The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Wake Forest
No. 3 Men’s Tennis defeats No. 6 Wake Forest to advance to NCAA Championship Final
05.18.2024 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns downed the Demon Deacons, 4-2, punching their ticket to the NCAA National Championship Match for the third time in program history.
Stillwater, Okla. – No. 3 Texas Men's Tennis (27-3, 7-0 Big 12) claimed a 4-2 victory over 6 seed No. 6 Wake Forest (31-7, 10-2 ACC) in the NCAA Semifinals on Saturday afternoon at the Greenwood Tennis Center to advance to the NCAA Championship Final for the third time in program history. Texas won its first National Championship in 2019 with a 4-1 win over Wake Forest on the USTA Campus in Orlando, Fla., while it finished as the runner-up in 2008 after a 4-2 defeat to Georgia in Tulsa, Okla.
Texas will take on 4 seed No. 4 TCU in the title match on Sunday at 4 p.m. CT in a contest that will be the fourth between the teams the season. The Horned Frogs won the first, 4-3, in a non-conference match in Fort Worth on March 2, while the Longhorns took the conference match, 5-0, in Austin on March 24, and the Big 12 Tournament title match, 4-0, on these same courts in Stillwater.
After Wake Forest won the doubles point, Texas claimed four singles matches with wins from seniors No. 2 Eliot Spizzirri at No. 1, and No. 5 Micah Braswell at No. 2, junior No. 90 Pierre-Yves Bailly at No. 4, and freshman No. 40 Gilles-Arnaud Bailly at No. 3 for the clinch.
"I'm super happy we found a way to get through that," head coach Bruce Berque said. "I'm really proud of our team and happy we get one more day with this team. Today we didn't always have our best tennis, but we had our best heart, and that made the difference. There was never any panic after the doubles point, and I can't say enough about Pierre getting back into the lineup and coming back the way he did to win his second set."
With Texas leading the match, 2-1, three matches concluded within seconds of each other, two of which saw the Bailly brothers clinch the match and Texas' berth in the National Championship.
GA doin GA things ‼️‼️#HookEm | #NCAATennis pic.twitter.com/DZotlipUiR
— Texas Men's Tennis (@TexasMTN) May 18, 2024
Pierre-Yves Bailly finished first by defeating No. 124 Luciano Tacchi, 6-2, 7-6 (4), on court 4 to give the Longhorns a 3-1 lead. Bailly won all four games decided by deuce points, including an opening break. Tacchi broke back and then held for a 2-1 lead, but Bailly rattled off five straight games for the set that began with consecutive deuce points wins, and then also finished with one on serve. Bailly carried his momentum into the second set with a break then a hold which saw the junior only drop only one point in the first two games. Tacchi answered with a 3-0 run in which he earned consecutive deuce point wins for 3-2, but Bailly evened the set with a deuce-point hold. Tacchi then picked up a break on Bailly's next serve for a 5-3 advantage, but from there, Bailly broke then held on a deuce point for 5-5 before the final two games stayed on serve for a tiebreaker. After the tiebreaker's first two points were broken for 1-1, Bailly went on a 3-0 run for 4-1. Tacchi managed to collect a minibreak, narrowing his deficit to 4-2, before the next five points were all held for the 7-4 Bailly win.
Shortly after Pierre-Yves' win, Gilles-Arnaud clinched the match with a 6-3, 7-5 victory over Matthew Thomson on court 3. Bailly jumped out to a 3-0 lead in the first set which featured a deuce-point break in the second game. From there, the set's remaining games stayed on serve, including the junior holding on a deuce point in the match's seventh game for 5-2. The second set stayed on serve all the way to 5-5, including two deuce-point holds for Thomson, but Bailly got the break he needed for 6-5, and then served out the match to secure Texas' place in the NCAA Championship.
Just seconds before Gilles-Arnaud clinched the match, senior Cleeve Harper came up just short against Luca Pow in a second set tiebreaker on court 5. Harper held his opening serve and had an opportunity to break each of Pow's first two service games, but Pow managed to hold both for 2-2. Pow then picked up a break himself for 3-2 and consolidated for 4-2. Harper responded with a deuce-point hold and a break to even it, but Pow broke back on a deuce point and held for the set. In the second set, Pow won the opening four points for a break, but Harper answered by winning the next 13 straight for a 3-1 lead and 15-0 on his next service game. Pow ended up winning that game for a deuce-point break for 3-2 to get the contest back on serve, until he broke again for a 5-4 lead. Harper broke back with four straight points, but Pow did the same for 6-5. Once again, Harper answered the call with a break to send it to a tiebreaker. There, after Pow pushed out to a 3-1 lead, Harper rallied to even it at 4-4, but Pow secured a minibreak and then won the last two points on serve just before the final point ended on court 3.
