No. 4 Texas men’s tennis went down to Gainesville on Sunday to take on No. 37 Florida, bringing home another Southeastern Conference road win with a gritty 5–2 victory.
With both teams entering undefeated in the SEC, the Longhorns knew they’d be in for a challenge.
“Florida’s traditionally one of the better teams in the SEC,” head coach Bruce Berque said. “They’ve had a really strong recent history, including national championships.”
Redshirt freshman No. 11 Timo Legout and sophomore Lucas Brown would be the first off the court, with a 6–2 win against sophomores Henry Jefferson and Jeremy Jin.
However, with the Gators already up 5–3 on the remaining courts, Texas could not take advantage of Legout and Brown’s win.
Senior Pierre-Yves Bailly and freshman Sebastian Eriksson fell first, losing 6–3 to sophomore Kevin Edengren and redshirt senior JanMagnus Johnson.
The star-studded duo of freshman Oliver Ojakaar and junior Sebastian Gorzny attempted to claw back after being broken early, bringing their set to 5–4. Unfortunately, it was too little too late as sophomore Adhithya Ganesan and junior Tanapatt Nirundorn would steal what little momentum Texas had, securing the doubles point for Florida.
But it wouldn’t take long for Texas to play like its No. 4 self as Brown would come out with a resounding win, sweeping both his sets 6–0 against freshman Niels Villard. Not once taking his foot off the gas, only one game would come down to a deuce point.
Ojakaar carries this momentum with a 6–2, 6–3 victory against Nirundorn. He was relentless, immediately breaking his opponent’s serve in the first game to set the pace of the match. He broke three more times, giving Texas a 2–1 lead.
With momentum back in Texas’ hands, No. 58 Bailly kept the theme going, opening his first set with a 6–3 win against Johnson. Yet it wasn’t enough, as Bailly would end the match on an eight-game win streak, using his serves to set up unreturnable hits. 3–1 Texas.
Not too long after, No. 7 Legout would call the game. Similarly to Ojakaar, he opened by breaking Ganesan’s serve and then held to go up 2–0. After closing out the set 6–2, Legout jumped ahead 3–0 in the second set. Ganesan fought to stay alive, but the Frenchman’s momentum proved to be too much, breaking on a deuce point and securing Texas’s fourth SEC victory with a 6–3 win in the second set.
The remaining games would be played out, with Texas taking one more singles match, bringing the final score to 5–2.
Texas will now return to the Lone Star State, where they will prepare to play No. 19 Mississippi State in what could be their biggest SEC challenge yet.
The Longhorns will host the Bulldogs on Thursday at 6 p.m. at the Texas Tennis Center, where they will look to continue building on the only undefeated record left in the SEC.
