The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
05.29.2014 | Men's Tennis
Longhorns ink tennis standouts Adrian Ortiz-Ruiz and Julian Zlobinsky.
AUSTIN, Texas -- The University of Texas Men's Tennis head coach Michael Center announced the signing of Adrian Ortiz-Ruiz (Ensenada, Mexico) and Julian Zlobinsky (Greenvale, N.Y.) to National Letters of Intent on Thursday.
"The future continues to look bright with the signing of these student-athletes," Center said. "Both are very good athletes, excel at singles and doubles, and have played against the best junior competition in the world. When we sign good athletes, they typically develop into great players. We lose a lot of seniors in 2015, and I look for this class, along with John Mee, to be an integral of our program for years to come."
Ortiz-Ruiz and Zlobinsky join John Mee (Highland Park, Texas) as signees for the 2014-15 season.
Ortiz-Ruiz has been ranked as high as No. 119 in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) junior rankings with quarterfinal appearances in both the 2013 Canadian Open Junior Championships and the 2013 International Junior Tournament of Offenbach (Germany). He features quality wins against some of the best junior players in the world, including No. 25 Young Seok Kim and No. 13 Danlil Medvedev.
"Adrian is a very complete player -- he can do a little bit of everything," Center said. "I watched him take one of the best juniors in the world to 7-6 in the third set at the US Open and did a lot of things that I liked. He is very similar to some of the other Mexican student-athletes we have had at Texas, like Miguel Reyes Varela (2005-09), that have gone on and competed in the Davis Cup for Mexico."
Zlobinsky has been ranked as high as No. 90 in the ITF junior rankings. The Greenvale, N.Y., native already has a wide range of international experience, having played events in Kazakhstan, Russia, Morocco, Germany, Austria and Mexico.
Zlobinsky won both the singles and doubles draw at the clay-court ITF Juniors G3 Almaty in Kazakhstan in June of 2013. At the 2013 Eddie Herr International Junior Championships in Bradenton, Florida, he advanced to the quarterfinals of the singles draw and won the 16-and-under doubles draw.
"Zlobinsky is a good fighter," Center said. "We watched him beat one of the top juniors in the world at the Eddie Herr tournament and what really stood out was his competitive focus on every point. He will be a great fit with the way we play at UT."
Texas also returns nine of 11 players from the 2013-14 squad that won a share of the Big 12 Conference regular season title and advanced to the NCAA Championship quarterfinals.
Texas Men's Tennis Recruiting Class of 2014
Adrian Ortiz-Ruiz
Ensenada, Mexico
Barnes Tennis Center
Birthday: Sept. 6, 1995
Julian Zlobinsky
Greenvale, N.Y.
North Shore High School
Junior Tennis Champions Center
Birthday: Jan. 8, 1996
John Mee
Highland Park, Texas
Spring Creek Academy
Birthday: July 11, 1995
