Chicago – No. 7 Texas Men's Tennis finished as runner-up at the ITA National Team Indoor Championships after falling to No. 3 TCU, 4-0, at the XS Tennis Village in Chicago on Monday.
It was the program's first appearance in the title match of the tournament after an impressive run that featured five victories over ranked opponents with three of those coming against the top-10, including No. 22 Cal, No. 14 Arizona, No. 9 Wake Forest, No. 1 Ohio State and No. 4 Michigan.
The teams opened with a tightly-contested doubles point that only saw four breaks in serve across the three matches as TCU won at Nos. 2 and 1. The match at No. 2 between the pair of junior Siem Woldeab and sophomore Pierre-Yves Bailly against Jack Pinnington and Sander Jong finished first and had only one break, which came on a deuce point. That provided TCU a 3-2 lead on the way to a 6-4 win. There was only one other deuce point in the contest that was a hold for Texas at 2-1.
At No. 1, the No. 4 duo of juniors Cleeve Harper and Eliot Spizzirri were downed by Jake Fearnley and Luc Fomba, 7-5, in a match that also had only one break, which went to TCU. That came all the way at 6-5 for the Horned Frogs before they served out the match on a deuce point.
In the remaining match at No. 3, junior Micah Braswell and senior Chih Chi Huang trailed Pedro Vives and Sebastian Gorzny, 6-5, when play stopped, but the match was on serve after each team had picked up one break. The one for the Horned Frogs gave them a 3-1 lead, while the one for the Longhorns pulled them back to within 4-3. The match had three deuce points that all resulted in holds for Texas.
In singles, the first match to finish was at No. 3 where No. 65 Braswell was defeated by Pinnington, 6-4, 6-0. Pinnington grabbed the first beak of the match for a 2-1 lead that he extended to 3-1 on a deuce-point hold. Braswell then got the break back on a deuce point to even it at 3-3 and retook the lead on serve, but from there, Pinnington closed on a 9-0 run for the win.
The next match to finish was at No. 4 as No. 25 Woldeab fell to Sander Jong, 6-2, 6-3. After Woldeab held his opening serve, Jong went on a 5-0 run with deuce-point wins in the last two of those. Woldeab got one game back on a deuce-point hold before Jong also held for the set at 6-2. Woldeab's next service game again resulted in a deuce-point hold to begin the second set, and the match stayed on serve until Jong broke on a deuce point for a 3-2 lead. That was the first of four-straight deuce games with three of them going to Jong for a 5-3 advantage before he broke again for the 6-3 win.
The Horned Frogs then clinched the match at No. 5 where No. 112 Harper was downed by No. 124 Gorzny, 6-4, 6-1. Harper held both of his first two service games on deuce points before breaking for 3-1 and consolidating that to 4-1 on his next serve. However, Gorzny won seven-straight games and 11 of the final 12 to capture the overall match for TCU.
In the remaining matches, No. 1 Spizzirri split sets with No. 17 Fearnley at No. 1 with Fearnley taking the first, 6-1, and Spizzirri winning the second in a tiebreaker, 7-6 (5) before play halted. In the second set, Spizzirri broke first for a 3-2 lead that he pushed to 4-2 on serve, but Fearnley got the break back on a deuce point to even it at 4-4 before taking the lead on serve in the next game. The remaining games stayed on serve, including a deuce-point hold for Spizzirri that saved a match point and sent the set to a tiebreaker. In the breaker, Spizzirri secured the first mini-break at 5-3, and after Fearnley got it back at 5-5, Spizzirri broke again for 6-5 and served out for the win at 7-5.
At No. 2, No. 33 Bailly was trailing No. 49 Fomba, 6-4, 3-4, when the match concluded. In the first set, Bailly grabbed a deuce-point break in the second game to get out to a 3-0 lead. He had a chance for another on Fomba's next serve, but Fomba was able to hold and start a 3-0 run to even it. Bailly regained the lead on serve in the following game, but Fomba finished the set on a 3-0 run that was capped by a deuce-point hold for 6-4. In the second, Bailly collected consecutive deuce points for the first break of the set at 3-1 and a hold for 4-1. Fomba then held, and the match ended with Fomba breaking on a deuce point to get within one at 4-3.
In the last match, junior Evin McDonald was inserted into the lineup at No. 6 against Tomas Jirousek and was leading, 7-6 (5), 1-1, at the conclusion of play. After holding serve on a deuce point at 2-1, McDonald gained the first break at 3-1 and then consolidated it on serve for a 4-1 lead. Jirousek got the break back to cut it to 4-3 and held to even it on a deuce point in the next game. The rest of the set stayed on serve from there despite deuce points in the final two games before the tiebreaker. In the breaker, the first two points were mini-breaks starting with Jirousek. After McDonald picked up a second to go up 4-2, the players traded 3-0 runs leading to McDonald's win at 7-5. They then both held serve to start the second set.
The Longhorns (10-2) now will have a week off before hosting No. 25 Texas A&M on Sunday, Feb. 25, at 3 p.m. CT at the Texas Tennis Center.
#3 TCU 4, #7 Texas 0
Singles – Order of Finish (3,4,5)
1. #17 Jake Fearnley (TCU) vs. #1 Eliot Spizzirri (UT) 6-1, 6-7 (5), unf.
2. #49 Luc Fomba (TCU) vs. #33 Pierre-Yves Bailly (UT) 6-4, 3-4, unf.
3. Jack Pinnington (TCU) def. #65 Micah Braswell (UT) 6-4, 6-0
4. Sander Jong (TCU) def. #25 Siem Woldeab (UT) 6-2, 6-3
5. #124 Sebastian Gorzny (TCU) def. #112 Cleeve Harper (UT) 6-4, 6-1
6. Tomas Jirousek (TCU) vs. Evin McDonald (UT) 6-7 (5), 1-1, unf.
Doubles – Order of Finish (2,1)
1. Jake Fearnley/Luc Fomba (TCU) def. #4 Cleeve Harper/Eliot Spizzirri (UT) 7-5
2. Jack Pinnington/Sander Jong (TCU) def. Siem Woldeab/Pierre-Yves Bailly (UT) 6-4
3. Pedro Vives/Sebastian Gorzny (TCU) vs. Micah Braswell/Chih Chi Huang (UT) 6-5, unf.
