Aug. 10, 2015

COLUMBIA, S.C. — South Carolina women’s tennis head coach Kevin Epley announced a late addition to the 2015 class with the signing of Brazilian Ingrid Gamarra Martins. Gamarra Martins is currently ranked No. 728 in the WTA and has been ranked as high as No. 135 in ITF as a junior player.

“We couldn’t be more excited to welcome Ingrid to the team for the 2015-16 season,” Epley said. “She is an ambitious and hard-working player who will be a perfect fit for our system.”

A native of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Gamarra Martins began playing professionally in 2013 at the age of 16. This spring, she won a doubles tournament in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil, while reaching the finals at doubles tournaments in Argentina and Campos do Jordao, Brazil. Most recently, she earned a wild card bid to compete in the 2015 Brazil Tennis Cup in Florianopolis, Brazil, where she won her first WTA match.

Gamarra Martins is the final piece to what was ranked as the No. 12 recruiting class in the nation and tops in the SEC by TennisRecruiting.net in June. The highly touted class also includes five-star signees Paige Cline, Ellie Zogg and Rachel Rohrabacher and four-star recruit Hannah Templeton, who were announced in June.

This is Epley’s second addition to the roster from South America since taking over the women’s tennis program in 2012 when he signed current senior Ximena Siles Luna (Peru). The Gamecocks have had a player from South America on the roster every year since 2009-10.

The Gamecocks return six members of last year’s squad, giving them 11 for the 2015-16 season with the additions of Gamarra Martins, Cline, Rohrabacher, Templeton and Zogg. South Carolina finished last season ranked No. 29 following its 21st-consecutive appearance in the NCAA Tournament, in which they advanced to the round of 32.