Read Alex’s articles: The Four Horsemen, Serve and Volley
& Self-Awareness, Knowing Your Limits and Shot Selection
Follow @alex_bancila
The Lake Forest Club
Director of Racquet Sports – USPTA, PPTA
Alex joined the Lake Forest Club in October 2010. Prior to joining our club, he has been the Director of Racquet Sports at the Cherry Valley Club in Garden City, NY for the last eight years. From 1999 until 2003, Alex was the Assistant Director of Racquet Sports at the Creek Club in Locust Valley, NY where he worked with Canadian Tennis Hall of Famer Martin Wostenholme.
Alex attended Miami University (OH) during his freshman year on a full tennis scholarship. He then transferred to Fordham University in NYC where he earned a B.S. degree from the College of Business Administration (CBA) at Rose Hill. While at Fordham, Alex lettered in tennis and squash and was the number one singles and doubles player for the Rams throughout his tenure in both sports. He earned Atlantic 10 all-conference first team tennis honors and was invited to the NCAA tournament three times.
In May 2009, Alex earned his MBA in Global Management from Fordham University at Lincoln Center.
Through Bancila & Co. – his racquet sport management and consulting company, Alex has developed, produced and coordinated some of the most successful tennis and platform tennis camps, professional exhibitions and events in metropolitan NY, some of which have been featured in several industry magazines.
In tennis, Alex reached a Top 10 ITF World ranking (highest singles #9, doubles #6), having played the French Open twice, Wimbledon once and the Orange Bowl four times. He has traveled all over the world (Europe, South America and Asia) playing tennis tournaments and has career singles victories over Marcelo Rios, Mark Philippoussis and Stefan Koubek and doubles wins over Gustavo Kuerten, Nicolas Escude and over former Wimbledon Doubles runner-up Scott Melville. Alex was part of the Creek Tennis Team that won the Eastern Section three years running and finished runner-up in the country two years in a row (2002 and 2003) in the USTA Men’s Professional Open League.
Alex is a high performance and player development consultant to the president of the Romanian Tennis Federation. He is a USPTA certified professional (P1) and a member of Wilson’s Racquet Sports Advisory Staff.
In Platform Tennis, Alex is a PPTA (Professional Platform Tennis Association) certified professional since 2004.
Alex and partner Brad Easterbrook finished the 2008-2009 season ranked #2 on the APTA men’s open rankings. In November of 2008 and 2009, Alex and Brad won back to back the highly rated Sound Shore Invitational (SSI) which is played at the Fox Meadow Club (the home of platform tennis).
At the National Championships in Cincinnati, OH, Alex and Brad came in second place, losing a two hour and forty-five minute final against the legendary team of Flip Goodspeed and Scott Mansager, who won their eight national title. In the quarter-finals, Alex and Brad defeated the formidable duo of Brian Uihlein and Dave Keevins, the defending national champions who had won two of the last three national championships.
In January of 2009, Alex partnered up with former national champion Mike Stulac to win the nationally rated Atlantic Classic tournament, held in Essex Fells, NJ. In December of the same year, Alex and new partner Juan Arraya won the Long Island Invitational tournament, another nationally rated event.
Alex and Juan started their new partnership under the best of terms by winning the 2011 Chicago Charities tournament which is widely regarded as the second strongest tournament of the APTA tour. They defeated along the way Brian Uihlein and Mike Marino (defending champions) in the quarter-finals, Scott Bondurant and Mark Johnson in the semis and Mike Cochrane and Scott Estes (the number 1 team in the country) in the final.
In 2009, Alex created the “Tri-state Cup”, the premier East coast platform tennis team event that brings together in competition all-star rosters from the Connecticut, Long Island, New Jersey and Westchester leagues.
Alex currently resides in Lake Forest with wife Suzana and their children Alex and Emma. He is originally from Bucharest, Romania and grew up in Lisbon, Portugal from ages six to ten. He is bilingual in Romanian and Portuguese and fluent in Spanish. Alex’s interest include spending time with his family, movies, soccer, music, going to concerts, reading, traveling and dining.