ORLANDO, Fla. (UCFKnights.com) – With the fall season fast approaching, the UCF men's tennis team saw three of their singles players ranked by the ITA as well as their top doubles tandem ahead of the 2019-20 season.
Last season, Bogdan Pavel and Trey Hilderbrand went on a nine-match winning streak, defeating eight ranked opponents in the process. The duo climbed as high as No. 14 last season and will start the 2019 fall season as the No. 3 pair in the nation. The ranking ties UCF's best ranking for a doubles team in program history as Korey Lovett and Eero Vasa were the other pair to reach that ranking. Pavel and Hilderbrand finished the 2019 spring season ranked No. 17 after getting edged by the nation's top duo in the first round of the NCAA Doubles Championships. They were the highest ranked pair of freshmen last season and finished with a record of 15-5.
UCF ended the spring season with just one ranked singles player but will begin the 2019 tournament season with three players ranked. Gabriel Decamps was named the No. 29 player in the nation while Juan Pablo Grassi Mazzuchi checks in at No. 82 and Alan Rubio falls just behind him at No. 84.
Decamps finished last season at No. 55 in the ITA singles rankings after having to retire from his first-round match in the NCAA Singles Championships. He earned an at-large berth into the tournament after going toe to toe with some of the nation's best No. 1's.
Grassi Mazzuchi ended his spring season on a hot streak, winning his last six matches and won 10 of his last 12 matches that he finished. He picked up wins when they counted the most, going 3-0 in the American Athletic Conference tournament and winning his match against FSU in the NCAA Tournament. Grassi Mazzuchi saw time at five of six singles positions last season; he played spots 1-5 but saw the most action at the No. 5 spot where he went 6-1. He was ranked No. 57 after the 2018 tournament season but dropped out of the rankings at the start of the 2019 dual match season.
Rubio flirted with the rankings throughout the 2018-19 season. After posting a 9-6 record during the tournament season and chalking up a Bedford Cup win, Rubio was ranked No. 79 entering the dual match season. He gradually slipped out of the top-100 and hung around No. 120 and 122 midway through the season before dropping out of the rankings. Rubio will look to make a statement in the rankings this season and anchor the Knights at one of the top singles positions.
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