ITHACA, N.Y. — The men's tennis team announced today that it will welcome two newcomers to the 2012-13 squad, Dragos Dima and Alexander Wilton. Silviu Tanasoiu, the Director of Intercollegiate Tennis and the Savitt-Weiss Head Coach of Men's Tennis made the announcement today in preparation for his second season at the helm of the Big Red.
 
While both Dima and Wilton will be new to Cornell University, neither will be new to the high level of competition the Ivy League will present. Dima is both one of the highest-ranked players in the International Tennis Federation (ITF) entering the NCAA this season and one of the highest-ranked players to ever play for Cornell. Wilton also arrives with an impressive resume, having competed for two years at Loyola Marymount University.
 
“We couldn't be happier with this recruiting class,” Tanasoiu said. “After having the youngest team in the nation last season, adding Dragos and Alex will help us emerge as a more balanced and experienced team. Alex brings a wealth of college tennis experience after playing primarily the No. 1 position at Loyola Marymount this past year as a sophomore. Adding to the wealth of experience, we also have someone in Dragos who has played a significant amount of high quality matches in the ITF Futures circuits.”
 
Dima is currently 835th in the ATP World Tour rankings with 10 career singles victories at the Futures level. His latest success came with an impressive march to the finals of the Serbia F1 Futures event June 12-17 in Belgrade, Serbia. He advanced through qualifying and the first two rounds of the main draw before toppling top-seeded Nikola Cacic (350 ATP Ranking) in the quarterfinals, 6-4, 6-2. Dima then secured another straight-set victory in the semifinals before eventually succumbing in a three-set match in the finals.
 
In the tournament before that, the Romania native made a run to the quarterfinals of the Romania F2 Futures event in late May.
 
“With Dragos, it was a tough recruiting battle with a lot of schools, including teams that are always in the top 10 in the country as well as other Ivy League schools,” said Tanasoiu, who also originally hails from Romania. “We're thrilled that he chose to come to Cornell.”

Wilton joins the Big Red after two seasons with Loyola Marymount, where he served as the primary No. 1 singles competitor as a sophomore. He defeated Princeton's Matt Spindler in a match on March 21 in Los Angeles. Wilton also posted a 11-10 mark as a freshman from the middle of the lineup and was tabbed as high as 249th in the ITF Juniors rankings in 2010.
 
Originally from England, Wilton served as team captain in the 2010 World School Tennis Championships, 2009 and 2010 National Tennis Championships, and 2010 Independent Schools National Championships. He also won 2008 International Tennis Federation events in Turkey and Kenya.
 
Wilton is also decorated academically, having been named to the West Coast Conference's All-Academic Team in April with the highest GPA on the team. He was named to the Dean's List in both of his years with the Lions, and was a Macroeconomic Principles Scholar in 2012.
 
“In both of their cases we're not only adding two experienced players, but two character people to the team who are exceptional students," Tanasoiu said. "We always look for the complete package in our student-athletes, and both Dragos and Alexander fit the profile.”