Sanela Kunovac, a 2004 graduate of the University of Pennsylvania's College of Arts and Sciences, is entering her 16th season at the helm of the women's tennis program at Penn in 2024-25.
The Quakers featured their best season since 2007 in 2018-19, tallying 16 dual match victories and going 5-2 in Ivy League play to tie for second in the conference. Iuliia Bryzgalova led the charge for the Quakers, earning both Ivy League Rookie and Player of the Year honors unanimously en route to a berth to the NCAA Singles Championship.
As a sophomore in the fall of 2020, Bryzgalova enjoyed arguably the best season by a player in program history under Kunovac's tutelage. She was a finalist at the Saint Francis Health System ITA All-American Championships and a quarterfinalist at the Oracle ITA Fall National Championships. After the spring season was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, Bryzgalova was ranked 13th nationally in singles after garnering a top-10 ranking which was a first for a Penn player. Bryzgalova also teamed with Marija Curnic to win the ITA Northeast Regional doubles title, then they reached the main draw of the ITA All-American Championships en route to a No. 39 national ranking when the pandemic hit.
After dropping the initial two matches in Ivy League play, including a heartbreaking 4-3 defeat to #38 Princeton, Kunovac led the Quakers to five consecutive league wins, outscoring opponents 21-2. In addition to Bryzgalova’s first-team All-Ivy honors, Marija Curnic and Marta Kowalska earned first-team honors in doubles with Bryzgalova and OJ Singh taking second-team accolades.
Penn tallied nine wins in the spring season of 2018, and saw a breakout year from freshman Curnic, who led the Quakers with a 6-1 mark in Ivy League play.
The 2016-17 season saw the team compile an 11-9 overall record including a 4-3 mark in the Ivy League as the season came down to the final weekend. Senior Kana Daniel excelled, earning a spot in the NCAA Singles Championship and advancing to the second round, while earning first-team All-Ivy in singles and second-team All-Ivy in doubles with partner OJ Singh. Junior Ria Vaidya earned second-team All-Ivy honors in singles, while freshman Ashley Zhu took home Ivy League Rookie of the Year accolades. The Red and Blue finished the year ranked No. 50 in the final ITA poll.
2015-16 was a similar finish for Penn, as the Quakers went 11-9 and 4-3 in the Ivy League to finish in a tie for second among Ancient Eight competition. Penn took down five ranked opponents, while Daniel was named first-team All-Ivy in both singles and doubles.
In 2014-15, Penn finished with a 10-8 overall record and went 3-4 in Ivy League play, winning three of its last four matches, all against ranked opponents.
Under Kunovac's leadership, Sol Eskenazi became the most decorated women's tennis player in program history, finishing her career with a total of eight All-Ivy selections, including seven first-team honors, and was the co-recipient of the Penn Athletics Association of Alumnae Fathers' Trophy, along with the Trustees' Council for Penn Women Athletic Award of Excellence. Fellow senior Alexandra Ion was also the recipient of the Penn Athletics Goldring Award.
In 2013-14, Eskenazi became the first player in program history to earn three-straight first-team All-Ivy selections in doubles, doing so with three different partners. In addition to her third-straight All-Ivy doubles selection with Daniel, Eskenazi was also named first-team All-Ivy in singles, becoming the first Quaker since 1999 to be named first-team for three consecutive seasons.
In February of 2014, Penn defeated then No. 57 Penn State, pushing the Quakers to No. 68 in the ITA rankings, the first time Penn had been ranked in Coach Kunovac's time as coach.
During the 2012-13 season, Eskenazi and freshman Sonya Latycheva won the ITA Northeast Regionals doubles title in the fall, earned unanimous first-team All-Ivy recognition in the spring, and played in the NCAA Championships as well as the ITA National Indoors. Eskenazi was also voted by the coaches as a first-team All-Ivy singles player.
In 2011-12, for the second-straight year Kunovac coached the Ivy League Rookie of the Year in Eskenazi. The Quakers also had two players earn All-Ivy honors in singles and a doubles pair earn first-team All-Ivy.
The Quakers' No. 1 doubles pairing also became the first nationally-ranked doubles team at Penn since the 2008-09 season. In 2012, the Quakers also defeated then No. 72 Harvard, the team's first win over a ranked opponent since 2008.
In the 2011 season, Connie Hsu was named the Ivy League Player and Rookie of the Year. Hsu also teamed up with Alexa Ely and the duo made a formidable pairing, earning first-team All-Ivy in doubles competition. Hsu also became the first individual to qualify for the NCAA Singles Championship since Alice Pirsu in 2003. At the tournament, Hsu went 1-1 and advanced to the Round of 32 after beating the fifth-ranked player in the opening round.
Kunovac is a name familiar to those who follow the Penn tennis program -- she was the Ivy League Rookie of the Year and Player of the Year in 2001, the first Penn women's tennis player to earn both honors in the same season. That freshman year, she played No. 1 singles and led the Quakers to their first Ivy League championship and an NCAA Championship first-round victory over nationally-ranked Pepperdine. Penn also won the Ivy title in 2002, Kunovac's sophomore season, and advanced to the second round of the NCAA Championship. Kunovac was the first three-year captain in program history and a two-time All-Ivy selection in both singles (2001, 2002) and doubles (2001, 2002).
As a coach, Kunovac has worked at several different levels prior to Penn. She served as a volunteer assistant with the Quakers, and in 2007-08 she was a volunteer assistant at the University of Arizona while working on her master's degree. In 2006-07, Kunovac was the head coach of the girl's tennis team at Bradenton (Fla.) Prep, leading the squad to a share of the Class 1A state championship. Her top player, Carling Seguso, won the individual title that year, and the duo of Seguso and Alexandra Rasch took the state doubles title. Seguso went on to play college tennis at UCLA. Kunovac has also trained and mentored individual players in Florida.
While a student at Penn, Kunovac was also a member of the Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC) all four years, serving on the executive committee for three of them, and was a Friars Senior Honors Society inductee. She graduated in 2004 with degrees in economics and in Penn's PPE (Philosophy, Politics and Economics) program. In January 2009, Kunovac earned her masters in International Relations and Comparative Politics from the University of Arizona.
