University of Miami men’s tennis coach Alex Santos strives for excellence every day.
Even when he is alone in his office, all he sees is the word staring him back in the face.
Literally, “excellence” is written on his whiteboard just a few feet from his desk, sandwiching the core values of his team: “excellence; teamwork; integrity; excellence.”
“It’s kind of the mission,” Santos said. “It’s what we all have to be doing.”
Santos grew up in Oeiras, a coastal town in Portugal. There, at the age of eight, he began playing tennis after his father, a professional volleyball coach, began managing a tennis club.
That move started a career in the sport that has persisted for more than three decades.
“I don’t recall my first day,” he said, “I just recall being involved in tennis ever since.”
Despite being one of the top-ranked players at the junior level in Portugal, Santos decided he was destined to take another path at 18.
After working towards his degree for a couple of years, Santos began his coaching career at academies in Portugal and Barcelona, Spain.
“I felt that coaching was what I wanted to do, and in the sport I love,” Santos said. “It was kind of a natural transition. I felt that I had more to offer on the coaching side than on the playing side at that point in time.”
In the 2009-10 season, Santos began his stateside collegiate coaching career, starting as a volunteer assistant for the Miami women’s team under head coach Paige Yaroshuk-Tews. He served as a graduate manager in the fall of 2010 before being elevated to a full-time assistant coach the following spring.
During Santos’ four years, he helped the team to an 85-24 record, tied for the sixth-most wins in any four-year span in program history.
In 2013, Santos left Miami for his first head coaching job, as head coach of Pittsburgh women’s tennis. He was at the helm for the Panthers for six years, leading Pittsburgh to its first ranked victory.
In 2019, his time in Pittsburgh came to a close when the school decided to disband the program.
“He was upset,” said Filip Vittek, assistant coach under Santos at Pittsburgh and now at Miami. “The first thing he thought about was to help the team and myself and make sure that we were all okay moving forward.”
After Pittsburgh, Santos had a one-year stop in Waco, Texas, working under head coach Joey Scrivano for the Baylor women’s tennis team as the associate head coach.
In addition to the everyday goal for excellence Santos has, his other core values of integrity and teamwork are not a side show. Scrivano noted Santos’ efforts outside the court, taking a genuine interest in his players’ lives and well-being.
Santos’ time in Waco was short-lived, as the 2020 season was cut short due to COVID-19. He headed back to Miami, becoming the associate head coach for the women’s tennis team, a position he still holds today. Once again, the team saw major success with Santos in the fold, notably in 2024 when Alexa Noel won the NCAA singles title.
With his consistent track record of success at UM, Santos was promoted to head coach of the men’s team in May 2024, a position he’s held since.
“He’s a very hard-working person. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anybody spend that much time on the court,” said Vittek, “he’s not somebody who just wants to be good. He’s somebody who wants to be great.”
For Santos and his team, being great is not just about hard work; there is a mental aspect as well. It has to be a way of life.
“Tennis, for me, is a space of love that taught me tough lessons, that taught me how to be better, that taught me how to be more resilient,” said Santos. “How can I not be thankful want to be around people that have the same love,”
All of his work and his never-ending pursuit of excellence are worth it for Santos because it’s not just about his own love for the sport; it’s always been about the impact he can leave behind.