The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Virginia
No. 2 Men’s Tennis preview: No. 5 Virginia
01.17.2026 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns and Cavaliers will play a top-five match at the Texas Tennis Center on Sunday at 12:30 p.m.
No. 2 Men's Tennis preview: No. 5 Virginia
Team Records: Texas (2-0, 0-0 SEC), Virginia (1-0, 0-0 ACC)
When: Sunday, January 18, 2026, 12:30 p.m. CT
Where: Texas Tennis Center, Austin, Texas
Live Stats: https://hookem.at/MTN-Stats
Live Video: https://hookem.at/MTN-Watch
Notes
-Virginia Series: Virginia leads, 13-3
Texas and Virginia have met 16 times in their history, all in the last 20 years, with the Cavaliers winning 13 of those. Following a 4-3 win in Charlottesville last year, Virginia had been on a 10-match winning streak dating back to 2008 until the Longhorns snapped it with a 4-1 win in the ITA Indoors quarterfinals last year in Dallas on Feb. 15. In the loss, the Longhorns won doubles and held a 3-2 lead before falling at Nos. 1 and 6. Timo Legout came up just short in a second-set tiebreaker that would have given him the match at No. 1, while Lucas Brown went to three sets at No. 6. In the win, Virginia won doubles, but Texas emerged with singles wins at Nos. 3-6 with Nos. 1 and 2 both in the third-set tiebreakers when play stopped.
Two seasons ago in Austin, the Cavaliers emerged from a 4-3 contest that went down to the third set of the final singles match. The previous meeting came in 2023 in the NCAA semifinals in Orlando, which was a 4-1 win for UVA. Prior to that, it had been since 2017 when the teams faced off in the NCAA quarterfinals in Athens, Ga., which was also a 4-1 win for Virginia. Those have been the only NCAA tournament matches, and before that, the teams alternated home and away matches from 2004-13, along with an additional matchup in the ITA Indoors in Chicago in 2007. That's the same year as the last win for the Longhorns in the series, which was a 4-3 victory in Austin. Texas also won in Charlottesville in 2006 by the same score.
All-Time Series
2025: 4-1 W, Dallas, Texas (ITA Indoors Quarterfinals)
2025: 3-4 L, Charlottesville, Va.
2024: 3-4 L, Austin, Texas
2023: 1-4 L, Orlando, Fla. (NCAA Semifinals)
2017: 1-4 L, Athens, Ga. (NCAA Quarterfinals)
2013: 2-5 L, Austin, Texas
2012: 0-7 L, Charlottesville, Va.
2011: 2-5 L, Austin, Texas
2010: 4-9 L, Charlottesville, Va.
2009: 3-4 L, Austin, Texas
2008: 2-5 L, Charlottesville, Va.
2007: 4-3 W, Austin, Texas
2007: 0-4 L, Chicago, Ill. (ITA National Indoors)
2006: 4-3 W, Charlottesville, Va.
2005: 3-4 L, Austin, Texas
2004: 2-5 L, Charlottesville, Va.
Last Two Meetings
#3 Texas 4, #5 Virginia 1
Sunday, February 15, 2025
Dallas, Texas • Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex (ITA Indoors Quarterfinals)
Singles – Order of Finish (6,5,3,4)
1. #44 Rafael Jodar (VA) vs. #11 Timo Legout (TEX) 6-4, 4-6, 6-6 (1-3), unf.
2. #26 Dylan Dietrich (VA) vs. #10 Sebastian Gorzny (TEX) 6-7 (6), 6-3, 6-6 (5-2), unf.
3. #121 Pierre-Yves Bailly (TEX) def. James Hopper (VA) 4-6, 6-1, 6-3
4. #21 Jonah Braswell (TEX) def. #103 Keegan Rice (VA) 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (5)
5. Oliver Ojakaar (TEX) def. Mans Dahlberg (VA) 6-2, 3-6, 6-1
6. Sebastian Eriksson (TEX) def. Jangjun Kim (VA) 6-4, 6-1
Doubles – Order of Finish (2,1)
1. #65 Keegan Rice/James Hopper (VA) def. #5 Lucas Brown/Timo Legout (TEX) 6-3
2. #75 Mans Dahlberg/Dylan Dietrich (VA) def. Pierre-Yves Bailly/Sebastian Gorzny (TEX) 6-3
