Joshua "Josh" Goffi (born 24 January 1979) is a former professional

tennis Tennis is a List of racket sports, racket sport that is played either individually against a single opponent (singles (tennis), singles) or between two teams of two players each (doubles (tennis), doubles). Each player uses a tennis racket st ...

player from Brazil.

Biography

Early years

Goffi is the son of tennis coach Carlos Goffi, who coached the McEnroe brothers through his academy. He was born in

São Paulo São Paulo (; ; Portuguese for 'Paul the Apostle, Saint Paul') is the capital of the São Paulo (state), state of São Paulo, as well as the List of cities in Brazil by population, most populous city in Brazil, the List of largest cities in the ...

on 24 January 1979. When he was very young the family moved to

South Carolina South Carolina ( ) is a U.S. state, state in the Southeastern United States, Southeastern region of the United States. It borders North Carolina to the north and northeast, the Atlantic Ocean to the southeast, and Georgia (U.S. state), Georg ...

. His mother is an American. In his younger days he favoured soccer as his sport and it was only at the age of 14 that he began to play tennis, at his own insistence rather than his father's, who was adamant not to pressure his son into the sport.

Tennis career

From 1998 to 2001 he attended

Clemson University Clemson University () is a Public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university near Clemson, South Carolina, United States. - The blue-shaded pattern denotes university property. This shows Clemson University is ''out ...

and was on three occasions named in the All-ACC first team. He made it into the top-10 of the collegiate rankings for both singles and doubles. After graduating with a finance degree in 2001, he competed professionally for four years, most successfully as a doubles player. His biggest tournament win on the professional tour came when he partnered with

Travis Parrott Travis Parrott (born August 16, 1980)Travis Parrott
is an American former professional ...

to win a Challenger event at

Birmingham, Alabama Birmingham ( ) is a city in the north central region of Alabama, United States. It is the county seat of Jefferson County, Alabama, Jefferson County. The population was 200,733 at the 2020 United States census, 2020 census, making it the List ...

in 2003. He also notably had a singles win over one-time doubles partner

Stan Wawrinka Stanislas "Stan" Wawrinka (; born 28 March 1985) is a Swiss professional tennis player. He has been ranked world No. 3 in men's singles by the Association of Tennis Professionals (ATP), first achieved on 27 January 2014. Wawrinka has won 16 ATP T ...

in the qualifying rounds of the 2004 Turin Challenger. At ATP Tour level he was a quarter-finalist with

Ricardo Mello Ricardo Mello (born 21 December 1980) is a Brazilian retired tennis player. His preference is for clay courts. He has had the occasional win in hard court tournaments. His best singles rank was No. 50 in 2005. He won one singles tournament (Delra ...

at the

2003 Brasil Open The 2003 Brasil Open was a men's tennis tournament played on outdoor hard courts in Costa do Sauipe resort, Mata de São João, in Brazil and was part of the International Series of the 2003 ATP Tour. It was the third edition of the tournament ...

in São Paulo and appeared in the main draw of the

Kitzbühel Kitzbühel (, also: ; ) is a town rights, medieval town situated in the Kitzbühel Alps along the river Kitzbüheler Ache in Tyrol (state), Tyrol, Austria, about east of the state capital Innsbruck and is the administrative centre of the Kitzbüh ...

doubles in 2004. Goffi represented his birth country during his career and in 2004 was called up to Brazil's Davis Cup team, which had been hit by a boycott from its top players. The tie, an Americas Zone match against

Paraguay Paraguay, officially the Republic of Paraguay, is a landlocked country in South America. It is bordered by Argentina to the Argentina–Paraguay border, south and southwest, Brazil to the Brazil–Paraguay border, east and northeast, and Boli ...

, took place in

Bahia Bahia () is one of the 26 Federative units of Brazil, states of Brazil, located in the Northeast Region, Brazil, Northeast Region of the country. It is the fourth-largest Brazilian state by population (after São Paulo (state), São Paulo, Mina ...

. Speaking only a little Portuguese, Goffi played in the doubles beside

Alexandre Simoni Alexandre Torres Simoni (born 2 July 1979) is a retired professional Brazilian tennis player. After being ranked as high as No. 23 in the ITF World Junior Ranking, he turned professional in 1997. On the ATP tour, his best results were in 2001 ...

, a match they won in four sets, versus Paulo Carvallo and

Ramón Delgado Ramón Delgado (; born 14 November 1976) is a Paraguayan retired tennis player and current tennis coach. He turned professional in 1995 and achieved a career-high singles ranking of world No. 52 in April 1999. He reached the final at Bogotá in ...

Coaching

His coaching career started in 2006, at

Arizona State University Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public university, public research university in Tempe, Arizona, United States. Founded in 1885 as Territorial Normal School by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, the university is o ...

, where he worked as an assistant coach for two seasons. This was followed by two years at

Duke University Duke University is a Private university, private research university in Durham, North Carolina, United States. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity, North Carolina, Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1 ...

, also as an assistant coach. Since 2011 he has been the head coach of the

South Carolina Gamecocks men's tennis The South Carolina Gamecocks men's tennis team represents the University of South Carolina and competes in the Southeastern Conference The Southeastern Conference (SEC) is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference whose memb ...

team.

Personal life

Goffi is married to the former professional soccer player Nancy Augustyniak Goffi, who he met while they were both at Clemson University. His sister in-law,

Julie Augustyniak Julie Ann Augustyniak (born February 1, 1979) is an American former professional soccer player who featured primarily as a defender. Early life and education Augustyniak was born in Norfolk, Virginia and raised in Peachtree City, Georgia. She ...

, also played soccer professionally.

Challenger titles

Doubles

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Goffi, Josh 1979 births Living people Brazilian male tennis players Brazilian tennis coaches Brazilian emigrants to the United States Tennis players from São Paulo Clemson Tigers men's tennis players Arizona State Sun Devils men's tennis coaches Duke Blue Devils men's tennis coaches South Carolina Gamecocks men's tennis coaches Tennis players from South Carolina American tennis coaches