Men's Tennis Adds Blue-Chip Baird
January 10, 2019 | Men's Tennis
LOS ANGELES โ UCLA men's tennis has signed heralded junior player Drew Baird to a National Letter of Intent, head coach Billy Martin announced Thursday.
Baird, a native of Holly Springs, N.C., is set to enroll at UCLA in time for the 2019-2020 season.
Welcome to the Bruin Family, Drew! See you in the fall.
โ UCLA Men's Tennis (@uclatennis) January 10, 2019
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"We're all very excited to find out that Drew has signed his National Letter of Intent and is officially in the Bruin family now," said Martin. "Great kid. We've been able to get to know him for the last two years, watching him and following his results. He's really excited to be coming to UCLA, which is always fun for us to know that it wasn't so hard to convince him to want to join us here at UCLA."
A Blue-Chip prospect according to TennisRecruiting.net, Baird is currently ranked No. 8 in his class. He reached a career-best No. 4 last year. Baird has also been slotted as high as No. 12 in the ITF combined junior rankings and holds a UTR of 13.2 (career high: 13.79). He is currently enrolled at IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla.
It was a busy 2018 for Baird, who participated in each of the four Grand Slam junior tournaments and shined en route to a Round of 16 berth in the Australian Open singles draw. He also advanced to the doubles quarterfinal round with partner Trey Hilderbrand at the US Open. Baird's 2018 also saw him notch Boys' 18 doubles quarterfinal-round showings at the Orange Bowl, Eddie Herr and Easter Bowl events. Perhaps his most impressive performance came at the Boys' 18 National Championships in Kalamazoo, Mich., where he turned in three three-set victoriesโall over seeded opponentsโon the way to the Boys' 18 singles semifinal round.
For good measure, Baird also represented the United States at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where he reached the second round in singles action.
The Bruins are in line to lose just one senior, Maxime Cressy, from this year's team.
"He's got big shoes to fill," Martin added. "But we feel he's really a person that's going to come in and really help us for four years to continue shooting for NCAA championships, Pac-12 championships [and] Indoor championships throughout the years."
Players Mentioned
