Defending Champion TCU Faces Surprise Finalist Texas for D-I Men's Team Indoor Championship; Saint Leo's Wins Division II Men's Team Indoor Title; Boitan Claims Second Straight $15K Title in Florida; Fritz Wins Delray Beach Open

The battle for men's Division I college tennis supremacy in Texas will be played Monday in Chicago after TCU and Texas won tough semifinal encounters Sunday over higher seeded opponents at the ITA Men's Division I Team Indoor Championships.

No. 3 seed TCU, the defending champions, got by No. 2 seed Kentucky 4-2 in the day's first match, with the Horned Frogs gaining a little breathing room by taking the doubles point with wins at lines 1 and 3, while the Wildcats had taken the match at line 2.

First sets in singles were split, meaning the Wildcats needed to win a match in three sets to advance, but they had plenty of chances, with four of the six singles matches going the distance. TCU took a 2-0 lead with Sebastian Gorzny winning the battle of freshmen with a 6-2, 6-3 victory over Jaden Weekes at line 5.

Kentucky got on the board twenty minutes later when Liam Draxl beat Jacob Fearnley 7-6(1), 6-4 at line 1.  Twenty-five minutes after that, TCU's Sander Jong earned a split with Taha Baadi at line 4, which gave the Horned Frogs a bit of insurance, with Luc Fomba closing out Alafia Ayeni of Kentucky 6-4, 4-6, 6-4 at line 2 to give the Horned Frogs a 3-1 lead. They needed it, with Lapadat up big in the third set over TCU newcomer Jack Pinnington Jones, and Lapadat closed out a 6-2, 2-6, 6-2 win to pull Kentucky to within a point.

With Jong and Baadi early in the third, all eyes turned to line 6, where TCU's Tomas Jirousek and Kentucky's Charleile Cosnet were exchanging breaks early in the third set. Jirousek, a junior who had not played singles or doubles in the first two TCU matches this weekend, broke freshman Cosnet serving at 3-4 and held with surprisingly little drama to put the Horned Frogs back in the final.

TCU[3] 4, Kentucky[2] 2

Doubles
1. Jake Fearnley and Luc Fomba(TCU) d. Alafia Ayeni and Taha Baadi(UK) 6-4
2. Joshua Lapadat and JJ Mercer(UK) d. Sander Jong and Jack Pinnington Jones(TCU) 6-2
3. Sebastian Gorzny and Pedro Vives(TCU) d. Liam Draxl and Jaden Weekes(UK) 6-3

Order of finish: 2, 3, 1

Singles
1. Liam Draxl(UK) d. Jake Fearnley(TCU) 7-6(1), 6-4
2. Luc Fomba(TCU) d. Alafia Ayeni(UK) 6-4, 4-6, 6-4
3. Joshua Lapadat(UK) d. Jack Pinnington Jones(TCU) 6-2, 2-6, 6-2

4. Sander Jong(TCU) v Taha Baadi(UK) 6-7(3), 7-6(4), 1-1, unfinished
5. Sebastian Gorzny(TCU) d. Jaden Weekes(UK) 6-2, 6-3
6. Tomas Jirousek(TCU) d. Charleile Cosnet(UK) 6-4, 3-6, 6-3

Order of finish: 5, 1, 2, 3, 6

In the second semifinal between No. 4 Michigan and No. 8 Texas, it was the Longhorns who got the doubles point, which proved to be the difference in their 4-3 victory over the Wolverines.

After their stunning 4-3 win over top seed Ohio State late last night, there were questions about how the Longhorns would recover, both mentally and physically, after getting significantly less rest than Michigan, who had breezed past Virginia 4-0 earlier in the day Saturday. 

Texas answered those questions by staying close in the doubles, taking line 2 after Michigan had won at line 1, then surviving a deciding match point on line 3 at 4-5, and going on to win the tiebreaker.

After that 55-minute doubles point, Texas might have shown their fatigue a bit in the opening games of the singles, with Michigan getting breaks on all courts, but with no-ad scoring, those breaks can disappear in a hurry and they did.

Michigan ultimately did take four first sets, which they needed to do, and quickly tied the score with Ondrej Styler dominating Micah Braswell 6-2, 6-1 at line 3. Michigan's Will Cooksey, who was having all kinds of problems with his second serve late in the doubles at line 3 and in the late stage of the first set in singles, collected himself and put Michigan up 2-1 with 7-6(3), 6-1 win over Nevin Arimilli at line 6. Patrick Maloney made it 3-1 Michigan with a 7-5, 6-3 win at line 2 over Pierre-Yves Bailly, who had clinched the win over Ohio State, but Texas closed out wins at line 5, with Cleeve Harper beating Jacob Bickersteth 6-3, 6-4, and line 4, with Siem Woldeab defeating Gavin Young 7-5, 6-4.

