The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Men's Tennis
- Title:
- Head Coach
An accomplished coaching veteran with three decades of experience with some of the nation's top tennis programs, Bruce Berque was elevated from associate head coach to interim head coach on March 13, 2019, and after leading the program to its first National Championship, he was officially named the fifth head coach of The University of Texas Men's Tennis program on May 23, 2019.
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• Texas (Head Coach), 2019-present |
Berque has now completed six seasons as head coach in Austin and has led the Longhorns to a 123-30 overall record (.804) 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).
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.
In the first year of the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships being moved to the fall, freshman Timo Legout reached the semifinals of both this past November, combining with sophomore 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. Junior Sebastian Gorzny additionally finished as the singles runner-up at the ITA All-American Championships.
In the spring of 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. 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. Eliot Spizzirri was named the back-to-back ITA National Player of the Year, becoming the fourth player to ever win it twice, while Micah Braswell was chosen the ITA National Senior of the Year, an award Spizzirri claimed in 2023. Both were ITA All-Americans in singles, while Spizzirri paired with Cleeve Harper to be All-Americans in doubles after reaching the NCAA doubles semifinals. Both Spizzirri and Braswell were also selected to the CSC Academic All-America Team. Braswell finished No. 3 in the final singles rankings and ascended to No. 1 during one of the two weeks (Feb. 7) when it was not Spizzirri. Braswell won the singles title at the ITA National Fall Championships to combine with Spizzirri for a Texas sweep of the fall majors for just the second time in program history and the first time by two different players. It also marked just the fourth time different players from the same school combined to win the two titles. That came on the heels of Braswell also winning the ITA Texas Regionals title. Braswell was named the region's Senior Player of the Year, while Gilles-Arnaud Bailly was the Rookie of the Year. The Longhorns swept the individual conference awards in the team’s final year in the Big 12, including Berque as Coach of the Year, Spizzirri as Player of the Year, Gilles-Arnaud Bailly as Freshman of the Year, and Jonah Braswell as Newcomer of the Year. It was Berque’s third time in the previous five years of earning the honor, while Spizzirri became the first two-time player of the year in program history. Bailly became the third Longhorn to be named Freshman of the Year in the last four years, including his brother, Pierre-Yves Bailly and Micah Braswell. Spizzirri and Micah Braswell earned first-team All-Big 12 honors in singles, as did Spizzirri with Siem Woldeab in doubles. Prior to that in the fall, Spizzirri and Micah Braswell had combined to sweep the singles titles at the ITA All-American Championships and ITA National Fall Championships, respectively, for just the second time in program history and for the first time by two different players. The other was Yuya Ito in 2019, also under Berque.
Texas finished 2023 with 26 wins, which is the third-most for the program since 2010. The Longhorns made a NCAA Final Four appearance, while the season also saw the team claim the outright Big 12 regular season championship, make the program's first appearance in the final of the ITA National Indoor Championships, and spend the last six weeks with the nation's No. 1 ranking before finishing with a final ranking of No. 3. Spizzirri was named the ITA National Player of the Year, Big 12 Player of the Year, and Big 12 Scholar-Athlete of the Year, and was one of six players nationally to be selected to the CSC Academic All-America First Team. He was just the second Longhorn to hold the top singles spot at the end of the season since the rankings began in 1981, along with Steve Bryan in 1990, before repeating the feat in 2024. He was one of three ITA All-Americans, earning those honors in both singles and doubles, to go along his partner Harper in doubles, and Micah Braswell in singles. The Longhorns had five All-Big 12 individual selections with Spizzirri and Bailly on the first team in singles with Siem Woldeab on the second team, while Harper and Spizzirri were first team in doubles with Woldeab and Bailly on the second team. In addition to those, Nevin Arimilli picked up the ITA Texas Region Most Improved Senior Award.
In 2022, despite the team facing an unprecedented string of injuries that prevented a fully healthy lineup from ever taking the court throughout the year against a daunting schedule, the Longhorns still reached the NCAA Tournament Round of 16 and posted at least 18 wins each for an eighth-consecutive season. All of Texas' 11 losses came to opponents ranked at least in the top 15 with nine of those against teams in the top six, including 4-3 defeats against No. 1 Florida and No. 2 Ohio State. The season also featured wins versus that same Gators team at ITA Indoor Nationals, which Texas reached for the fourth-straight year, and at No. 9 USC. Individually, the season was capped by Richard Ciamarra and Cleeve Harper winning the NCAA Doubles National Championship. It marked the second duo Berque helped guide to that title at UT after Lloyd Glasspool and Søren Hess-Olesen won it in 2015 while Berque was an assistant. With that, Ciamarra and Harper were named ITA All-Americans in doubles, as were Spizzirri and Woldeab, who received a 5-8 seed for the NCAA Tournament. For the second straight year, the Big 12 Freshman of the Year was a Longhorn with Bailly following Braswell for that honor, while the ITA Texas Region Newcomer of the Year came from UT for a third-straight with Bailly and Braswell coming after Woldeab. Texas also had five individual All-Big 12 selections, including Braswell at first-team singles, Bailly and Spizzirri at second-team singles, Ciamarra and Harper at first-team doubles, and Spizzirri and Woldeab at second-team doubles. Ciamarra and Harper were also the Big 12 Individual Champions at No. 1 doubles.
