The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
University of Texas
Wake Forest
No. 2 Men’s Tennis preview: No. 1 Wake Forest
01.19.2026 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns face a second-straight top-five opponent from the ACC against the Demon Deacons at the Weller Indoor Tennis Center on Wednesday.
No. 2 Men's Tennis preview: No. 1 Wake Forest
Team Records: Texas (2-1, 0-0 SEC), Wake Forest (3-0, 0-0 ACC)
When: Wednesday, January 21, 2026, 5:30 p.m. CT
Where: Weller Indoor Tennis Center, Austin, Texas
Live Stats: https://hookem.at/MTN-Stats
Live Video: https://hookem.at/MTN-Watch
Notes
-No. 1 vs. No. 2
This will be the first No. 1 vs. No. 2 match Texas has played in since the No. 2 Longhorns earned a 5-2 win at No. 1 Florida on Jan. 15, 2020.
-Wake Forest Series: Texas leads, 11-4
Texas leads the all-time series with Wake Forest, 11-4, and the teams have faced each other each of the last four years, splitting those, 2-2. Last year's meeting was a 4-3 win by Demon Deacons in the ITA National Indoors Semifinals in Dallas after the teams had met the year before in the semifinals of the 2024 NCAA Championship in Stillwater where the Longhorns won, 4-2. The 2023 match resulted in a 4-0 sweep by the Longhorns in the Round of 16 of the ITA Indoors in Chicago. Prior to that, the Demon Deacons won, 4-2, in a consolation match of the 2022 ITA Indoors in Seattle. The teams met on the biggest stage in college tennis in the 2019 NCAA Championship Final. The Longhorns won that match 4-1 to claim the first team National Championship in program history. Wake Forest had won the previous two matchups, including a 4-3 decision in the quarterfinals of the 2017 ITA National Indoors in Charlottesville, Va. The teams played less than a month later in Austin, which Wake Forest also won, 4-0. Previously, Texas had won the first eight meetings.
Last Two Meetings
#2 Wake Forest 4, #3 Texas 3
Monday, February 17, 2025
Dallas, Texas • Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex (ITA Indoors Semifinals)
Singles – Order of Finish (1,5,6,2,3,4)
1. #11 Timo Legout (TEX) def. #17 Stefan Dostanic (WF) 6-4, 6-2
2. #7 DK Suresh Ekambaram (WF) def. Sebastian Gorzny (TEX) 3-6, 6-3, 7-6 (7)
3. #121 Pierre-Yves Bailly (TEX) def. #98 Charlie Robertson (WF) 6-7 (4), 6-3, 6-1
4. #100 Ioannis Xilas (WF) def. #21 Jonah Braswell (TEX) 6-3, 6-7 (7), 6-3
5. Oliver Ojakaar (TEX) def. Luciano Tacchi (WF) 6-1, 7-6 (3)
6. Luca Pow (WF) def. Sebastian Eriksson (TEX) 6-2, 7-5
Doubles – Order of Finish (1,3)
1. #30 Stefan Dostanic/DK Suresh Ekambaram (WF) def. #5 Lucas Brown/Timo Legout (TEX) 6-3
2. Luciano Tacchi/Luca Pow (WF) vs. Pierre-Yves Bailly/Sebastian Gorzny (TEX) 6-5, unf.
3. Ioannis Xilas/Franco Capalbo (WF) def. Jonah Braswell/Oliver Ojakaar (TEX) 6-4
#3 Texas 4, #6 Wake Forest 2
Saturday, May 18, 2024
Stillwater, Okla. • Greenwood Tennis Center (NCAA Semifinals)
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
-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, Wake Forest was No. 1.
-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
Wake Forest
Singles
No. 12 DK Suresh
No. 15 Luca Pow
No. 64 Kacper Szymkowiak
No. 96 Andrew Delgado
Doubles
No. 4 DK Suresh/Andrew Delgado
-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 153-36 overall record (.810) that includes 2-1 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
