IU sophomore Antonio Cembellin said he accomplished one of his dreams on Jan. 21, after leading the Hoosier singles lineup at position one against Bryant University.
Last week Cembellin said he accomplished another dream after the Intercollegiate Tennis Association ranked him as the No. 125 singles player of the country.
However the Spain native said there are still a lot of goals and dreams for him to accomplish because he still has two years of elgibility remaining after this year.
He, along with his teammates, will seek to be playing in the NCAA Tournament this season.
“He for sure has been a big motivation for myself and for the guys,” IU freshman Bennett Crane said. “Kind of gives myself and the other guys a sense of belief that we can be in that spot, and try to get ranked as he is.”
Cembellin is from Avila, Spain, where he attended Isabel de Castilla High School. During his time playing in Spain he matched up against top-level opponents that developed his intense and aggressive style of playing today.
He played for Club Tennis Avila, where he battled against national teams in Spain’s second division.
Though soccer is the main sport in Spain, Cembellin said his tennis team had a bigger impact in his community, since it was the most successful sports team.
He also played in some International Tennis Federation tournaments last summer in Europe. In May, he played with IU teammate sophomore Afonso Salgado in doubles at the Portugal F6. They reached the round of 16.
“I played Futures, and I said, ‘Let’s see what I have learned at IU,’” Cembellin said. “I tried showing it and had a pretty good summer, went to a third set with the No. 200 player in the world, and then I came from Spain and said, ‘Come on, now let’s show what I learned from the summer here.’”
As a freshman at IU, he finished an impressive season with an overall positive record, tying for second on the team in singles wins with now-senior Matthew McCoy with 19 total wins.
However, in contrast to last season, Cembellin said he feels more comfortable today because college tennis can make players tougher mentally.
In European Futures, Cembellin said, one can easily win after winning the first set, but in college play you have to keep fighting throughout.
This season Cembellin is 7-2 in singles play and has been constantly playing at No. 2 doubles with senior Stefan Lugonjic.
With everything he has learned in the last two seasons, Cembellin will seek to help IU get to its first NCAA Tournament since 2012.
To do so he said the team will need to continue applying the strategies they have had the entire season and push forward to prove the Hoosiers are a tournament contender.
“I would be very proud to put IU again in the NCAA Tournament,” Cembellin said. “To say Hoosiers are here, I think we are known in the nation, but we just need to prove it.”
