University of Houston Athletics
Tennis
Chris Wootton
- Title:
- Assistant Coach
- Email:
- cawootto@central.uh.edu
Chris Wootton joined the University of Houston Tennis program as an assistant Coach in June 2025 and made immediate impact. Wootton helped Houston to its first 11-0 start since 1990 with eight-straight sweeps to open th season for the first time in program history. Among those eight sweeps the first five were all on the road which was a first for the program. He helped coach a pair of Big 12 Tennis Players of the Week as Valeriia Krokhotina and Chems Doha Zeghlouli earned the honor during the season.Â
Wootton helped the Cougars to a 17-6 record and an 8-6 ledger in conference action. Houston finished tied for sixth in the league and qualified for the Big 12 Tournament. Zeghlouli and Sophie Schouten earned All-Big 12 Second Team Doubles honors for the first postseason awards since 2023 and the first for the Cougars since as a member of the Big 12.Â
Schouten and Krokhotina went 17-1 and 14-1 respectively in singles and finished the year at second and third in the program's single-season singles winning percentage.
Wootton brings a decade’s worth of collegiate coaching experience with stops at Williams College, USC, Missouri and most recently at UT Tyler. He brings over three decades of overall coaching expertise.
Wootton joins the Cougar coaching staff after a two-year stint as the associate head coach at UT Tyler where he helped revamp the women’s program from a six-win season in 2024 to an 18-win campaign in 2025. While coaching both the men’s and women’s program, Wootton helped No. 1 singles player, Muskan Gupta, to NCAA All-America status and led the men’s program to its first Lone Star Conference tournament title in school history.
Three student-athletes earned All-America honors in his first season in Tyler.
Before arriving in Tyler, Wootton spent four seasons at Missouri. He spent the 2019-20 season as the associate head coach helping Serena Nash and Gabrielle Goldin to a No. 58 ITA doubles ranking.
During the 2020-21 season, Wootton was elevated to interim head coach, guiding the Tigers to their first Southeastern Conference victory in four years. He coached Bronte Murgett to the school’s singles win in the NCAA Championships and led the Tigers to a No. 36 ITA ranking, up over 100 spots.
Wootton’s interim tag was removed before the 2021-22 season where he recruited and signed program-record recruiting classes with players ranked No. 57, 209, 287, 337 and 430 in the ITF World Junior rankings. Adamovic was an assistant coach on staff and for the first time in school history, two American blue-chip players signed to play for Missouri.
Prior to his time in Columbia, Missouri, Wootton spent two seasons as an assistant coach at USC where he helped elevate the program form a No. 52 ITA rank to No. 11 in just two seasons. In his time in Hollywood, Wootton led No. 1 ranked doubles pair Angela Kulikov and Rianna Valdez to the NCAA Doubles Semifinals in 2019 while coaching Gabby Smith to All-America honors.
Wootton got his start as a collegiate coach as an assistant at Williams College where he helped Julia Raventos, Linda Shin, Julia Cancio, Leah Bush and Guilia McDonnell to All-American status in his first year.
In 2016-17, Wootten led Williams College to 20 wins, the New England Small College Athletic Conference title, and the 2017 Division III Team National Championship.
Before becoming a collegiate coach, Wootton competed for Mississippi College (2011-13) and the University of Texas at Tyler (2013-15), where he earned his master’s degree in business administration. In 2015, Wootton captured All-America honors in doubles at the age of 39, becoming the oldest All-American in NCAA history in any sport across all divisions.
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Between 1995 and 2011, Wootton coached over 50 NCAA college tennis players and over 20 ATP/WTA touring pros. He also played professionally for six years, collecting singles and doubles wins over top-100 ATP players.
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Wootton and his wife, Robin, have two daughters, Christiane (22) and Isabel (19).
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Wootton helped the Cougars to a 17-6 record and an 8-6 ledger in conference action. Houston finished tied for sixth in the league and qualified for the Big 12 Tournament. Zeghlouli and Sophie Schouten earned All-Big 12 Second Team Doubles honors for the first postseason awards since 2023 and the first for the Cougars since as a member of the Big 12.Â
Schouten and Krokhotina went 17-1 and 14-1 respectively in singles and finished the year at second and third in the program's single-season singles winning percentage.
Wootton brings a decade’s worth of collegiate coaching experience with stops at Williams College, USC, Missouri and most recently at UT Tyler. He brings over three decades of overall coaching expertise.
Wootton joins the Cougar coaching staff after a two-year stint as the associate head coach at UT Tyler where he helped revamp the women’s program from a six-win season in 2024 to an 18-win campaign in 2025. While coaching both the men’s and women’s program, Wootton helped No. 1 singles player, Muskan Gupta, to NCAA All-America status and led the men’s program to its first Lone Star Conference tournament title in school history.
Three student-athletes earned All-America honors in his first season in Tyler.
Before arriving in Tyler, Wootton spent four seasons at Missouri. He spent the 2019-20 season as the associate head coach helping Serena Nash and Gabrielle Goldin to a No. 58 ITA doubles ranking.
During the 2020-21 season, Wootton was elevated to interim head coach, guiding the Tigers to their first Southeastern Conference victory in four years. He coached Bronte Murgett to the school’s singles win in the NCAA Championships and led the Tigers to a No. 36 ITA ranking, up over 100 spots.
Wootton’s interim tag was removed before the 2021-22 season where he recruited and signed program-record recruiting classes with players ranked No. 57, 209, 287, 337 and 430 in the ITF World Junior rankings. Adamovic was an assistant coach on staff and for the first time in school history, two American blue-chip players signed to play for Missouri.
Prior to his time in Columbia, Missouri, Wootton spent two seasons as an assistant coach at USC where he helped elevate the program form a No. 52 ITA rank to No. 11 in just two seasons. In his time in Hollywood, Wootton led No. 1 ranked doubles pair Angela Kulikov and Rianna Valdez to the NCAA Doubles Semifinals in 2019 while coaching Gabby Smith to All-America honors.
Wootton got his start as a collegiate coach as an assistant at Williams College where he helped Julia Raventos, Linda Shin, Julia Cancio, Leah Bush and Guilia McDonnell to All-American status in his first year.
In 2016-17, Wootten led Williams College to 20 wins, the New England Small College Athletic Conference title, and the 2017 Division III Team National Championship.
Before becoming a collegiate coach, Wootton competed for Mississippi College (2011-13) and the University of Texas at Tyler (2013-15), where he earned his master’s degree in business administration. In 2015, Wootton captured All-America honors in doubles at the age of 39, becoming the oldest All-American in NCAA history in any sport across all divisions.
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Between 1995 and 2011, Wootton coached over 50 NCAA college tennis players and over 20 ATP/WTA touring pros. He also played professionally for six years, collecting singles and doubles wins over top-100 ATP players.
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Wootton and his wife, Robin, have two daughters, Christiane (22) and Isabel (19).
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