Men’s Tennis: Cavaliers boast nation’s top recruiting class for 2024-25

Courtesy UVA Media Relations

The Virginia men’s tennis recruiting class has been ranked the top in the nation, in rankings released earlier this week by TennisRecruiting.net.

Virginia head coach Andrés Pedroso has inked four student-athletes to National Letters of Intent to join the team for the 2024-25 season. The combined class garnered 18 of 19 possible first-place votes in the rankings assessment poll.

“Our men’s tennis program is both humbled and excited that this class of young men chose the University of Virginia,” said Head Coach Pedroso. “All of them represent what we’d like to believe our standards are in regards to character, passion for the game and an overall commitment to their development as both tennis players and people.

“It’s going to be a lot of fun coaching and mentoring this class, and they certainly make the impression that the future of Virginia Men’s Tennis looks exceptionally bright.”

The class is led by Brazilian Joao Fonseca, who finished 2023 as the No. 1-ranked boy in the ITF Junior Rankings. He reached the quarterfinals or better in all four junior Grand Slams, including winning the singles title at the 2023 Junior US Open. He won the doubles title at the Buenos Aires Challenger earlier this month.

The class includes two other international players, Rafael Jodar of Spain and Canadian Keegan Rice. Jodar is currently ranked No. 11 in the ITF Junior Rankings with a 45-6 career record in junior singles with six titles. Rice has a career-high juniors ranking of No. 32 with five singles titles. Rice advanced to the second round of singles and the quarterfinals of doubles at this year’s Junior Australian Open.

The Cavaliers are also bringing in a Virginian, Stiles Brockett of Fairfax. The five-star Blue Chip recruit who trains at the JTCC is ranked the No. 10 overall recruit in the national rankings while leading the lists in both the Mid-Atlantic and the state of Virginia. Brockett has a junior doubles title and advanced to the Round of 16 in doubles at the 2022 Junior US Open.