Earlier in singles, Spizzirri took down No. 25 Filippo Moroni, 6-0, 6-3, at No. 1 to even the match's overall score, 1-1, following the doubles point win by Wake Forest. Spizzirri took the match's first 10 games, including deuce points to finish the first set and for a 2-0 lead in the second. Moroni managed end the string with a break on a deuce point for 4-1, which began a 3-0 run for 4-3. Spizzirri stopped Moroni's momentum with a deuce-point break of his own for 5-3, then a hold for the win.
Micah Braswell gave the Horns their first lead of the match with a 6-2, 6-4 win over No. 79 Dhakshineswar Suresh at No. 2. After Suresh held his opening serve, Braswell went on a 3-0 run. Suresh held on a deuce point for 3-2, but Braswell responded with another 3-0 run, which saw the senior collect a deuce-point break for 5-2 before serving out the set. The second set followed the same script up to a 5-2 lead for Braswell that included deuce point wins for him for 2-1 and 4-2 leads. At that point, Suresh broke then held for 5-4, but in the following game, Braswell served out the match to give Texas a 2-1 overall advantage.
Freshman Lucas Brown's match against Holden Koons on court 6 was the only one left unfinished and had Koons leading, 6-4, 5-4, with the last game before the stoppage sitting at deuce. Both players held their opening serves on deuce points, starting with Koons, who later broke first for a 4-2 lead. However, Brown broke right back on a deuce point, which he then consolidated for 4-4. Koons moved back in front on a deuce-point hold and then broke for the set. Brown responded with a break of his own on a deuce point in the second set's opening game, then held for 2-0. Koons answered with a 3-0 run that was capped off with a deuce-point hold for 3-2. That would start a string of five of the last six games reaching deuce. Brown responded with a deuce-point hold for 3-3, then did the same for 4-4, while Koons claimed a deuce-point hold for 5-4 just before the set's 10th game was left unfinished at 40-40. Ten of the match's 20 games were decided on deuce points.
Earlier in doubles, the senior pair of No. 26 Spizzirri and Siem Woldeab were the first to finish with a 6-2 win over the nation's No. 2 duo of Suresh and Koons at No. 1. Spizzirri and Woldeab jumped out to a 4-0 lead, and from there, the match stayed on serve with the last two games decided on deuce points, earning the Texas seniors the victory.
The next match to finish was on court 3 where Harper and Brown fell to Tacchi and Pow, 6-4. After the first two games stayed on serve, Wake Forest earned a deuce-point break to begin a 4-0 run for 5-1. Harper and Brown managed to take consecutive games decided by deuce points for 5-3, then swept the ninth game for 5-4, but the Demon Deacon duo was able to fend off the Harper and Brown comeback with a deuce-point hold to win the match.
All eyes then turned to court 2 where Micah Braswell and senior Eshan Talluri were downed in their match against Thomson and Moroni, 6-4, clinching the doubles point for Wake Forest. At 3-3, Wake Forest earned the match's only break for 4-3, then held serve for 5-3. Braswell and Talluri collected a deuce-point hold on a match point for the Demon Deacons in the following game for 5-4, but the Wake Forest tandem held in the next game for the doubles point and a 1-0 overall advantage.
#3 Texas 4, #6 Wake Forest 2
Singles – Order of Finish (1,2,4,5,3)
1. #2 Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. #25 Filippo Moroni (WF) 6-0, 6-3
2. #5 Micah Braswell (UT) def. #79 DK Suresh Ekambaram (WF) 6-2, 6-4
3. #40 Gilles-Arnaud Bailly (UT) def. Matthew Thomson (WF) 6-3, 7-5
4. #90 Pierre-Yves Bailly (UT) def. #124 Luciano Tacchi (WF) 6-2, 7-6 (4)
5. Luca Pow (WF) def. Cleeve Harper (UT) 6-4, 7-6 (4)
6. Lucas Brown (UT) vs. Holden Koons (WF) 4-6, 4-5
Doubles – Order of Finish (1,3,2)
1. #26 Eliot Spizzirri/Siem Woldeab (UT) def. #2 Holden Koons/DK Suresh Ekambaram (WF) 6-2
2. Filippo Moroni/Matthew Thomson (WF) def. Micah Braswell/Eshan Talluri (UT) 6-4
3. Luca Pow/Luciano Tacchi (WF) def. Cleeve Harper/Lucas Brown (UT) 6-4
Players Mentioned
