Women's Tennis
Brown, Rance
Rance Brown
- Title:
- Associate Head Coach
- Email:
- rbrown@athletics.ucla.edu
Associate head coach Rance Brown completed his 27th season on the UCLA women’s tennis coaching staff in 2023-24. He served under Bill Zaima in 1996, and has been Stella Sampras Webster’s top assistant for 26 seasons. The 2000 and 2012 ITA National Assistant Coach of the Year, Brown was promoted to the position of associate head coach effective at the beginning of the 2008-09 season.
During Brown’s tenure, UCLA has continually been among the top teams in the nation. In addition to NCAA titles in 2008 and 2014, the Bruins have finished runner-up at the NCAA Championships four times (2004, 2007, 2012 and 2015). UCLA has made the NCAA tournament in each of his 26 completed seasons as an assistant. The 2020 team, led by the top-ranked doubles tandem of Elysia Bolton and Jada Hart, went 12-1 and reached the final round of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in the coronavirus-shortened season. The next year, the Bruins went 10-0 in regular-season conference play, outscoring opponents by a 53-6 margin en route to the program’s first outright Pac-12 championship. Then, in 2024, UCLA went 9-1 against conference opponents to claim the final Pac-12 regular-season title in outright fashion.
Brown has especially excelled in the area of recruiting, bringing in a number of highly-ranked junior players to the program over the years. He was also instrumental in the success of NCAA singles champion Keri Phebus, who became the first women’s tennis player inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007. Freshman Tian Fangran joined Phebus as the only Bruins to raise the NCAA singles trophy when she ran off six straight-set wins across six days in 2023. Three NCAA doubles championships have also been won during his time, with 2019 titleholders Gabby Andrews and Ayan Broomfield recently following in the footsteps of Daniela Bercek and Lauren Fisher in 2004 and Tracy Lin and Riza Zalameda in 2008.
Brown has been named the ITA Southwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year on five occasions (1999, 2000, 2007, 2010 and 2012). A total of 34 All-American Bruins have been named over the course of his time in Westwood. Among them was Ena Shibahara, who helped capture the 2022 French Open mixed doubles title. Brown also coached 2017 Australian Open mixed doubles champion Abigail Spears at UCLA.
Brown spent the summer of 2008 as the coach of the USTA Summer Collegiate Team, traveling to professional tournaments with some of the top women’s college players in the nation. He also guided USA Team’s contingent of Bruins at the 2015 Summer Universiade (World University Games) in Gwangju, South Korea and the 2019 event in Naples, Italy. Brown went on to represent his home country at the 2019 Master’U BNP Paribas tournament in Grenoble, France, where he was an assistant coach for the title-winning Americans. He returned to international competition in 2023, leading an American group that included Bruins Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle to Chengdu, China. Hance and Wagle earned bronze medals for their FISU World University Games performance.
In addition to his efforts with the UCLA program, Brown was among the first graduating classes of the USTA High Performance Coaches’ Program. He also worked at the Riviera Country Club, heading up the club’s Elite Junior Tennis Program along with professional coach Erik Kortland. Prior to his appointment at Riviera, Brown headed up one of the most successful junior tennis programs in the country, serving as Director of Tennis at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Tennis Club in Orange County for more than 20 years.
Brown received his Associate of Arts degree from Golden West Junior College, where he played tennis for two years. He helped lead the team to two conference team titles and notched one conference doubles title. Brown played the 1981 season at Long Beach State and competed professionally at Challenger Level tournaments before devoting his time to coaching.
The Rance Brown Tennis Camps take place each summer at Los Angeles Tennis Center on UCLA’s campus.
During Brown’s tenure, UCLA has continually been among the top teams in the nation. In addition to NCAA titles in 2008 and 2014, the Bruins have finished runner-up at the NCAA Championships four times (2004, 2007, 2012 and 2015). UCLA has made the NCAA tournament in each of his 26 completed seasons as an assistant. The 2020 team, led by the top-ranked doubles tandem of Elysia Bolton and Jada Hart, went 12-1 and reached the final round of the ITA National Team Indoor Championships in the coronavirus-shortened season. The next year, the Bruins went 10-0 in regular-season conference play, outscoring opponents by a 53-6 margin en route to the program’s first outright Pac-12 championship. Then, in 2024, UCLA went 9-1 against conference opponents to claim the final Pac-12 regular-season title in outright fashion.
Brown has especially excelled in the area of recruiting, bringing in a number of highly-ranked junior players to the program over the years. He was also instrumental in the success of NCAA singles champion Keri Phebus, who became the first women’s tennis player inducted into the UCLA Athletics Hall of Fame in 2007. Freshman Tian Fangran joined Phebus as the only Bruins to raise the NCAA singles trophy when she ran off six straight-set wins across six days in 2023. Three NCAA doubles championships have also been won during his time, with 2019 titleholders Gabby Andrews and Ayan Broomfield recently following in the footsteps of Daniela Bercek and Lauren Fisher in 2004 and Tracy Lin and Riza Zalameda in 2008.
Brown has been named the ITA Southwest Region Assistant Coach of the Year on five occasions (1999, 2000, 2007, 2010 and 2012). A total of 34 All-American Bruins have been named over the course of his time in Westwood. Among them was Ena Shibahara, who helped capture the 2022 French Open mixed doubles title. Brown also coached 2017 Australian Open mixed doubles champion Abigail Spears at UCLA.
Brown spent the summer of 2008 as the coach of the USTA Summer Collegiate Team, traveling to professional tournaments with some of the top women’s college players in the nation. He also guided USA Team’s contingent of Bruins at the 2015 Summer Universiade (World University Games) in Gwangju, South Korea and the 2019 event in Naples, Italy. Brown went on to represent his home country at the 2019 Master’U BNP Paribas tournament in Grenoble, France, where he was an assistant coach for the title-winning Americans. He returned to international competition in 2023, leading an American group that included Bruins Kimmi Hance and Elise Wagle to Chengdu, China. Hance and Wagle earned bronze medals for their FISU World University Games performance.
In addition to his efforts with the UCLA program, Brown was among the first graduating classes of the USTA High Performance Coaches’ Program. He also worked at the Riviera Country Club, heading up the club’s Elite Junior Tennis Program along with professional coach Erik Kortland. Prior to his appointment at Riviera, Brown headed up one of the most successful junior tennis programs in the country, serving as Director of Tennis at the Newport Beach Marriott Hotel and Tennis Club in Orange County for more than 20 years.
Brown received his Associate of Arts degree from Golden West Junior College, where he played tennis for two years. He helped lead the team to two conference team titles and notched one conference doubles title. Brown played the 1981 season at Long Beach State and competed professionally at Challenger Level tournaments before devoting his time to coaching.
The Rance Brown Tennis Camps take place each summer at Los Angeles Tennis Center on UCLA’s campus.
UCLA W. Tennis Postmatch - Olivia Center & Kate Fakih (Nov. 23, 2024)
Sunday, November 24
Media Availability - Coach Sampras Webster (May 15, 2024)
Thursday, May 16
NCAA First and Second Rounds
Friday, May 03
Postmatch Interviews: Fangran Tian/Rance Brown (May 27, 2023)
Saturday, May 27
