2025
JEFFREY APPEL​
Jeffrey Appel was born and raised in the tennis hotbed of Great Neck, New York. He earned numerous junior rankings in the Eastern Section, beginning with the 12-and-under division. During high school, Jeff was a four-year starter on the renowned Great Neck North team, which included six nationally ranked players two years his senior. In his senior year, he led the team as the #2 singles player. Jeff graduated from the University of Pennsylvania in 1985 and went on to build a prominent career on Wall Street.
Today, Jeff heads his own investment banking and alternative investment firm, JDA Funds Management. His senior tennis career peaked in 2009 when he finished the year ranked #1 in the Eastern Section Men’s 45 Singles division and achieved a national ranking of #12. He captained the Eastern National Open Team , leading them to six national championships during his tenure between 2009 and 2017. More recently, Jeff founded The Finance Cup with Bill Ackman and captains Team USA in the annual event (established in 2015), a competition featuring former professional and top collegiate players now working in finance, pitting the USA against Europe.
Over the past 20 years, Jeff has chaired and co-chaired numerous charity tennis events, supporting a wide range of philanthropic causes and raising millions of dollars. He has taken great pleasure in uniting his extensive network of tennis-playing financiers to make the sport more accessible to youth from all backgrounds. For the past 12 years, Jeff’s contributions to tennis have been spotlighted through his role as Chair of the USTA Foundation’s Annual Pro-Am at the US Open. He has mentored and assisted well over 120 former professional and collegiate tennis players in transitioning from champions on the court to leaders in the professional world. Though he relocated to Boca Raton a few years ago, Jeff remains affectionately known in the tennis community as “the Mayor of New York Tennis.”
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CAROL WATSON​
Carol Watson is a former WTA professional who competed in Grand Slam qualifying events and earned a spot in the US Open main draw doubles alongside partner Sandy Collins. With a career-high singles ranking of No. 179 and doubles ranking of No. 139, she transitioned from competing at the highest level to shaping the next generation of players.
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For over 30 years, Carol has dedicated herself to coaching, making history as the first African American National Coach for USTA Player Development Program, where she mentored top junior talent for two decades. She also served as Director of Programs at Alley Pond Tennis Center in New York and played a key role as a USTA Women’s Satellite Tournament Director. A respected leader in the sport, she holds elite coaching certifications from the USTA, USPTA, PTR, and PPR.
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Though retired, Carol remains deeply connected to tennis, coaching her sister Shelley’s 6.0 women’s league team in Florida, guiding them to multiple sectional appearances. When she’s not on the court, she’s on the golf course—where her competitive spirit shines as a proud single-digit handicap player.
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ARTHUR CARRINGTON JR.​
Arthur Carrington Jr. was born and raised in Elizabeth, New Jersey. He graduated from Hampton University, where he played #1 on the tennis team for four years, becoming a three-time conference champion. As a freshman in 1966, he was a finalist in the NCAA Eastern Intercollegiate Championship Freshman Division and also competed in the U.S. National Championships at Forest Hills. That same year, he was the NCAA Regional Doubles Champion and, in 1968, the NCAA Regional Singles Champion. He was a finalist at the ATA National Championships in 1972 and won the title in 1973. Art also claimed the New York State Doubles Championship and had the honor of competing against players like Vitas Gerulaitis, reaching the semifinals of the Eastern Indoor Championships.
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From 1969 to 1984, Art coached tennis in Central New Jersey before relocating to Massachusetts in 1984, where he had been running summer camps since 1980. He has since been coaching full-time in Amherst at Hampshire College, home to the Arthur Carrington Tennis Academy. Together with the college, Art has built four indoor and ten outdoor courts. As an honored tennis historian, he has authored Black Tennis Archival Collection, highlighting the often-overlooked contributions of Black athletes to the sport. Over the decades, he has coached hundreds of students, many of whom have gone on to play Division I college tennis, while others have embraced tennis as a lifelong passion. Art's life’s work is rooted in community tennis development—using the game not only to teach healthy recreation but as a powerful tool to educate, inspire, and prepare young people for life.
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JILL SMOLLER​
Jill Smoller is a senior partner at WME Sports, where she continues to represent some of the most influential figures in sports and entertainment. Her client roster includes Allyson Felix, Joel Embiid, Sabrina Ionescu, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, Frances Tiafoe, PK Subban, Andy Roddick, Bella Hadid, Emma Grede, and Meghan, The Duchess of Sussex. Smoller is best known for her more than 20-year partnership with Serena Williams, playing a key role in shaping Williams’ business off the court through landmark brand deals with Nike, Gatorade, Gucci, Michelob ULTRA, Lincoln, Audemars Piguet, and others.
A pioneering female sports agent, Smoller began her career as a professional tennis player before joining ICM in 1996 via the mailroom. She transitioned to the William Morris Agency in 2000 and has remained a core figure through its evolution into WME Group. Smoller has been recognized on Sports Business Journal’s Women in Sports Business Game Changers list, Adweek’s Most Powerful Women in Sports list, and most recently, Forbes’ 50 Over 50 in Lifestyle for her continued influence.
She holds a Communications degree from the University of Arizona. Born in Chicago and raised in New York, Smoller currently resides in Los Angeles.
JEFF MILLER​
Jeff Miller, a Scotch Plains, NJ, native, possesses an extensive playing and coaching background. As an Eastern junior player, he was ranked top-10 nationally in each age division. Not only did he win the Orange Bowl International Championship and Canadian Nationals, but also maintains the record for youngest player to win the New Jersey State Men’s Championship at 14 years old. Jeff was a member of the United States Junior Davis Cup Team and competed internationally with the United States Maccabiah Team, playing doubles alongside Hall-of-Famer Rick Meyer. Jeff went on to play collegiately at University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, where he competed in the NCAA tournament and won the Big Ten Championships.
Jeff has been the owner of Little Silver Tennis Club (LSTC) in Monmouth County, NJ since 1992. At LSTC, he oversees the skill and competitive developments of children and adults; many of his former students have achieved high sectional and national rankings, going on to play college tennis at some of the top universities in the United States. Prior to his time at LSTC, Jeff founded the Jeff Miller Tennis Camp in 1986, an intense, sleep-away program during the summer, which grew to four locations in the New York City area.
COMING
SOON​