ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. – University of New Mexico senior Samir Iftikhar has been selected to compete in the 2015 NCAA Division I Men’s Tennis Singles Championships as announced by the selection committee on Wednesday.
The singles championships will take place May 20-25 at the Hurd Tennis Center in Waco, Texas, following the conclusion of the NCAA team championship, which runs from May 14-19. Baylor University will serve as host.
Iftikhar’s national ranking of No. 98 has allowed him to automatically qualify for the event. He is one of 15 automatic qualifiers, while 49 others received at-large bids. Iftikhar, who will be making his first NCAA appearance, is the first Lobo to qualify for the singles championship since 2009, when current volunteer assistant Johnny Parkes represented UNM. Iftikhar is the seventeenth Lobo overall to qualify for the singles tournament.
Iftikhar, who had to sit out for a large portion of the Lobos’ regular season with a broken wrist, holds an overall record of 14-9, including a 7-7 spring dual match record. His 2014-15 season is highlighted by his wins over No. 13 Amerigo Contini of Virginia Tech, No. 37 Alen Salibasic of Drake, and No. 28 Felipe Soares of Texas Tech. The UNM senior is also a three-time all-MW singles honoree, a three-time ITA Mountain Regionals finalist, and is the first Lobo to make it to the round of 16 in singles play at the ITA All-American Championships. Additionally, Iftikhar earned a career-high ranking of No. 33 earlier this spring.
Iftikhar is the only player from the Mountain West that has been selected to compete in this year’s NCAA singles championships. His opponent and match date/time have not yet been announced.
COMPLETE NCAA SINGLES CHAMPIONSHIP SELECTIONS
NCAA Singles Championships: Automatic qualification into the Division I singles championships is awarded to any conference with one or more eligible singles players ranked in the ITA Top 125 for eligible/entered singles players. For conferences with more than one singles player within the ITA Top 125 eligible/entered singles players, the subcommittee applies the NCAA selection criteria to determine which student-athlete is the automatic qualifier from those conferences. All singles players must have a minimum of 13 completed singles matches, with six matches in the spring, in order to be selected as an automatic qualifier or an at-large selection.
All matches shall be the best-of-three sets. Regular scoring and a 12-point tiebreaker at six-games-all will be used for all matches.