Battle-Tested Clemson Tennis Prepares for NCAA Tournament

It’s time to dance for Clemson Tigers tennis.

Both the men’s and women’s programs qualified for the NCAA Tournament on Monday evening, continuing the recent success at the Duckworth Family Tennis Facility. Before the tournament begins, here’s everything to know about the Tigers and their matchups.

Clemson Men’s Tennis

The men’s program will travel west for a date with Ole Miss (19-9, 6-8 SEC) on Friday at 1 p.m. in Tucson, Arizona. Should the Tigers defeat the Rebels, they’ll face the winner of No. 8 seed Arizona (21-4, 8-0 Big 12) and Northern Arizona (18-5, 7-0 Big Sky).

Clemson earned a second straight NCAA appearance after a 16-12 season (6-6 in ACC play) that saw landmark wins over No. 14 South Carolina (4-2), No. 22 Stanford (4-3), and No. 55 California (4-3). The Stanford win was Clemson’s first in program history over the Cardinal.

CLEMSON UPSETS NO. 14 SOUTH CAROLINA!!

This marked our first win in Columbia since 2011 and our first set of back‑to‑back victories in the series since 2006–07 💥

The Tigers will play either Michigan State or Harvard tomorrow depending on the result of their match. pic.twitter.com/qMT1INTt75
— Clemson Men's Tennis (@ClemsonMTennis) January 22, 2026

“My purpose and plan before the season was to schedule really hard and take it up a notch or two from the last two seasons that we’ve had,” head coach Brandon Wagner told Clemson Tigers On SI. “The schedule has been very difficult, very challenging. But it's what I wanted. I wanted them to continue to see the top level, which college tennis has, match after match after match, get tested to prepare them for the later part of the season, where ultimately it’s the most important.”

On the singles court, the Tigers are led by sophomore Viktor Markov and junior Noa Vukadin. Markov, a Sofia, Bulgaria native, sits at No. 44 in the ITA’s most recent singles rankings. While competing at the No. 1 and 2 singles positions for Clemson, he has amassed an 18-11 record. No doubt the most impressive of those victories came against SMU on April 4, when he upset the No. 1-ranked player in the nation, Trevor Svajda, in three sets.

DOWN GOES NUMBER ONE! VIKTOR MARKOV COMES BACK FROM DOWN 5-1 TO WIN A TIEBREAKER IN THE FINAL SET TO DEFEAT THE TOP RANKED SINGLES PLAYER IN THE COUNTRY AND CLINCH THE MATCH FOR THE TIGERS!!!!!
— Clemson Men's Tennis (@ClemsonMTennis) April 4, 2026

Vukadin, though unranked, has also had breakthrough wins this season. In a critical February road match at USF, his straight-set win gave Clemson a lead it would not relinquish. The weeks that followed were more challenging as ACC play began, but Vukadin finished the season on a seven-match win streak in singles.

Last season, the Tigers broke through into the NCAA Tournament for the first time since 2014. Clemson earned a dominant 4-0 victory over Quinnipiac in the opening round, but was on the short end of a 4-2 thriller against host No. 9 Columbia.

Clemson Women’s Tennis

The women’s program started this season eager to hit the court and build off of last season’s 17-8 record and NCAA First Round appearance. Clemson suffered a tight 4-3 defeat at the hands of Wisconsin in Auburn, Alabama, last year, the program’s first NCAA berth since 2018.

Head coach Boomer Saia assembled another strong team this season, headlined by No. 74-ranked singles player Rinon Okuwaki. The freshman from Saitama, Japan, burst onto the college tennis scene to the tune of an 18-5 record this season. In the 4-2 upset at No. 18 Stanford, Okuwaki delivered a stress-free 6-3, 6-3 win at No. 3 singles.

“It was a great accomplishment,” Saia told Clemson Tigers On SI. “You keep the balls if you win at Stanford. That's a big feat. I told our team that we're built for close matches. It’s just what it’s going to be this year. It was nice to see us come through the fire [in that match] because we were close at Cal and had lost a really tough one to our rival, the Gamecocks, and then to Tennessee.”

Despite that challenging early-season schedule in non-conference play, the Tigers roared back against ACC foes. Following the team’s Feb. 10 loss at South Carolina, Clemson finished the season with big wins over No. 18 Stanford and No. 32 Miami, earning a No. 24 national ranking.

The Tigers’ opening-round opponent will be East Tennessee State, which won the Southern Conference and posted a 16-7 record. Of note, the Buccaneers upset ACC member Virginia Tech 4-3 in Blacksburg, the team’s first win over the Hokies since 2019. Clemson handled VT 4-0 when the two teams met in March.

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