The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
No. 4 Men's Tennis preview: ITA Kickoff Weekend
01.22.2026 | Men's Tennis
The Longhorns host during the ITA Kickoff Weekend for the 12th-straight year and open with UNC Wilmington on Friday.
No. 4 Men's Tennis preview: ITA Kickoff Weekend
Team Records: Texas (2-2, 0-0 SEC), USF (0-2, 0-0 AAC), Washington (2-1, 0-0 Big Ten), UNC Wilmington (0-0, 0-0 CAA)
Where: Weller Indoor Tennis Center, Austin, Texas
Live Stats: https://hookem.at/MTN-Stats
Live Video: https://hookem.at/MTN-Watch
Broadcast: Cracked Racquets (YouTube)
Tournament Homepage: https://wearecollegetennis.com/kickoff-weekend/
Tournament Schedule
Should play be forced indoors due to weather an alternate schedule will be posted.
Friday, January 23
No. 4 Texas vs. UNC Wilmington, 11 a.m. CT
USF vs. Washington, 2 p.m. CT
Saturday, January 24
Consolation: Texas-UNC Wilmington loser vs. USF vs. Washington loser, 9:30 a.m.
Championship: Texas-UNC Wilmington winner vs. USF vs. Washington winner, 12:30 p.m.
Notes
-ITA Kickoff Weekend
Texas is hosting an ITA Kickoff Weekend regional for the 12th-straight year with the last time not hosting being 2014 when the team traveled to Nashville, Tenn. The Longhorns have advanced to the ITA National Indoor Championships in seven consecutive seasons dating back to 2019.
-UNC Wilmington Series: Never Met
This will be the first ever meeting between Texas and UNC Wilmington.
-USF Series: Texas leads, 4-0
Texas leads the overall series with USF, 4-0, with the last meeting coming in 2021, which was a 6-1 win in Austin for the Longhorns. The teams also met in the 2019 NCAA Second Round, which was a 4-1 win for Texas. Prior to that, the Longhorns came away with a 6-1 win in 2013 in Tallahassee, Fla., and a 7-0 sweep in 2005 in Austin.
-Washington Series: Texas leads, 4-1
Texas leads the overall series with Washington, 4-1, with the last meeting coming in the first round of the 2019 ITA Kickoff Weekend in Austin and resulting in a 4-0 win for the Longhorns. The teams have faced each other two other times in Austin, including a 6-1 win for Texas in 2015, and a 4-0 UT win in the NCAA Second Round in 2009. The win for the Huskies was a 4-3 decision in Seattle in 2016, while Texas had a 6-1 neutral site win in Tulsa in 2013.
-ITA Team Rankings
Texas was tabbed No. 2 in the preseason poll released January 7 by the ITA, and then was No. 4 on January 21. It's the 111th-straight week in the top 15 dating back to April 2018. Meanwhile, UNC Wilmington, USF and Washington are unranked.
-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
UNC Wilmington
Singles
N/A
Doubles
N/A
USF
Singles
No. 28 Hugo Car
Doubles
N/A
Washington
Singles
No. 89 Soham Purohit
Doubles
N/A
-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 153-37 overall record (.805) that includes 2-2 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
