Jan. 7, 2010

COLUMBIA, S.C. – In the first Campbell’s ITA College Tennis Rankings of the spring, South Carolina’s men’s team comes in at No. 36. Senior Diego Cubas and sophomore Ivan Machado enter the dual-match portion of the season with a No. 27 ranking, while Cubas’ singles ranking stands at No. 48.

Cubas and Machado put together a 7-4 record in the fall, including a win over then-No. 10 Austen Childs and Simon Childs of Louisville at the South Carolina Fall Invitational. Additionally, they advanced to the semifinals of the ITA Carolinas Regional, which helped them earn an at-large bit into the ITA National Indoor Collegiate Championships.

Cubas finished the first half of his final collegiate season with a team-best 10-3 mark, reaching the final of the ITA Carolinas Regional and gaining a berth into the ITA National Indoor Collegiate Championships, the first Gamecock to do so since 2002.

South Carolina opens its dual-match season at home against Wofford on Jan. 16 at 1 p.m. at the USC Indoor Facility. When the Gamecocks move to outdoor matches this spring, scheduled to be in late February weather permitting, those matches will be played at Maxcy Gregg Tennis Center due to construction plans at the site of the former Sam Daniel Tennis Center.