2014. Then, two years later, Mackenzie McDonald dispatched top-ranked Mikael Torpegaard of Ohio State 6-3, 6-3 for the crown.

Kohlloeffel, Giron and McDonald were each named ITA National Player of the Year. McDonald was tabbed Pac-12 Player of the Year in both 2015 and 2016.

Martin has coached four NCAA doubles champions, including three since 2016. The first came in 1995, when Justin Gimelstob and Srdjan Muskatirovic bested TCU’s Ashley Fisher and Jason Weir-Smith 6-7(3), 6-4, 6-4. The next came in 2016, when McDonald completed the individual championships sweep alongside Martin Redlicki. The pair coasted past Arthur Rinderknech and Jackson Withrow of Texas A&M 6-4, 6-1 in the final. In 2018, Redlicki and Evan Zhu earned one of the final spots in the field and proved their inclusion was warranted, edging Torpegaard and Martin Joyce of Ohio State in a 6-7(8), 7-6(4), 1-0(9) thriller. Most recently, Maxime Cressy and Keegan Smith completed an undefeated season by beating Patrick Kaukovalta and Mazen Osama of Alabama 6-3, 6-4 in 2019. Cressy and Smith did not drop a set on the year, beating 15 nationally-ranked opponents along the way.

Thirty-four players have achieved All-America status under Martin’s direction, with seven of them (Eric Lin, Jean-Noel Grinda, Tobias Clemens, Kohlloeffel, McDonald, Redlicki and Smith) achieving the feat three times. Among them were eventual Grand Slam champions Gimelstob and Jean-Julien Rojer. Gimelstob earned mixed doubles titles at the 1998 Australian and French Opens. Rojer has helped collect men’s doubles crowns at the 2015 Wimbledon, 2017 US Open and 2022 French Open events, as well as the mixed doubles top prize at Roland-Garros in 2014. As head coach, Martin has guided five future ATP Top 100 singles players in Cressy, Gimelstob, Giron, McDonald and Kevin Kim, as well as four ATP Top 50 doubles players in Gimelstob, McDonald, Rojer and Marcin Matkowski.

Inducted into the ITA Men's Collegiate Tennis Hall of Fame in 1996, Martin’s playing career is full of highlights. To this very day he is still regarded as one of the best junior players in the history of the sport. He captured the 1973 and 1974 singles titles at Junior Wimbledon, the Junior US Open and Junior Orange Bowl tournaments. Inside Tennis Magazine ran an article that named him “Junior Player of the Century.” Due to his tremendous success as a junior player while growing up in Illinois, Martin received a spot in the USTA Midwest Section Hall of Fame in December 2010. He went into the Southern California Tennis Association Hall of Fame in August 2011.

Although Martin played just one season at UCLA before turning pro, the 1975 season was a special one, as he helped the team to a perfect 19-0 dual-match record and the NCAA team championship as a freshman.

After capturing the 1975 NCAA singles championship, Martin turned professional and enjoyed a fine career. He was selected Rookie of the Year by Tennis Magazine in the first professional season went on to reach the Wimbledon singles quarterfinals in 1977.

Martin defeated top pros such as John Newcombe, Ken Rosewall (twice), Stan Smith, Harold Soloman and Roscoe Tanner. In 1975, Martin won the Arkansas International singles title. He also won doubles championships in 1977, 1979 and 1981 in Laguna Niguel, Calif., Brussels, Belgium and Bristol, England, respectively.

Martin attended UCLA for three years, working on his undergraduate studies before completing his bachelor’s degree in business management at the University of Redlands in 1989. He earned his master of business administration from USC in 1991.

During the summer, Martin runs the Martin & de Villiers Tennis Camps alongside associate head coach Rikus de Villiers at LATC on UCLA’s campus. Martin also directed the Bassett-Martin Tennis Camp in Ojai, Calif.

Martin and his wife, Justine, have two children, sons William and Travis. William played college tennis at Saint Mary’s from 2012-15 and has been an assistant coach on UCLA’s men’s staff for six seasons, while Travis played for the Bruins from 2014-17.