Tempe, Az. — Several Tigers have made their debut in the ITA’s singles and doubles rankings, as announced by the organization on Wednesday afternoon. Carlos Kelaidis earned the No. 75 distinction in singles and is the only Tiger this season to be ranked in the category. In doubles, four Tiger tandems made the cut with No. 50 Teodor Giusca and Yizhou Liu, No. 60 Spencer Whitaker and Ryuhei Azuma, No. 78. Ryuhei Azuma and Jacob Jahn and No. 80 Spencer Whitaker and Teodor Giusca. It marks the first time since 2019 that Clemson has had a ranked singles player and the first time since 2018 that the program has had a ranked doubles team. Full ITA singles and doubles rankings.
Through 12 matches this season, Kelaidis is 5-5 overall with wins over No. 64 Stefan Milicevic of Miami, 6-1, 6-3, and No. 106 Jeffrey Von Der Schulenburg of Virginia, 3-6, 6-4, 10-6. Kelaidis is the first Tiger since 2018 to hold a singles ranking (No. 75 Alex Favrot).
In doubles, the top pair of Liu and Giusca are 3-2 on the season with a win over No. 55 Sean Scully and Garrett Johns of Duke on Feb. 28. Liu and Giusca’s No. 50 ranking the highest by a Clemson duo since 2018 (No. 47 Alex Favrot and Simon Baudry). Azuma and Whitaker have been nearly perfect with a 5-1 record. The freshman tandem’s only loss came at the hands of Jordan Chrysostom and Ryan Fishback of Virginia Tech who are now ranked at No. 36. Earlier in the season, Azuma and Jahn were 5-2 overall and posted 2-1 marks against ranked opponents. Azuma and Jahn’s ranked wins came over No. 25 Luca Maldoner and Nicola Vidal of Old Dominion on Jan. 24 and No. 44 Daniel Rodrigues and Connor Thompson of South Carolina on Feb. 5. Finally, Whitaker and Giusca, who remain undefeated at 4-0, have notched one ranked win against No. 59 Raphael Lambling and Phillip Jordan of South Carolina.
Clemson returns to The Duckworth Family Tennis Facility on Friday when they play host to No. 12 Wake Forest. First serve for the match is slated for 5 p.m.
For complete coverage of the Clemson men’s tennis team, follow @ClemsonMTennis on Twitter, Facebook and Instagram.