The only match to go three sets was at line 1, with ITA No. 1 Eliot Spizzirri of Texas fighting back from a lopsided 6-1 first set loss to Andrew Fenty to take the second set 7-5. Fenty had broken Spizzirri serving for the set at 5-4, but couldn't hold and Spizzirri took his second chance to earn a third.

With the team score 3-3, Spizzirri and Fenty were on serve 1-2 to open the third. The video and audio technical difficulties that ensued over the next several games made it difficult to follow, but Spizzirri got a break, and then a second to take a 5-2 lead. He again had difficulty closing, dropping that game, but he broke Fenty on a deciding point to send the Longhorns to the first Team Indoor final in program history.

Texas[8] 4, Michigan[4] 3

Doubles

1. Andrew Fenty and Gavin Young(MICH) d. Cleeve Harper and Eliot Spizzirri(TEX) 6-2

2. Pierre-Yves Bailly and Siem Woldeab(TEX) d. Patrick Maloney and Ondrej Styler(MICH) 6-3

3. Chih Chi Huang and Micah Braswell(TEX) d. Will Cooksey and Nino Ehrenschneider(MICH) 7-6(4) 

Order of finish: 1, 2, 3

Singles

1. Eliot Spizzirri(TEX) d. Andrew Fenty(MICH) 1-6, 7-5, 6-3

2. Patrick Maloney(MICH) d. Pierre-Yves Bailly(TEX) 7-5, 6-3

3. Ondrej Styler(MICH) d. Micah Braswell(TEX) 6-2, 6-1

4. Siem Woldeab(TEX) d. Gavin Young(MICH) 7-5, 6-4

5. Cleeve Harper(TEX) d. Jacob Bickersteth(MICH) 6-3, 6-4 

6. Will Cooksey(MICH) d. Nevin Arimilli(TEX) 7-6(3), 6-1

Order of finish: 3, 6, 2, 5, 4, 1

Cracked Racquets will have live CrossCourt coverage of the final beginning at noon central time at their YouTube Channel.

The Division II Men's Team Indoor final was today in Indianapolis, with No. 3 seed Saint Leo's earning its first indoor title by beating No. 8 seed and host University of Indianapolis 4-1 in the championship match. UIndy had defeated top seed and defending champion Barry in the first round. This is the fourth year for the Division II event.

Former Baylor All-American Adrian Boitan kept his winning streak alive, with the unseeded 23-year-old from Romania defeating No. 3 seed Christian Langmo(Miami) 6-3, 6-4 in the final of the $15,000 USTA Pro Circuit tournament in Weston Florida. Boitan, who won last week's $15,000 tournament in Palm Coast Florida, received a special exemption into the main draw this week, and beat three seeds--No. 8, No. 1 and No. 3--while dropping just one set, to Aidan Kim, in the semifinals. Boitan has now won 10 straight matches and could receive another special exempt into the $15K in Naples, where he was in the qualifying acceptances but is not in the qualifying draw.

Taylor Fritz won his fifth ATP title today at the Delray Beach Open, beating Miomir Kecmanovic of Serbia 6-0, 5-7, 6-2 in the championship match. For more on his title, his fourth in the past 12 months, see this article from the ATP.  Jean-Julien Rojer(UCLA) of the Netherlands and Marcelo Arevalo(Tulsa) of El Salvador won the doubles title, with the top seeds and defending champions defeating unseeded Rinky Hijikata(North Carolina) of Australia and Reese Stalder(TCU) 6-3, 6-4 in today's final.

At the ATP 500 in Rotterdam, Austin Krajicek(Texas A&M) and Ivan Dodig of Croatia took the doubles title, saving a match point in deciding tiebreaker of their 7-6(5), 2-6, 12-10 victory over unseeded Matthew Ebden of Australia and Rohan Bopanna of India. Dodig and Krajicek, the 2011 NCAA doubles champion, have now won four ATP Tour titles since teaming up last spring and reached the final at Roland Garros last summer. Krajicek is at a career-high ranking of 9, with Dodig No. 10 in the ATP rankings.