Friday, 07/17/2009

FORT WORTH—The TCU men’s tennis team added a player to its 2009-10 roster with the signing of Romania native Marius-Adrian Cirstea to a National Letter of Intent, head coach Dave Borelli announced Thursday. Cirstea, currently ranked among the top 1,300 players in the world, will join the Horned Frogs as a freshman this fall.

An up-and-comer on the world Futures scene, Cirstea has enjoyed a rise in success, especially over the last six months. The 6-1 righthander from Bucharest has climbed to his current career-high position of No. 1,253. Cirstea will bring a wealth of Futures experience with him to TCU. He most recently has been winning main draw rounds of Futures events.

“We are excited that Marius has decided to come play for us here at TCU,” Borelli said. “He has a big forehand, also what I call consistent pro depth on his shots, and hits the ball very well. He has had quite a bit of success at the Futures level over the last five or six months. As far as recruiting, initially he kind of flew under everybody’s radar, but then a lot of coaches started taking notice of his success, so we really had to battle for him over these last few months. I’m really excited about getting Marius, because we are planning on bringing in one more impact player for January to get us to the next level.

“In addition to his tennis skills, Marius is also a very good student and has a reputation for being a quality person. He should represent TCU well, both on and off the court.”

The addition of Cirstea brings TCU’s roster total for the next season to 10 student-athletes. Borelli’s squad suffered only one loss from last season’s regular six-man singles lineup with the graduation of Kriegler Brink, who was an All-MWC Singles and Doubles selection in 2009.