Texas men’s tennis indoor season ends at ITA National Team Indoor Championship semifinal

With the score tied at 3—3 over three hours after the first serve, Texas junior Jonah Braswell was the only person standing between the Longhorns and Intercollegiate Tennis Association Indoor National Team Indoor Championship finals.

After three sets and one tiebreaker, Braswell fell to No. 2 Wake Forest’s graduate Ioannis Xilas, ending Texas’ campaign in the tournament, but leaving behind a fiery run for its second semi-finals appearance in four years.

No. 3 Texas men’s tennis hit the ground running in Dallas with wins over No. 14 Texas A&M and No. 5 Virginia.

Texas opened up the championship against Texas A&M by extending their winning streak to six matches against the Aggies with a 4—1 win.

Texas A&M got off to a hot start when unranked doubles partners junior Togan Tokac and freshman Theo Papamalamis took down No. 6 sophomore Lucas Brown and redshirt freshman Timo Legout 6—3. The Longhorns responded with back-to-back wins from senior Pierre-Yves Bailly with junior Sebastian Gorzny and freshman Sebastian Eriksson with Braswell securing the doubles point and giving the Longhorns a 1—0 lead entering the singles competition.

No. 121 Bailly remained hot from his doubles outing with an opening victory over Aggie senior Luke Casper, allowing him to win one game in their two sets. No. 11 Legout improved his strong singles record with a win against No. 60 Papamalamis, increasing the Longhorn lead to 3—0. Texas A&M erased the shutout with a victory from No. 71 senior JC Roddick over No. 10 Gorzny. Brown allowed the Longhorns to punch their ticket into the second round after defeating redshirt freshman Ritesh Patil. The Longhorns’ record against the Aggies is now 98–17–3.

In the second round of the championship, Texas sent No. 2 Virginia into the consolation bracket with a 4—1 victory, avenging its only loss of the season. This snapped the Cavaliers’ nine-match win streak against the Longhorns.

Virginia knocked Texas around in the doubles competition, sweeping the first two matches and securing the point awarded for doubles. This left Texas with no option but to win four of the six singles matches to make it to the semifinals.

The comeback began with a 6—4, 6—1 win from Eriksson over Virginia freshman Jangjun Kim. The momentum continued for Texas when freshman Oliver Ojakaar defeated junior Mans Dahlberg in three sets. No. 121 Bailly took care of business, beating graduate student James Hooper and extending his singles win streak to eight matches. With a 3—1 lead, No. 21 Braswell capped off the Longhorns’ comeback win with a victory over No. 103 freshman Keegan Rice in a third-set tiebreaker.

“It was really special,” Braswell said. “I gotta give so much credit to my team. … I’m so proud of this team. For me, it wasn’t my best tennis, but I think I competed really well.”

With the win against the Cavaliers, the Longhorns moved into the semi-final round but failed to make it out unscathed against Wake Forest. Legout and Brown entered the doubles match against graduate Stefan Dostanic and junior Dhakshineswar Suresh but failed to take the match falling 6—3 to the Demon Deacons.

Following two losses in the doubles, individual wins from Legout and Ojakaar to put the score at 3—2, Bailly tied the score at 3—3, leaving Braswell with the tiebreaker. Braswell’s two-time violations contributed to a two-set loss to Xilas, ending Texas’ indoor run.

“Texas is obviously a great team,” Wake Forest head coach Tony Bresky said. “They’re not gonna quit, so getting those first sets was nice.”

Texas men’s tennis will return for outdoor Southeastern Conference play on Saturday against Vanderbilt.