LTP Academy’s newest head coach rises quickly through his expertise, drive

May 1, 2024

Gaston Murray’s ascent with LTP Academy has been fast and impressive.

Shortly after joining the LTP team, Murray was selected to travel with world No. 23 Emma Navarro as her hitting partner, and he earned a promotion to Academy head coach in April.

“We quickly saw the potential in Gaston to be an outstanding coach,” said Patrick Hieber, general manager of LTP Academy. “He’s passionate about tennis and about getting a little better every day. That’s our approach with both players and coaches. He fits perfectly in our culture of respect, responsibility and kindness.”

Murray is a Florida native whose Dad, a former college football player, taught him to play tennis.

“Tennis helped me to settle down and to think faster,” Murray said. “The better I got at tennis, the better I was at school and other things. I liked it because I could be an independent thinker; I didn’t have to rely on others to be successful. The rewards and consequences would fall on me.”

His talent earned him a tennis scholarship to the University of North Carolina at Greensboro. He played professionally on the International Tennis Federation circuit for a few years before moving back to Florida. There, he worked under Jay Berger, a former All-American at Clemson University and top 10 ATP player.

Murray made his way to Charleston through Berger’s network, which helped him land a men’s assistant tennis coaching job at The Citadel. He wasn’t looking for a job when Hieber reached out in fall 2022.

Hieber said he’d watched Murray play in local tournaments and knew he was talented, and he’d also heard he was a good guy who was interested in high-performance tennis.

Murray liked that LTP would give him the opportunity to develop as a professional coach with the Pro-Player Development Program while also working with high-performance juniors.

“With LTP, I had more of a dynamic role to not only make kids better tennis players, but to make them better people on and off the court,” Murray said. “It was more of a challenge for me.”

Murray took the LTP coaching job and auditioned to be Navarro’s hitting partner before Wimbledon in June 2023. He started traveling to tournaments with her as her ranking improved from No. 68 to No. 20.

For Murray, one of the most memorable experiences of that time was when she won her first WTA tour title in Tasmania in January. Murray still can recount details of the entire match, from the wind to the final serve.

“It was an incredible moment because she broke through a lot of nerves and showed a lot of courage when other people would’ve panicked,” he said.

Working with Navarro taught him how to be more resilient on and off the court, how to hold himself accountable and how to bounce back after failure, he said.

“When you’re traveling on tour, you don’t have time to feel sorry for yourself and look at what could or should have been,” Murray said. “You have to stay in the present because if you think about the past too much, you’ll be stuck in the moments when you didn’t get the job done and defining yourself based on that failure.”

Being Navarro’s hitting partner made him a better player because it forced him to learn techniques and strategies to make her better, he said.

“I had to adjust my strokes and learn to play with a different trajectory so when she goes into tournaments, she feels comfortable and confident,” Murray said. “It really challenged my game and helped me develop nuances that I didn’t have.”

He stopped traveling with Narvarro after he received the Academy promotion, and Murray said he’s grateful for the opportunity to continue to grow.

Hieber described Murray’s work with Navarro as “tremendous” in terms of his communication with her main coach, Peter Ayers, as well as how he’s helped others in the Pro Player Development program.

“Gaston’s best qualities are that he’s professional, reliable and respectful; that’s what I like most about him,” Hieber said. “He’s proved his worth from a coaching standpoint, and he’s still hungry to learn from some of our world-class coaches.”

Murray’s goal is to help a professional become a champion or win a Grand Slam.

“If I can learn how to evaluate talent while also still working with high-level pros, there’s a great future ahead for me,” he said. “LTP is getting attention from around the world, and my hope is that it continues to flourish for both young kids and up and coming pros.”

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