Men’s Tennis Signs Nishant Dabas for Upcoming Season
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. — Nishant Dabas has been signed and will join the Lobo Men’s Tennis team for the 2025-26 season, announced head coach Rob Bareford. Dabas comes to UNM after spending a year at Montana State, where Bareford signed him prior to last season.
Dabas played in just one tournament last year for Montana State missing the rest of the season. He will be a senior with one season of eligibility for the Lobos, the defending Mountain West Tournament champions.
In his lone tournament in 2024-25, Dabas played well, taking three of four singles matches at the Dar Walters Invitational in Boise, Idaho where he took wins over singles players from Boise State, Weber State and Nevada. He also went 2-2 in doubles in that tournament.
The addition of Dabas gives Bareford another transfer with collegiate experience playing at the top of the lineup, which should suit UNM well.
“Nishant will be great addition to our program,” said Bareford. “He brings plenty of high-level, all-conference experience to our lineup and will be an immediate impact player for our program.”
Dabas played the 2023-24 season at Youngstown State, earning Second Team All-Horizon League honors after going 18-8 in doubles and 10-16 in singles playing mostly No. 1 or No. 2 singles.
As a freshman in 2022-23, he played for St. John’s, helping the Red Storm to a Big East title, going 12-4 in singles and 8-6 in doubles, earning Big East Doubles Team of the Week honors as well.
Dabas, from New Dehli, India, was the top-ranked player in his home country in 2021, and last summer he held on ITF ranking of 97 and an ATP ranking of 1,366, which was a career-high ranking for him. He joins Alberto Perez, Jakub Prachar, Jan Skerbatis and Tyler Waddock as incoming transfers on the Lobos. They join returnees Dario Ciobotaru, Connor Dils and Philip Bosin on a squad that went to the NCAA Tournament after going 16-9 on the season.
The Lobos were recently announced as a part of the ITA Kickoff Weekend on January 25-26, 2026 where UNM will face off against nationally ranked UCLA.