The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
UTRGV
No. 1 Men’s Tennis preview: UTRGV
01.14.2025 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns host their third match of the season's opening week at the Texas Tennis Center on Wednesday.
Team Records: Texas (2-0, 0-0 SEC), UTRGV (0-0, 0-0 Southland)
When: Wednesday, January 15, 2025, 4 p.m. CT
Where: Texas Tennis Center, Austin, Texas
Live Stats: https://hookem.at/MTN-Stats
Live Video: https://hookem.at/MTN-Watch
Notes
-UTRGV Series: Texas leads, 1-0
Texas leads the all-time series with UTRGV, 1-0, following a 4-0 sweep in April of 2022 of a match that was the second half of a doubleheader on the day and followed a 7-0 sweep over Texas Tech.
Last Meeting
#11 Texas 4, UTRGV 0
Sunday, April 3, 2022
Texas Tennis Center • Austin, Texas
Singles – Order of Finish (3,6,5)
1. #66 Eliot Spizzirri (UT) vs. Kvantaliani, Misha (UTRGV) 7-6 (5), 0-1, unf.
2. #47 Richard Ciamarra (UT) vs. Izurieta, Carlo (UTRGV) 6-3, 1-3, unf.
3. #85 Siem Woldeab (UT) def. Whitehead, Sam (UTRGV) 6-1, 6-1
4. #124 Chih Chi Huang (UT) vs. Mello, Alberto (UTRGV) 6-0, 2-3, unf.
5. Evin McDonald (UT) def. Lawrance, Chris (UTRGV) 6-3, 6-1
6. Eshan Talluri (UT) def. Davis, Michael (UTRGV) 6-1, 6-1
Doubles – Order of Finish (3,2)
1. Eliot Spizzirri/Richard Ciamarra (UT) vs. Izurieta, Carlo/Mello, Alberto (UTRGV) 5-4, unf.
2. Chih Chi Huang/Cleeve Harper (UT) def. Whitehead, Sam/Lawrance, Chris (UTRGV) 6-3
3. Eshan Talluri/Evin McDonald (UT) def. Kvantaliani, Misha/Davis, Michael (UTRGV) 6-0
-Texas vs. UTRGV in 2024-25 tournament play
N/A
-ITA Team Rankings
Texas was tabbed No. 1 in the preseason coaches poll released January 6 by the ITA. It's the 94th-straight week in the top 15 dating back to April 2018. Meanwhile, Lamar and ACU were not ranked.
-ITA Individual National Rankings
Texas had five listings in the ITA individual fall postseason rankings that were released December 3 with five in singles and one doubles pair. Texas claimed both the No. 2 and No. 3 players in Sebastian Gorzny and Timo Legout, while Jonah Braswell was also in the top-20 at No. 20, and Lucas Brown was No. 116. In doubles, Legout and Brown were in the top-10 at No. 7.
Texas
Singles
No. 2 Sebastian Gorzny
No. 3 Timo Legout
No. 20 Jonah Braswell
No. 116 Lucas Brown
Doubles
No. 7 Timo Legout/Lucas Brown
UTRGV
Singles
N/A
Doubles
N/A
-Two for two on opening weekend
Texas opened the 2025 dual match season with a pair of home wins at the TTC on Jan. 11 and 12 over Lamar (6-1) and ACU (7-0). The wins marked the dual match debuts of several player, including freshmen Sebastian Gorzny, Oliver Ojakaar and Rahul Sachdev, and junior transfer Sebastian Gorzny. Against Lamar, the Longhorns swept the doubles matches and earned singles victories from Eriksson at No. 5, Lucas Brown at No. 3, Gorzny at No. 1 for the clinch, Jonah Braswell at No. 2, and Ojakaar at No. 4. UT again swept three doubles matches against ACU and earned singles victories from Brown at No. 4, Gorzny at No. 1, Eriksson at No. 6, Braswell at No. 3, Ojakaar at No. 5, and Pierre-Yves Bailly at No. 2.
