2024-2025 Season

Hi UT Tennis Fan,

As we wrap up our Fall Season, and take a little break for Thanksgiving I thought I would check in with some program updates:

Our performance last week at the NCAA individual tournament was highlighted by Timo Legout reaching the singles semifinals, and partnering with Lucas Brown to reach the doubles semifinals. With those results, Timo secured All American status in both singles and doubles, and Lucas wrapped up that honor in doubles. Timo also guaranteed himself a spot in the ATP/ITA Accelerator Program. Unfortunately, both Timo and Lucas got hit with a bad stomach bug during the event, and Timo had to retire after just 5 games in the semifinals. Jonah Braswell lost a heartbreaker in the first round, but played a very good match, while Sebastian Gorzny advanced to the 2nd round after being out of action since September's run to the final of the ITA All American. For more details on the week that Timo and Lucas had, please click on this press release.

Meanwhile back in Austin the rest of our players played in the Dropshot Series $25k ITF Pro Tennis tournament at the Texas Tennis Center. One of the highlights for the week was Evan Burnett's run to the quarterfinals, which included a big win over #1 seed and ATP #343 Toby Kodat. And a special shout out goes to Pierre-Yves Bailly for winning his first pro doubles title, and reaching the singles final (coming up just 1 win short of defending last year's singles title). It was definitely a great finish to the Fall season for Pierre!

We are also very happy to announce two great additions to our program! Oliver Ojakaar (Estonia) will, along with previously announced Sebastian Eriksson, join us in January for the upcoming dual match season. Oliver was one of the top juniors in the world (ranked #10 in the ITF rankings), and is a US Open Junior Doubles Champion. Mariano Dedura-Palomero (Germany) will join us next fall. He has focused primarily on ITF Men's Circuit events over the last few years, and has demonstrated significant success at that level. We expect both of them to be difference makers for the Longhorns! Please click on today's press release for more detail on Oliver and Mariano.

And we are not quite done yet! Beginning on Friday, Sebastian Gorzny will represent the United States at the annual Master U Competition in France. Based on his unpublished #1 national singles ranking heading into last week, he was selected as 1 of 3 male players for Team USA. Stay tuned to our website over the weekend for updates, but here is a link to the results and live scoring page for the event.

Have a great holiday season! And Hook'em!

Sincerely,
Bruce Berque
 
We may get a sneak peek at maya joint facing Mary stoiana at the masterU event this weekend. Should be exciting. Also excited to Gorzny get a chance to shine at Texas as one of the top players in college. The masterU event should be great experience for him. I’m not sure how all these fall events work now but hope he gets a chance at the accelerator program

 
We may get a sneak peek at maya joint facing Mary stoiana at the masterU event this weekend. Should be exciting. Also excited to Gorzny get a chance to shine at Texas as one of the top players in college. The masterU event should be great experience for him. I’m not sure how all these fall events work now but hope he gets a chance at the accelerator program
Maya vs Mary, not to be at the MasterU BNP. It'll be US vs GBR.
 

Calvin Wang in the transfer portal. Smart move for he probably wouldn't see much playing time this Spring.
 
Hi UT Tennis Fan,

I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving!

Sebastian Gorzny was the only Longhorn competing last week, as he was part of Team USA and competed in the Master'U BNP Paribas Championship in France. Sebastian was an integral part of the team's 5th straight run to the title, winning both of his singles matches, and all 3 of his doubles matches. Here is a link to the full recap. Meanwhile in Mexico, recent graduate Cleeve Harper finished the year with another Challenger title, this time in Manzanillo, Mexico. Cleeve has now gotten his ATP doubles ranking up to #159 after only 6 months on tour!

Thanks for your ongoing interest in UT Men's Tennis. I will be back in touch with you again soon. All the best, and Hook'em!

Sincerely,
Bruce Berque
 
Hope he find a good program to get playing time. I’m always a fan of these student athletes that come. He fit the culture and team dynamics well. Got a chance to train with the best of college tennis and now has a chance to take his skills and improvement to make a difference to a program.


Calvin Wang in the transfer portal. Smart move for he probably wouldn't see much playing time this Spring.
 
Hi UT Tennis Fan,

Happy New Year! Our team is back on campus, and we started training together a few days ago. I have been very happy to see that everyone came back in good health, in good shape, and in good tennis form. We are excited that two new players are joining us as freshmen this semester, Sebastian Eriksson (Sweden) and Oliver Ojakaar (Estonia). They are both outstanding players, and great fits with our culture.

Although we lost 6 seniors to graduation and 1 to professional tennis from last year's team, we have been ranked the #1 ranked team in the country in the preseason poll. This is now the 4th season out of the last 7 that we have risen to the top spot in the rankings. While we recognize that it is the journey and where we finish that are more important than where we start, it is still nice recognition for the program.

Our dual match season opens this weekend with matches against Lamar (1 pm on Saturday) and Abilene Christian (11 am on Sunday). Although we have had a cold snap the last few days, the weather should be nice this weekend, and we expect both matches to be outside at the Texas Tennis Center. Our 3rd match of the season will be on Wednesday, January 15 at 4pm against UTRGV. All matches will be streamed live, and you can find the links here.

In news of our recent graduates, Eliot Spizzirri won his first tournament of 2025, picking up the doubles title at the $150k Challenger in Canberra, Australia. This week he picked up a singles win over #205 Alexander Blockx in the first round of The Australian Open qualifying. Micah Braswell also picked up a good win yesterday at a Challenger in Portugal, taking out #243 Beibit Zhukayev. Cleeve Harper is in the 2nd round of doubles in Portugal, and progressing fast through the doubles rankings.

Hope to see you at the courts this weekend. Hook'em!

Sincerely,
Bruce Berque
 

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