Along with their 24-6 overall record in 2021, the Longhorns made their second consecutive appearance in the NCAA Final Four, won a share of their second-straight regular season Big 12 Championship and finished with an ITA Final Ranking of No. 3 after reaching as high as No. 2 during the season. For his efforts, Berque was named Big 12 Coach of the Year for the second-straight time after the Big 12 season was not played in 2020. During the year, Texas defeated three of the four teams that had been ranked No. 1 at some point during the year, including eventual NCAA Champion Florida, eventual runner-up Baylor, and two wins over USC, which was ranked No. 1 at the time of the first meeting at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships. All six of the team's losses in 2021 came against top-10 opponents. Eliot Spizzirri and Siem Woldeab claimed the first All-America honors of their careers as the duo earned them together in doubles, while Spizzirri also did so in singles. Berque also guided true freshman Braswell to be named ITA Texas Region Rookie of the Year and Big 12 Freshman of the Year.
Despite a shortened 2020 season, Berque guided the Longhorns to impressive moments, including opening the regular season with a road win at No. 1 Florida despite having three freshmen each in the singles and doubles lineups. Following that match, Texas reached No. 1 in the ITA Rankings for the third time in program history, all under Berque's watch with the other two coming in 2019. The Longhorns also posted two wins over No. 8 Stanford in 2020 with one coming at the ITA Indoors and the other less than two weeks later in Austin. The end of the season also saw the close of the careers of two of the all-time greats in program history as Yuya Ito earned the third ITA All-America honors of his career in singles, and Christian Sigsgaard received the second singles honor of his, to go along with singles and doubles honors in 2019. Additionally, Woldeab was named the ITA Texas Region Rookie of the Year, and earlier in the fall of 2019, Ito became just the third men's player since 1979 to win the singles title of the ITA All-American and ITA Fall Nationals in the same season.
After beginning the 2019 season as associate head coach, Berque had been named interim head coach midway through the year on March 12, 2019. From that point, he guided the Longhorns to a 15-2 record the rest of the way, including the program's first National Championship, and the regular season Big 12 title. That began with a win over Rice on the day he was named the interim coach, and two days later a victory over No. 1 Ohio State in Austin. The team went on to post five more top-10 wins, including over No. 10 TCU in the NCAA quarterfinals, No. 4 Florida in the semifinals, and No. 3 Wake Forest in the finals. Berque was also named the 2019 Big 12 Coach of the Year and oversaw numerous individual student-athlete awards in the Big 12 that season including Sigsgaard as Co-Player of the Year, in addition to his and Ito's All-America honors, along with those of Harrison Scott, who partnered with Sigsgaard in doubles. Following that season, Berque was named the Professional Tennis Registry Jim Verdieck College Coach of the Year.
Berque is in his 10th season overall with the program, including over three years as associate head coach and one as a volunteer assistant. Prior to the National Championship, he helped lead Texas to the NCAA quarterfinals in 2017 and the NCAA round of 16 in 2015, 2016 and 2018.
In his career as a head coach and assistant coach, Berque has been a part of two NCAA National Championship teams (2003, ‘19) and two ITA National Indoor Championship teams (2003, ’04), and has guided two NCAA singles champions (1994, 2003) and five NCAA doubles champions (1993, 2000, ’03, ‘15, '22). In winning the 2019 National Championship with Texas and the 2022 doubles title, Berque had been 11-0 all-time in national championship team and individual matches until Spizzirri and Harper came up just short in the 2023 doubles final, and the team was narrowly defeated in the 2024 title match.
Prior to Texas, Berque served 10 seasons as the head coach at Michigan starting in 2004-05 through 2014. He took the Wolverines to the NCAA Championships in his final nine seasons in Ann Arbor and led Michigan to the NCAA round of 16 in 2008.
The 2012 ITA Midwest Region Coach of the Year paced Michigan to eight top-four finishes in the Big Ten Conference, including runner-up finishes in 2007, 2012 and 2013, and led the Wolverines to No. 8 national rankings in 2008 and 2011.
Evan King, Matko Maravic and Brian Hung earned ITA All-America honors under Berque’s tutelage at Michigan, and the Big Ten Conference twice selected King as its Athlete of the Year.
Berque also served as an associate head coach at Illinois for six seasons (1999-2004). The Intercollegiate Tennis Association (ITA) selected Berque as the 2003 National Assistant Coach of the Year, as he helped lead the Fighting Illini to a 32-0 dual-match record, the ITA National Team Indoor title and the 2003 NCAA title.
Under Berque, Illinois made a clean sweep of the 2003 NCAA Championships, as Amer Delic won the NCAA singles title and Rajeev Ram teamed with Brian Wilson to claim the NCAA doubles title. Berque helped lay the groundwork for Illinois’ extraordinary success in 2003 after bringing in the nation’s top recruiting classes in 2000 and 2002.
With Berque continuing on staff in 2004, Illinois stretched its winning streak to an NCAA record 64 matches, as the Fighting Illini reached the semifinals at the NCAA Championships and locked up its sixth consecutive Big Ten Championship. Berque also helped Illinois reach the NCAA quarterfinals in 1999, 2000 and 2002.
A native of Old Tappan, New Jersey, Berque completed additional coaching stints at Ohio State (volunteer assistant, 1997-98), Florida (assistant coach, 1990-96) and Haverford College (assistant women’s coach, 1988-90).
