A Trio of Canes Ranked in Top 100
CORAL GABLES, Fla. – Three University of Miami men’s tennis student-athletes – Adria Soriano Barrera, Bojan Jankulovski and Francisco Bastias – are listed in the singles national rankings, as Oracle and the Intercollegiate Tennis Association announced the post-fall top-125 for Division I men on Wednesday.
Soriano, a sophomore from Barcelona, Spain, ascended 20 spots from the initial preseason rankings, checking in at No. 21. He ranks third among ACC student-athletes, as Wake Forest’s Petros Chrysochos holds the top spot in the national polls, while Alex Rybakov of Notre Dame is No. 16. The sophomore’s ranking is the highest for a Miami men’s tennis student-athlete since Daniel Vallverdu wrapped up his collegiate career ranked No. 16 on May 29, 2009.
Following a pair of ranked losses in his first two matches of the fall, Soriano bounced back with five consecutive victories to reach the Southeast Regional title match against No. 22 Jan Zielinski of Georgia. Two weeks later, the sophomore advanced through to the quarterfinals of the 2018 ITA National Fall Championships, to close out the fall with a 7-4 overall singles mark.
Opening the season ranked No. 92, Jankulovski jumped 57 spots to No. 35. The Skopje, Macedonia, native ranks seventh among ACC student-athletes, after closing out the fall portion of his sophomore campaign with a team-best 7-3 record.
Jankulovski opened up the fall at the ITA All-America Championships Qualifiers topping then-No. 81 Laurens Verboven of USC, 6-4, 6-2, who a week prior had won the prestigious Oracle ITA Masters championship and closed out the fall ranked No. 19. The sophomore followed the season-opening triumph with two more victories to advance to the All-American Main Draw, as well as reached the Round of 32 at the 2018 Oracle ITA National Fall Championships.
After entering his collegiate career ranked 10th in the ITA preseason newcomers poll, Bastias now ranks 97th nationally. The Mendoza, Argentina, native wrapped up the fall season 6-4 in singles action, most recently earning the back draw title at the Longhorn Invitational.
Overall, it marks the first time a trio of Canes are ranked in the top 125 since Jan. 5, 2016 when Piotr Lomacki (No. 23), Christian Langmo (No. 70) and Max Andrews (No. 107) accomplished the feat. The last time at least three Canes were ranked in the top 100 last took place during the 2006-07 season when Luigi D’Agord (third), Josh Cohen (No. 54) and Daniel Vallverdu (No. 70) led the Canes to a top-10 team ranking in the preseason.
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