No. 4 Texas men’s tennis is taking the Southeastern Conference by a storm.
The Longhorns continue their strong season, taking down No. 51 Ole Miss on Monday. In just the first two matches in the conference, Texas accumulated back-to-back ranked wins with a combined score of 13-1, solidifying itself as a team to watch out for.
No. 33 junior Jonah Braswell battled sickness throughout the tournament, leaving him unable to compete in the singles competition after his doubles match got cut short earlier in the day.
However, he used his time off to encourage his teammates from the sidelines. This included giving redshirt freshman Evan Burnett, who he calls Burny, the confidence to win his first of a dual match. Taking the court against fellow freshman Matthieu Chambonniere, Burnett won both sets 7-6, 6-1 and submitted the Longhorns’ second SEC win.
“Tennis by nature is not necessarily a team sport, but in college it definitely is,” head coach Bruce Berque said. “I think that’s one of the reasons why we’ve been pretty successful the last five (to) seven years. We have a culture of guys that really like each other and pull for each other. Even though they may be a little competitive with each other, they care about the team most.”
Earlier in the day, the rest of the team stayed hot from its 7-0 victory against Vanderbilt.
In the doubles competition, Texas senior Pierre-Yves Bailly and freshman Oliver Ojakaar made quick work of Ole Miss freshman duo Benjamin Martin and Chambonniere, winning 6-2 and starting off the afternoon in the Longhorns’ favor. On court one, redshirt freshman Timo Legout and junior Sebastian Gorzny secured the Longhorns doubles point after defeating junior Isac Strömberg and freshman Kai Milburn 6-4.
Court four was the first to declare a singles winner. It was a frustrating day for Texas freshman Sebastian Eriksson, losing 6-4, 6-0 to freshman Loan Lestir. This allowed Ole Miss to tie up the match at 1-1.
After moving up to No. 7 in the country for singles, Legout put a stop to the possible Ole Miss momentum. Legout won the first seven points in his match against junior Marcel Kamrowski en route to a 6-3, 6-2 victory, moving the Longhorns back on top with a 2-1 lead.
No. 58 Bailly showed why he jumped up 63 spots in the singles rankings when he gave Texas a 4-1 lead with a 6-2, 6-4 win over Stromberg. After trailing 4-2 in the first set to Rebel junior Noah Schlagenhauf, No. 15 Gorzny flipped a switch and never looked back. Gorzny went on to win 7-5, 6-3, extending the lead to 3-1.
Texas sophomore Lucas Brown and Ole Miss freshman Martin had a fiery and competitive match, chirping back and forth to each other after almost every point.
“Each player gets energy from different things,” Brown said. “Sometimes if you get too fiery you can go over the edge, so you have to be careful with that. Obviously you have to show good sportsmanship but if there’s a little bit of heat between me and my opponent, it fuels me up.”
Brown kept his composure and ended up walking away victorious in a 6-2, 6-4 win, extending the Texas lead to 6-1.
With this win, the Longhorns improved to 11–2, including a 9–0 record at home. Texas is set to face Florida on March 2 in Gainesville.
