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Auburn
No. 4 Men’s Tennis advances to SEC Championship semifinals
04.18.2025 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns used four singles victories to defeat Auburn, 4-1, on Friday.
Columbia, S.C. – No. 4 Texas Men's Tennis advanced to the SEC Championship semifinals with a 4-1 victory over 8 seed No. 33 Auburn on Friday at the Carolina Tennis Center in Columbia, S.C. They will next face 5 seed No. 14 Tennessee on Saturday at 12 p.m. ET/11 a.m. CT, which will be the second time the teams have met this week after the Volunteers won the regular season finale in Knoxville, 4-2, on Sunday.
Against Auburn, the Longhorns were first off the doubles court with a 6-1 win at No. 2, but the Tigers picked up a 6-3 win at No. 3 and then clinched the doubles point with a 7-6 (6) tiebreaker at No. 1. However, Texas followed with four singles victories by freshman Evan Burnett at No. 6, senior No. 46 Pierre-Yves Bailly at No. 3, freshman No. 2 Timo Legout at No. 1, and junior No. 22 Sebastian Gorzny at No. 2 for the overall clinch.
With the Tigers holding a 1-0 overall lead after doubles, Burnett evened it with a 6-2, 6-3 win over Joey Phillips at No. 6. The first four games stayed on serve for 2-2 with Burnett having held his second serve at deuce for a 2-1 lead, but Burnett broke the tie with a 4-0 run for the set. In the second, he opened with a deuce-point hold, and after Phillips also held, Burnett won consecutive deuce points to start another 4-0 run for a 5-1 lead. Burnett had a match point at deuce in the next game, but Phillips broke and then also held at deuce to deflect another match point for Burnett for 5-3. Phillips had led in that game, 40-0, before Burnett came back to force deuce, and a similar scenario played out in the following game where Phillips took a 0-40 lead, but this time Burnett rallied for four-straight points and the win.
Minutes later, Bailly gave Texas the lead with a 6-4, 6-2 win over Billy Blaydes at No. 3. Bailly broke first in the match for a 3-2 lead that he consolidated for 4-2 on a deuce point. After Blaydes held for 4-3, the players exchanged deuce-point breaks until Bailly held again for the 6-4 win. In the second set, Blaydes held on a deuce point to start, and after Bailly held, he broke on a deuce point and consolidated it for a 3-1 lead. Blaydes held in the next game for 3-2, but Bailly took it from there with a deuce-point hold to start a 3-0 run to his win.
A few more minutes later, Legout extended the lead to 3-1 with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Will Nolan at No. 1. It was Nolan who moved out to a 2-0 advantage in the first with a deuce-point hold and a break, but it was all Legout after that as he went on a 9-0 to take the set and establish a 3-0 lead in the second. Legout had earned two breaks in those first three games of the second set, and although Nolan got back within one with a break and a deuce-point hold, the set stayed on serve from there for Legout's win.
After another few minutes, Gorzny clinched the victory with a 7-5, 7-5 win over No. 68 Alex Frusina at No. 2. Like the match at No. 1, it was Frusina who pushed out to a 3-0 after he held and won consecutive deuce points. However, Gorzny responded with a 3-0 run of his own that he capped with a deuce-point hold. The following game also went to deuce as Frusina held for a 4-3 lead, and the next three games were on serve for 5-5 before Gorzny broke for the lead and served out the set, 7-5. In the second, Frusina again won the first three games based on a break in the second game. Gorzny held on a deuce point for 3-1, and later, Frusina did the same for 5-2. From there, though, Gorzny closed on a 5-0 run that included a string of three-straight deuce-point wins that turned a 5-4 deficit into a 6-5 lead. In the last two of those, Gorzny trailed, 15-40, on his serve and 40-15 on Frusina's, but rallied to win both.
That left two matches unfinished with freshman Sebastian Eriksson a mere two points from a win against Nicholas Heng, 1-6, 6-1, 5-1 (0-30), at No. 5. Eriksson had broken in the opening game of the match, but Heng swept the rest of the set, including a deuce-point hold that provided a 2-1 lead. However, Eriksson flipped the script at that point, winning the second set, 6-1, while only allowing Heng a hold for 3-1. In the third set, Heng broke on a deuce point in the second game for 1-1, but that would be his only win as Eriksson broke back on a deuce point to start a 4-0 run, along with winning the first two points of the next game on Heng's serve before play stopped.
Junior No. 72 Jonah Braswell was then close to winning his second set after dropping the first to Hamza Nasridinov, 1-6, 6-5, at No. 4. Like Eriksson, Braswell broke in the first game of the match, doing so at love before Nasridinov broke back at love. That started a 6-0 run for Nasridinov for the set. In the second, the first eight games were on serve starting with Nasridinov as both players picked up a deuce-point hold along the way. It was Nasridinov who would break first for a 5-4 lead, but Braswell broke back and held on a deuce point before play halted.
Earlier in doubles, Bailly and Eriksson were first off the court with a 6-1 win over Blaydes and Phillips at No. 2. The Longhorns opened on a 5-0 run, including consecutive deuce-point wins for a break for 3-0 and a hold for 4-0. The Tigers picked up a break to keep the match alive, but Texas broke back for the win.
Auburn evened doubles as Braswell and Burnett fell to Nasridinov and Jake Kennedy, 6-3, at No. 3. The Tigers held on a deuce point to begin the match, as did the Longhorns for 2-2, and the contest stayed on serve through the first seven games for a 4-3 Auburn lead. That's when the Tigers picked up consecutive deuce points for a break and hold for the match.
That turned the attention to No. 1 where despite having two match point opportunities, the No. 9 duo of Legout and sophomore Lucas Brown were downed in a tiebreaker by Nolan and Frusina, 7-6 (6). The Longhorns held their opening serve at love, and although the next three games all went to deuce, all stayed on serve, as did the rest of the match all the way to the tiebreaker. However, with Texas leading, 5-4, the following game reached deuce for a match-point chance, but Auburn was able to hold for 5-5. In the breaker, the Tigers grabbed the first mini-break for a 3-2 lead and won their next serve for 4-2. The following two points were both breaks for a 5-3 Auburn lead, but Texas went on a 3-0 run to reclaim a 6-5 advantage heading into their service points. However, the Tigers answered the 3-0 run for the 8-6 win to clinch the doubles point.
With the win, the Longhorns moved to 23-4 overall this season.
#4 Texas 4, #33 Auburn 1
Singles – Order of Finish (6,3,1,2)
1. #2 Timo Legout (UT) def. Will Nolan (AUB) 6-2, 6-4
2. #22 Sebastian Gorzny (UT) def. #68 Alex Frusina (AUB) 7-5, 7-5
3. #46 Pierre-Yves Bailly (UT) def. Billy Blaydes (AUB) 6-4, 6-2
4. #72 Jonah Braswell (UT) vs. Hamza Nasridinov (AUB) 1-6, 6-5, unfinished
5. Sebastian Eriksson (UT) vs. Nicholas Heng (AUB) 1-6, 6-1, 5-1, unfinished
6. Evan Burnett (UT) def. Joey Phillips (AUB) 6-2, 6-3
Doubles – Order of Finish (2,3,1)
1. Alex Frusina/Will Nolan (AUB) def. #9 Timo Legout/Lucas Brown (UT) 7-6 (8-6)
2. #78 Pierre-Yves Bailly/Sebastian Eriksson (UT) def. Billy Blaydes/Joey Phillips (AUB) 6-1
3. Jake Kennedy/Hamza Nasridinov (AUB) def. Evan Burnett/Jonah Braswell (UT) 6-3
Players Mentioned
