Dec. 30, 2011

Two new Trojans have joined the pursuit for a fourth straight NCAA Championship with the USC men's tennis team. As the spring season is set to kick off next month, USC has added two talented newcomers in Roberto Quiroz and Jordi Vives, USC head coach Peter Smith has announced.

"Roberto and Jordi complete our team not only for the 2012 season but the future of our program," Smith said. "They are two great people that we expect to have an immediate and lasting impression on our team. They have both proven that they can be great players in singles and doubles."

Roberto Quiroz is a native of Guayaquil, Ecuador -- hometown to USC sophomore Emilio Gomez. In fact, Gomez and Quiroz are already family and teammates, as the cousins recently teamed up in doubles playing for Ecuador in the Davis Cup. Quiroz won a silver medal in men's doubles at the 2011 Pan American Games, having faced former Trojan Robert Farah and his Colombian teammate in the final. Quiroz was ranked as high as No. 7 in the ITF junior world rankings, competing in three of the four grand slam events (French Open, Wimbledon, US Open), and won a combined 13 singles and doubles titles including the 2010 French Open and US Open Junior Championships. Additionally, Quiroz ranked as high as No. 776 in singles and No. 316 in doubles on the ATP Tour, having won four Futures doubles titles while competing in Ecuador, Chile and Brazil and most recently the 2011 Guayaquil Challenger in Ecuador.

Jordi Vives hails from Barcelona, Spain, where he was coached and trained by Alberta Costa of Federacion Catalana de Tenis. Vives has achieved rankings as high as No. 1334 in singles and No. 1231 in doubles on the ATP Tour. He was the top-seeded singles player at the 2010 Spanish National Junior Championships, and was Spanish National Doubles Champion that same year. Vives also was crowned the Team Catalonia junior champion.