CONWAY - Coastal Carolina head men's tennis coach Chris Powers announced Friday the team's 2018 signees, which includes a trio of transfers in Joel Popov (junior, San Diego State), Pyry Hykkonen (junior, Texas Tech) and Daiki Tanabe (sophomore, Texas A&M Corpus Christi).

Popov, a Finland native, has been ranked as high as #141 by the ITF, and holds ATP rankings of #1,549 in singles and #1,157 in doubles. As a sophomore at San Diego State last season, Popev posted records of 8-16 in singles and 3-11 in doubles.

"Joel has a huge upside and I think his best college tennis is ahead of him," said Powers. "He played injured all last season, and I believe this fall will be an important bridge for building back his game, confidence and physical presence. As a junior player, Joel demonstrated that he could play at the highest level and best some of the best players in the world."

Hyrkkonen also hails from Finland, and signed with Texas Tech in November 2016. Prior to joining the Red Raiders he held a career-high ITF singles ranking of 583. Hyrkkonen won the 2015 men's national indoor and outdoor championships in Finland, and captured the 2014 U18 indoor singles title along with the 2014 U18 national indoor and outdoor doubles crowns. In his freshman season at Texas Tech, Hyrkkonen went 1-9 in singles and 3-4 in doubles. Last year as a sophomore, he was 11-4 in singles and 5-5 in doubles.

"Pyry and Joel are best friends from Finland, so they both have an amazing opportunity to player together here at Coastal," said Powers. "Pyry was in and out of the lineup of a very solid Texas Tech team, and I believe he will embrace the role of being an immediate impact player here. He is a repectful young man that I look forward to working with this fall."

Tanabe comes to Coastal after one season at Texas A&M Corpus Christi, where he went unbeaten in five singles matches and held a 2-4 record in doubles. Prior to joining the Islanders Tanabe was a force on the Australian juniors circuit, consistently ranking among the top 12 players in the country. Coached by legendary Australian coach Chris Bates, a former NCAA All-American, Tanabe earned seven wins against players with a 13 UTR or higher.

"Daiki took advantage of every opportunity he was given last season and earned an excellent win-loss record," said Powers. "He comes to Coastal Carolina with a reputation of being a hard worker and a team player. With only one year of college tennis behind him, I see Daiki getting better and better and making his mark here at Coastal."