-Berque at the Helm
An accomplished coaching veteran with three decades of experience with some of the nation's top tennis programs, Bruce Berque was named the fifth head coach of The University of Texas Men's Tennis program on May 23, 2019. Berque has now completed six seasons as head coach in Austin and has led the Longhorns to a 125-30 overall record (.806) that includes 27-4 last season, 26-4 in 2023, 18-11 in 2022, 24-6 in 2021, 13-3 in a 2020 season that was shortened by the pandemic, and 15-2 in 2019 en route to the guiding Texas to its first team National Championship. During Berque's six seasons at the helm, Texas is the only program in the nation to finish in the top four in five of those six seasons, and it is the only program nationally to make four NCAA Final Fours in that span. It is also one of just two programs to reach the NCAA championship match twice (2019, 2024), along with Virginia. The Longhorns are additionally one of five teams to have been ranked No. 1 at some point during the regular season or post-season in at least three of those years (Ohio State, Virginia, Florida, TCU). Adding in the recent preseason ranking of No. 1, Texas is the only program to be No. 1 in four of those years. During his career, Berque has helped produce four national team champions, seven national individual champions and 12 conference team titles. He has coached 28 All-Americans who collectively have amassed 58 All-America honors, along with two more players who have already qualified for three All-America honors in the upcoming year. Additionally, he has guided seven singles players and three doubles teams to No. 1 national ranking. Texas came within a point of its second national title before coming up just short by a 4-3 score to TCU to finish as NCAA runners-up and with a No. 2 final ranking. As part of a 27-4 overall record, it had been the fourth time the teams had met during the season, resulting in a 2-2 split that also saw the Longhorns claim the Big 12 tournament championship over the Horned Frogs. Meanwhile, UT also secured an outright Big 12 regular season title with a perfect 7-0 record. That marked the fourth time in the five years under Berque where a conference slate was played that Texas took home at least a share of the regular season championship (2019, '21, '23, '24), including three outright (2019, '23, '24). The 2020 season was halted due to the pandemic prior to conference play. The 27 wins was second-most for the program since 2010, trailing only the 29 from the 2019 National Championship season.
-Back from 2024
In the seventh season under head coach Bruce Berque, Texas will have a different look from 2024, but at the same time return a number of familiar faces. Returning with match experience will be a trio of players including senior Pierre-Yves Bailly, junior Jonah Braswell and sophomore Lucas Brown. In addition, four players were on the team last season and redshirted, including Timo Legout, who had a sensational fall season and moved all the way up to No. 3 and No. 7, respectively, in the preseason singles and doubles rankings, along with Evan Burnett, Rahul Sachdev and Calvin Wang.
-Three newcomers arrive for their first dual match season on the 40
The Longhorns add three new faces for 2025, all who are expected to be impact players, starting with Sebastian Gorzny, who transferred from TCU in the summer and is a junior. Two other players just arrived on the 40 Acres this month in Oliver Ojakaar from Estonia, and Sebastian Eriksson from Sweden.
-Fall/Summer Wrap-up
In the first year of the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships being moved to the fall, Timo Legout reached the semifinals of both this past November, combining with Lucas Brown in doubles to qualify as All-Americans. Earlier, Legout and the combination of Legout and Brown won both titles at the ITA Texas Regionals, and junior Jonah Braswell also made the singles final. Sebastian Gorzny additionally finished as the singles runner-up at the ITA All-American Championships.
-Year eight at the Texas Tennis Center
Texas is in its eighth year at the Texas Tennis Center with an 84-9 (.903) overall record in its history. Last season, the Longhorns were 10-1, including wins over both No. 1 Ohio State and No. 2 TCU with the only loss being a 4-3 decision to No. 1 Virginia. In 2023, Texas was 13-0, and additionally, set an all-time Texas Tennis attendance record of 1,332 against TCU in a match that saw them clinch the Big 12 regular season title. The season before, the Longhorns posted a 10-3 record with the only losses coming to top-five teams by 4-3 scores against No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Ohio State, and 6-0 to No. 4 Baylor. Texas posted a 14-2 mark in 2021, which included wins over No. 6 Texas A&M, No. 9 Florida and No. 15 Arizona. In a shortened season in 2020, UT recorded a 9-0 record with wins against No. 8 Stanford, No. 18 Georgia and No. 21 Florida State. The Longhorns finished 2019 at 15-1, including wins over No. 1 Ohio State, No. 6 Baylor and No. 12 Columbia, along with three NCAA Tournament victories. The lone loss that year came to No. 15 USC. During its inaugural season, Texas posted a 10-2 record, including winning the 2018 Big 12 Tournament.
Players Mentioned
