A standout at Auburn, Taylor Russo joined the Wisconsin women's tennis staff as an assistant coach on July 25, 2022.
Russo aided the Badgers to one of their best seasons in program history in her first season in Madison, as they won an NCAA Tournament match for the first time since 2002, and reached as high as No. 11 in the ITA rankings, their highest team ranking since 1996, and finished the season ranked No. 22. The Badgers recorded a 20-win season for the first time since 1996-97 and went 8-3 in Big Ten matches for the second straight season. Ava Markham and Maria Sholokhova were selected to the All-Big Ten team, while Markham was the first Badger to qualify in singles at the NCAA Tournament since 2016.
Russo arrived to Madison after spending six seasons at Auburn, where she competed on the women's tennis team for five seasons before spending the 2021-22 season as a graduate assistant for student-athlete enhancement and AuburnYOU, the Tigers' comprehensive life skills program.
While competing for the Tigers, Russo was a two-time team captain and was recognized as the ITA Southern Region Senior Player of the Year in 2020. Additionally, she was named to the All-SEC Freshman Team in 2017 and garnered spots on the SEC Community Service Team three times. Russo finished her career ranked No. 5 in combined victories (175) and No. 6 in singles wins (85) in program history. She also gained experience with the Auburn men's tennis program as a digital media intern for two seasons, where she led all social media efforts for the program.
Russo also spent time as an instructor at Yarbrough Tennis Center in Auburn and The Rick Macci Tennis Academy in Boca Raton.
She graduated from Auburn in 2020 with a degree in journalism and went on to obtain her masters in communication in 2022.
