STANFORD, Calif. - The Stanford men's tennis team begins the 2021 season ranked fifth in the Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) preseason poll, as announced by the organization on Thursday.
The top-five ranking is the first for Stanford since March 10, 2019, while last year's team climbed as high as No. 8.
Stanford returns all 12 of its student-athletes from 2019-20, while adding four freshman in the top recruiting class in the country. Among its returners are Alexandre Rotsaert, a 2020 All-American, and Axel Geller, an All-American in 2019.
Rotsaert starts the year as the No. 3 singles player in the country, which represents his highest-ever ranking from the ITA. He climbed as high as No. 5 a year ago, and ended the season at No. 7. Axel Geller joins Rotsaert for one of the nation's most dominant 1-2 punches, slotting in at No. 20. Sangeet Sridhar (No. 75), Arthur Fery (No. 94) and Tristan Boyer (No. 119) are also ranked in singles play.
The Cardinal has one nationally-ranked doubles pair, as Geller and Neel Rajesh check in at No. 11. The tandem capped the 2019-20 season at No. 14 in the national doubles rankings. Fery and Boyer, who are each ranked in singles play, have been named the No. 1 and No. 4 newcomers to college tennis, respectively, by the ITA.
Stanford is one of three Pac-12 teams in the top-25, joining No. 1 USC and No. 18 UCLA. The Pac-12 joins the Big Ten with two teams each in the top five.
Stanford finished 8-5 overall last season, and was ranked No. 8 nationally when the season was cut short due to the COVID-19 global outbreak.
The team is scheduled to report back to campus on Feb. 13 to begin the onboarding process for its upcoming varsity season.