Rahim Esmail - Men's Tennis Coach - University of Washington Athletics

Photo by: Red Box Pictures

Rahim Esmail

Title:
Head Coach
Email:
rwesmail@uw.edu

Rahim Esmail became the first new Head Coach of Washington Men's Tennis in over twenty years in June of 2022, stepping up from his Associate Head Coach role. Esmail brings a proven track record to the lead role with seventeen years of coaching experience, NCAA tournament experience as a player, assistant, and head coach, as well as a familiarity with the Pacific Northwest.

Washington returned to the NCAA Championships in 2025 during Esmail’s third season at the helm, posting a 17-9 record and making the Big Ten Championship semifinals, while Cesar Bouchelaghem became the first Dawg to win a match at the NCAA Singles Championships since 2013, as he reached the second round.

The Huskies went 8-5 in their first year in the Big Ten in 2025, finishing fourth overall, then getting a tourney win over Nebraska to make the semis. The Huskies finished the season ranked No. 37 nationally, their highest since 2013.

Bouchelaghem was named to the 2025 All-Big Ten First Team and he finished the 2025 season ranked No. 42 nationally in singles, while senior Dzianis Zharyn ranked No. 121.

Esmail is now 38-35 overall in his three seasons on Montlake.

Bouchelaghem and Zharyn made a run to the semifinals of the 2023 ITA National Fall Championships during Esmail’s second season. That was the best finish ever by a Husky doubles duo at the tourney. The pair broke into the ITA national doubles top-10 in February of 2024, the first Huskies since 2005 to reach that height. Bouchelaghem was named All-Pac-12 First Team in 2024 after a Second Team honor the previous year, while Zharyn got Second Team distinction in 2023 and 2024. Han-Chih Lin won the 2024 ITA Northwest Region Rafael Osuna Sportsmanship Award in 2024 and he was All-Pac-12 Second Team in 2023.

Year one under Esmail in 2023 saw a very young Husky squad with no seniors on the roster still make a determined run at a postseason bid, going 12-11 and finishing the season ranked 45th nationally. Washington had graduated its top-three singles players from 2022, but pulled off several huge wins with the youthful group, beating Pac-12 regular season co-champs Utah, and getting the first season sweep of Stanford and California since 2005.

Esmail was elevated to the Head Coaching role upon the retirement of Matt Anger, whom Esmail worked with during the 2022 spring season. In his first season with the Huskies, Esmail helped the Dawgs to an 18-12 record and their first NCAA Championship bid since 2017. Washington made a run to its first-ever Pac-12 Championship final, thanks in part to an upset over No. 1-seed Arizona, and UW finished the season at No. 39 in the ITA rankings. Clement Chidekh achieved the program's first No. 1 singles ranking in history during the year and was named an ITA All-American, while Ewen Lumsden and Jack Davis finished the year ranked 26th in doubles.

“Since arriving here to work alongside Coach Anger, I quickly learnt that the support and love for tennis in the Husky community is vast,” said Esmail. “I am excited to continue to grow the game in our community, connect with our alumni, and support our student-athletes in every way possible to help them grow. I am very motivated and extremely excited about the future of this program, as this is a very special place surrounded by very special people.”

Esmail_Career

With the move to Seattle, Esmail returned much closer to his native British Columbia, Canada, where he grew up in Coquitlam. After establishing himself as one of the best junior players in Canada, Esmail went on to a standout collegiate career at the University of Kentucky from 2001 to 2004. Esmail played professionally for two years on the ATP Tour before turning to coaching.

Prior to joining the Huskies, Esmail spent 10 seasons as Head Coach of the Samford Bulldogs from 2011-21. Esmail guided the Bulldogs to 110 victories, the first Southern Conference regular season title in program history, and an NCAA Championships appearance in 2013. In the spring of 2021, Victor Chaw and Jim Hendrikx became the first Samford doubles duo ever to make the NCAA Doubles Championships, and the first from the Southern Conference since 2016.

Esmail was named the 2021 Southern Conference Coach of the Year in his final season leading the Bulldogs. Esmail’s 2021 Bulldogs team went 13-8 on the year and 6-1 in conference play to finish runner-up in the regular season, with Esmail earning Coach of the Year honors. His 2013 Bulldogs squad won the conference tournament and met Harvard in the first round of NCAAs, achieving a program-best ITA ranking of No. 57. During his ten years at Samford, his players earned twenty-one All-SoCon Team awards in singles and doubles.

Prior to Samford, Esmail spent four seasons as an assistant coach with the University of Alabama women’s team. His first coaching stint was one season as assistant coach for both men and women at Eastern Kentucky University, where he earned his Masters in sports administration.

Esmail spent two years on the ATP Tour, where he reached the finals of three professional tournaments, once in singles and twice in doubles. He posted wins over top ATP Tour players such as Tommy Robredo, Feliciano Lopez and John Isner.

As a player at the University of Kentucky from 2001 to 2004, Esmail was a fixture at No. 4 singles and No. 1 doubles for the Wildcats. In 2002, he went 31-4 in singles and 23-2 in doubles to help Kentucky climb to No. 4 in the national rankings, serving as a team captain for the Wildcats in his junior and senior seasons.

Esmail was ranked as high as No. 54 nationally in singles at Kentucky and attained a doubles rank as high as No. 8. As a junior, he was a six-time Canadian National singles finalist, a three-time junior Davis Cup team member, and winner of the 1998 national doubles championship. In 1999, Esmail competed in the junior French Open and the junior U.S. Open.