3. Jangjun Kim/Rafael Jodar (VA) vs. Jonah Braswell/Oliver Ojakaar (TEX) 4-3, unf.
#5 Virginia 4, #1 Texas 3
Sunday, February 2, 2025
Charlottesville, Va. • Boar's Head Sports Club
Singles – Order of Finish (5,4,3,2,1,6)
1. Rafael Jodar (VA) def. #3 Timo Legout (TEX) 3-6, 7-6 (7), 6-3
2. #57 Dylan Dietrich (VA) def. #2 Sebastian Gorzny (TEX) 2-6, 6-4, 7-5
3. Pierre-Yves Bailly (TEX) def. James Hopper (VA) 6-2, 6-4
4. #20 Jonah Braswell (TEX) def. #86 Mans Dahlberg (VA) 6-0, 6-4
5. Jangjun Kim (VA) def. Sebastian Eriksson (TEX) 6-3, 6-3
6. Stiles Brockett (VA) def. #116 Lucas Brown (TEX) 4-6, 7-5, 6-3
Doubles – Order of Finish (2,1)
1. #7 Timo Legout/Lucas Brown (TEX) def. #92 Dylan Dietrich/Mans Dahlberg (VA) 7-5
2. Sebastian Gorzny/Pierre-Yves Bailly (TEX) def. James Hopper/Ty Switzer (VA) 6-2
3. Jangjun Kim/Rafael Jodar (VA) vs. Sebastian Eriksson/Jonah Braswell (TEX) 5-5, unf.
-ITA Team Rankings
Texas was tabbed No. 2 in the preseason poll released January 7 by the ITA. It's the 110th-straight week in the top 15 dating back to April 2018. Meanwhile, Virginia was No. 5.
-ITA Individual National Rankings
Texas had three listings in the ITA individual fall postseason rankings that were released November 25 with two in singles and one doubles pair. Texas claimed the No. 25 and No. 39 players in Sebastian Eriksson and Sebastian Gorzny, while Gorzny and Lucas Brown were No. 27 in doubles.
Texas
Singles
No. 25 Sebastian Eriksson
No. 39 Sebastian Gorzny
Doubles
No. 27 Sebastian Gorzny/Lucas Brown
Virginia
Singles
No. 16 Dylan Dietrich
No. 29 Keegan Rice
Doubles
No. 1 Mans Dahlberg/Dylan Dietrich
No. 87 Jangjun Kim/Keegan Rice
-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 begins his eighth season as head coach in Austin and has led the Longhorns to a 153-35 overall record (.814) that includes 2-0 this season, 28-5 last season (missed the NCAA first round match vs. Montana due to illness), 27-4 in 2024, 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. In reaching the NCAA Final Four last year, Texas is the only program nationally to reach it five times in the last six full seasons. During Berque's previous seven seasons at the helm, Texas is the only program in the nation to finish in the top four in six of those. It is also one of just four programs to reach the NCAA championship match twice (2019, 2024), along with Virginia, TCU and Wake Forest in that span. The Longhorns are one of three teams to have been ranked No. 1 at some point during the season in four of the last seven years along with Ohio State and TCU.
During his career, Berque has helped produce four national team champions, seven national individual champions and 14 conference team titles. He has coached 30 All-Americans who collectively have amassed 62 All-America honors. Additionally, he has guided eight singles players and three doubles teams to a No. 1 national ranking, including Timo Legout last season. Legout went on to be the ITA National Player of the Year, giving Texas three-straight years earning that honor, along with Eliot Spizzirri in 2023 and 2024. The 2025 SEC Coach of the Year, Berque guided the Horns to both the regular season and tournament championships in their debut season in the SEC. In 2024, 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. 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. Meanwhile, UT also secured an outright Big 12 regular season title with a perfect 7-0 record. In six years under Berque where a conference slate was played, Texas has taken home at least a share of the regular season championship five times (2019, '21, '23, '24, '25), including four outright (2019, '23, '24, '25). The 2020 season was halted due to the pandemic prior to conference play. The 29 wins last season were tied with the 2019 team for the most in program history in the era since 1975 when teams began playing shorter schedules. Berque has additionally guided Texas to the semifinals of the ITA National Indoor Championships in two of the last three years (2023, 2025), including the program's first finals appearance in 2023.
-Back from 2025
In the eighth season under head coach Bruce Berque, Texas will have a different look from 2025, but at the same time return a number of familiar faces. The roster will feature six returners, all of whom had match experience, including seniors Sebastian Gorzny and Jonah Braswell, junior Lucas Brown, and sophomores Sebastian Eriksson, Oliver Ojakaar, and Evan Burnett.
-Five newcomers arrive for their first dual match season on the 40
The Longhorns add five new faces for 2026, all who are expected to be impact players, starting with Mariano Dedura-Palomero from Germany and Lucas Marionneau from France who arrived in the summer and competed in fall tournament play. Three other players just arrived on the 40 Acres this month, including Jeremiah Braswell, who is the brother of current Longhorn Jonah Braswell and former All-American Micah Braswell, along with Abel Forger from The Netherlands and Kalin Ivanovski from North Macedonia.
-Summer/Fall Wrap-up
A number of players on the roster spent the summer and fall nursing injuries, leading to some of them not qualifying for fall ITA rankings. However, around those injuries, Lucas Brown started the summer off with the singles title at the ITA Summer Nationals. At the ITA All-Americans, Sebastian Gorzny reached the singles round of 16, while Gorzny and Brown combined to advance to the doubles quarterfinals. Sebastian Eriksson later made it to the ITA Texas Regionals final, however the title match was not played. Gorzny and Eriksson both closed fall play in the NCAA Singles Championship round of 32.
Players Mentioned
