Junior Player Spotlight: Luca Ugel, MatchPoint NYC
One of the most important aspects for any young tennis player is having a coach they trust, and an environment in which they are comfortable.
And for players in the Brooklyn borough of New York City, MatchPoint NYC has provided that sort of environment, and that level of coaching. One of those players is Luca Ugel, a high school junior that has been playing at MatchPoint since he began his tennis journey more than a decade ago.
“I’ve trained at MatchPoint for 12 years now, and it has been great for me,” said Ugel. “I think if you want to get your child into tennis, MatchPoint is the place to start. They are really good with beginner players and make sure that every child is very happy.”
Ugel was one of those happy children when he began playing tennis at three-years-old. While that’s when he first started playing, growing up he also played soccer, and it wasn’t until a few years ago that he really leaned into tennis.
MatchPoint NYC has been with him every step of the way, and has helped him come along and nurture his love of the sport.
“Matchpoint makes it fun and interesting,” he said. “Especially my coach Eugene [Perepelov], he makes tennis much more enjoyable for me.”
Since he has committed himself fully to tennis, Ugel has become one of the best players his age, and heads into 2025 as the 10th ranked player in New York in the Boys 16s singles category.
Ugel is dedicated to improving his tennis and thus he takes positives and negatives away from both wins and losses, and then uses the week in between his matches and tournaments to work on the things he and his coach determine.
“It’s pretty simple, but I just focus on things that aren’t going good for me, or something that wasn’t working during a tournament,” he said. “It depends on how a match went but it could be anything from depth on my shots to solidifying my serve, and I am just trying to round out my game and be as consistent as I can.”
That work has been important as for much of the last year, Ugel has been traveling internationally to compete in ITF tournaments, which has both tested him and allowed him to see where he stands against players from all across the world.
“It has helped me learn in the way where I can see much clearer on what I need to improve on and what I need to do in order to achieve the level I want,” he said.
Ugel is an aggressive player who likes to use his power from the baseline to control the points, and he continues to work on improving his approaches and coming into the net more effectively.
“His will to go harder, faster, stronger and never giving up is what makes him a special player to coach. He always wants more and wants to improve, not only on the tennis court, but also physically by swimming, running, biking, as well as mentally by reading books and watching videos of his tennis idols,” said Perepelov, Ugel’s primary coach at MatchPoint NYC. “Over the last few years, I have seen great improvement in his maturity, making him more serious, more motivated and more attentive to the smallest details such as stretching, warm-up and resting his body and mind.”
The Brooklyn native is prepared for a new year and is looking forward to the next steps on his tennis journey, one that has come a long way over the course of the last few years. He has big goals and expectations for himself, and with one more year left in high school, the college recruitment process is on the horizon.
But for Ugel, he is not thinking about those macro goals as of right now, and instead has his sights set on the process, taking gradual steps to continue his progress, and the results will take care of themselves.
“Some goals for me are to start 2025 confident and strong, and continue building my game and getting better each day.”
