SAN ANTONIO – With the fall season just around the corner for the UTSA men’s tennis team, the Roadrunners are celebrating some early accolades. The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) released its Preseason Rankings on Tuesday, and UTSA’s Alan Magadan and Tiago Torres are among those early honorees, notching a No. 44 national ranking in doubles.
“It's nice to see this team starting the year in the rankings,” fifth-year head coach Sergey Avdeyev said. “They played together and had some great success last year. I am looking forward to seeing what they can accomplish this fall!”
Helping the UTSA Roadrunners to a milestone season that featured an 18-7 record and an NCAA appearance earned, Magadan and Torres tied for the most wins among UTSA doubles pairs, stringing together a 9-4 record while playing exclusively on the top court together. The pair won all three league contests they played together.
For Magadan, now entering his senior season and his second UTSA campaign after coming out of McAllen, Texas by way of Tyler Junior College, the ranked feeling isn't unusual territory. Magadan spent the entirety of the 2023 season in the national doubles rankings after a phenomenal run through last fall’s ITA tournaments. Magadan and now-graduated doubles partner Sebastian Rodriguez rolled through to earn the program’s first ITA South Region title before advancing to the national tournament and reaching the ITA quarterfinal. The pair ranked as high as sixth in the national standings and earned a spot into the postseason NCAA Doubles Championships in Orlando. They became the first UTSA men’s tennis pair to earn a postseason victory and reach the NCAA Round of 16. Magadan received first-team Conference USA honors in singles and doubles a year ago, also collecting a team-high 14-7 record on the solo court.
A junior from Lisbon, Portugal, Torres is fresh off representing his home country in both doubles and singles at the World University Games in Chengdu, China. He garnered first-team All-Conference USA honors in singles last season after an 8-11 finish at the No. 1 and facing UTSA's highest count of nationally-ranked individual opponents (4). He was twice named conference Player of the Week. He was also an all-conference second-teamer his rookie season.
Both leaders returning from last season, Magadan and Torres were instrumental in the Roadrunners’ record-breaking success last season. UTSA put away all previous rankings in 2023, topping out at 34th nationally and earning the program's first NCAA At-Large berth, while finishing as Conference USA Runner-up with the most victories since 1985. Along the way, UTSA produced an NCAA-leading 14-match win streak that included six wins over ranked opponents, and was named ITA's Team of the Month for March 2023.
The Roadrunners open up their 2023 fall slate in Louisiana at the Lake Charles Hidden Dual, competing from Sept. 22-24 at the Lake Charles Racquet Club.
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