Former college tennis standout and recent ATP professional Sam Iftikhar joined the men’s tennis program as a volunteer assistant coach in August of 2017 and was promoted to assistant coach prior to the 2018-19 season. Iftikhar currently holds an ATP world ranking and had a distinguished four-year career at New Mexico that concluded in 2015.
Iftikhar was named the 2015 Mountain West Conference Scholar Athlete of the Year, the highest league honor given out that spans all sports. He was Team Captain and played at the No. 1 singles position for New Mexico where he reached a No. 33 ITA national ranking, participated in the main draws of the ITA All-American, USTA/ITA National Indoor Intercollegiate Championships, and qualified for the 2015 NCAA Championships.
He reached the Sweet 16 of the 2014 ITA All-American Championships, was a three-time finalist at the ITA Regionals, and led the Lobos to 2015 MWC regular season title.
Iftikhar graduated with a Bachelor’s degree in philosophy in 2014 and then earned his Master’s in Business Administration in 2015. He earned MWC All-Academic honors each year.
He won four Pacific Northwest USTA singles titles in the summer of 2018, including his second straight Pacific Northwest Open Championship after finishing as the runner-up in 2016.