Tennis Recruiting Network released its rankings for next season’s incoming class on Monday, listing the Indiana men’s tennis team’s 2022 class at No. 11.
This is the highest ranking that the Hoosiers have achieved throughout head coach Jeremy Wurtzman’s time in Bloomington and the highest of all the program’s years listed on the Tennis Recruiting Network website, dating back to 2008. The top-15 placement also comes one year after Indiana had no signing class in 2021, meaning there are no freshmen on the roster in the current season.
Wurtzman said COVID-19 restrictions put a strain on the recruitment process, so building relationships with prospects over phone calls and Zoom meetings was vital. By the time they were able to go to matches in person over the summer, Wurtzman and assistant coach Mike Murray already had a good feel of the players they were scouting.
Indiana’s 2022 recruiting class consists of two highly-desired 5-star recruits Samuel Landau and Ekansh Kumar, 4-star recruit Andrew Meier and the No. 1 high school player from Chile, Luc Boulier.
Wurtzman said finding players who were ready to buy into IU from an academic standpoint was a key part in the decision-making of the recruiting process.
“We were able to attract the players that want to get a lot out of their tennis, but are also very good academically, and want to get the most out of both,” Wurtzman said. “It’s one thing that you can give everything you have to athletics, but at the same time, we’re gonna push you to get a great degree as well.”
Indiana’s recruits will be just as busy in the classroom as on the court. Luc Boulier, Samuel Landau and Andrew Meier plan to study in the Kelley School of Business, while Ekansh Kumar intends to major in data science.
In addition to their scholarships, Wurtzman praised all four members of the 2022 recruiting class for their experience as junior tennis players.
“They’ve definitely sacrificed a lot of their high school and younger years for tennis, so they’re gonna have a strong foundation of knowing what it takes to work hard and improve,” Wurtzman said. “On top of that, their experiences of playing at a high level is going to help them transition right into the level of play that we face.”
All three Americans coming in for Indiana are ranked in the top-100 athletes of their graduating class, and Luc Boulier is the top player in his home country. According to Wurtzman, these decorated high schoolers should expect to get in plenty of matches at the collegiate level throughout their first year.
“It’s gonna be very competitive within our team, but you’re gonna see a lot of different faces out there playing different matches,” Wurtzman said. “If we focus on our culture first, I feel like we’ll have so many options and so much talent on our team that next year could be the best year that we’ve had at IU.”
