The Western Michigan men’s tennis team announced the hiring of Pablo Nuñez as the team’s new assistant coach in June 2017.
Nuñez, who was born in San Jose, Costa Rica, and joined 11-time Mid-American Conference Head Coach of the Year
Dave Morin and a Bronco team that went 16-8 overall and 6-1 in the MAC in 2016-17.
In 2018-19, the Broncos went undefeated in MAC play for the second time during Nuñez's tenure as assistant coach, finishing with an overall record of 18-9. Western Michigan won its 25th regular season conference title, and went on to defeat Northern Illinois in the MAC tournament final, winning its third trophy in the last four seasons. They automatically qualified for the 2019 NCAA Division I Men's Tennis Championship, falling to Illinois in the first round. Junior Jannik Opitz was named the MAC Player of the Year after posting a 6-1 singles record in the #1 position in conference play. Peter Kuszynski earned Newcomer of the Year honors from the MAC after finishing 15-8 in singles competition and 13-6 in doubles. Senior Lenhard Haupt was named to the All-MAC First Team with his doubles partner Opitz. Haupt recorded 48 total wins on the season, while also earning Academic All-MAC and ITA Scholar-Athlete recognition.
The 2017-18 season was a record-breaking year for the Broncos and first-year assistant Nuñez as they continued their MAC dominance, going 22-5 overall and 7-0 in the conference regular season, winning their 24
th conference title and then picked up two more wins in the tournament to claim the program’s 12 tournament title. WMU’s season came to an end in the NCAA Tournament to the hands of No. 25 Notre Dame in Ann Arbor but not before Eric Olivarez earned the program’s first ever singles victory in the championships as he defeated Grayson Broadus in straight sets at No. 6. Prior to the tournament, the Broncos entered the 64-team field riding a 11-match winning streak, which was tied for the third longest active winning streak in the country. During the season, the Brown & Gold reached their highest ranking in the history of the program at No. 31 on Feb. 20 and were ranked in the ITA Team Rankings for four consecutive weeks.
Nuñez began his collegiate experience at East Carolina before graduating from Detroit with a degree in business administration in 2013 after playing tennis for three years in the Titans program. He finished his career at Detroit with a record of 77-81 and won the team's MVP award in senior year in 2013.
Nuñez played professionally following his time in college, where he competed in 18 tournaments in 2016 and won the National Championship in the Costa Rica Court Side Open Tournament in August of 2016. In high school he was the No. 1 ranked player in Central America, Caribbean and Mexico for U-14.
He has been member of the Davis Cup Team for Costa Rica since 2008 while playing at the number one spot when the team gained promotion to Davis Cup Group II. Nuñez holds a 20-20 total record in the Davis Cup including a 12-8 record in the last four years.
Prior to collegiate play, Nuñez was the number one ranked player in several Junior categories in Costa Rica, Central America, Caribbean and Mexico. He was also a doubles champion in three ITF tournaments and a finalist in two singles ITF Tournaments.
Nuñez began pursuing his master's at Western Michigan in the fall of 2017 and has two younger siblings, Ignacio and Ana Paula who is currently studying at WMU.
