University of St. Francis (III.)

Mark Ortega was named the head coach of the University of St. Francis women’s tennis program before the 2018-19 season, and took over the reins of the men’s team in July of 2024.  The 2025-26 season will mark Ortega’s eighth year as head women’s coach, and second as head men’s coach.

While as head coach at St. Francis, Ortega has helped develop six CCAC All-Conference women’s singles selections, and two women’s doubles selections, as well as one Freshman of the Year (Anna Bintsarovskaya – 2023), and one Player of the Year (Anna Bintsarovskaya – 2023).  With his guidance, Ortega has overseen two ITA Cup Regional Winners (Nikkie Christiansen – 2020, Anna Bintsarovskaya – 2024) and three NAIA All-American recipients (Anna Bintsarovskaya 2023, 2024, 2025).  In 2023, Ortega led the women’s team to a share of the Chicagoland Collegiate Athletic Conference title, an achievement that hasn’t been accomplished since 1984.

With over 20-plus year of experience as a tennis instructor, Ortega is currently a director of a high-performance summer tennis academy in the Chicago suburbs.  He is a PTR certified tennis teaching professional and tennis marketing specialist who founded tennisvideorecruiting.com, a website that creates custom recruiting videos for high school tennis players seeking college scholarships.  Ortega is a current partner with Professional ATP Touring and coach John Roddick (father of former #1 ATP player Andy Roddick) in which he provides video analysis through an on-court instant feedback system that he developed at high-performance tennis camps across the country.

Ortega received his Associates Degree in technologies from Oakton College in Des Plaines, Ill. and was a competitive junior player and team captain at Sullivan High School in Chicago, Ill.  He still plays regularly in USTA sanctioned tournaments.  His son Kris, a five-star recruit and No. 1 ranked player in the 2016 class from the state of Illinois, played collegiately for the University of Illinois.