Remarkable Finish Propels Texas Past Virginia and into ITA D-I Men's Team Indoor Semifinals; Wake Forest Survives Another Test to Stay Undefeated; TCU and Stanford Join Texas and Wake Forest in Dallas for Monday's Semifinals
©Colette Lewis 2025--
Dallas Texas--
The last time Texas and Virginia met, less than two weeks ago in Charlottesville, Texas took the doubles point and five first sets in singles, before the Cavaliers mounted an improbable comeback, with freshman Rafael Jodar saving three team match points en route before he and Stiles Brockett at line 6 put up the third and fourth point for Virginia.
Texas's 4-1 win today over Virginia in the quarterfinals of the ITA Men's Team Indoor Championships was, if possible in a neutral setting, even more exciting, and certainly more rare, with the final three singles matches in third-set tiebreakers when Texas's Jonah Braswell secured a 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5) victory over Keegan Rice at line 4.
In all my years of covering college tennis, I've never seen three matches in lockstep like the contests at line 1, between Jodar and Timo Legout, at line 2, between Sebastian Gorzny and Virginia's Dylan Dietrich and the Braswell and Rice battle. No one, including coaches and officials who have decades of experience with thousands of collegiate matches, could recall anything remotely similar, and the hundreds of fans at the Styslinger/Altec Tennis Complex were treated to a rare spectacle that was unimaginable from the 4-1 score.
Virginia started out well in doubles, taking a 1-0 lead with 6-3 victories at lines 1 and 2, positions that are usually the strength of the Longhorns doubles point. That the Cavaliers could not mange to take another point, after getting four singles points in Charlottesville, demonstrated just what a struggle every game was in every match.
Texas pulled even in the only straight-sets singles match, with freshman Sebastian Eriksson beating fellow freshman Jungjin Kim 6-4, 6-1 at line 6. Eriksson, who lost to Kim 6-3, 6-3 in that previous match, had not been feeling well that day, so Texas head coach Bruce Berque had no doubts that he could reverse that loss today.
"He didn't lose because it was a bad matchup," Berque said of Eriksson's loss in Charlottesville, which came at line 5. "Sometimes it might be, but we just thought it was an execution thing, and sometimes there might be extra motivation from losing. But we were committed to having all of them play (Eriksson, Oliver Ojakaar and Lucas Brown) and whoever did not play yesterday was going to play today."
Each team won three first sets, but in a 30-minute stretch the five remaining singles matches all went to a third set. Shortly after Gorzny and Dietrich split at line 2, Ojakaar put Texas up 2-1 with a 6-2, 3-6, 6-1 win at line 5.
Texas looked in good shape when Pierre-Yves Bailly had taken a 4-0 third set lead over James Hopper at line 3, but Hopper got both breaks back and was serving at 3-4 before dropping a deciding point. Bailly was up 40-15 serving for the match at 5-3 but Hopper forced a deciding point, which Bailly won with a brave volley that Hopper had to call out in order to challenge. The Play Replay electronic line calling system confirmed the ball was good, giving Texas their third point with a 4-6, 6-1, 6-3 victory.
The remaining three matches were at 4-4, at line 1 and 2 and 5-4 at line 4, then 5-4, 5-4 and 5-5. Dietrich broke Gorzny to serve for the match at 6-5, but lost his serve, while Jodar held on a deciding point to go up 6-5 and was up 0-30 with Legout serving, but Jodar appeared to suffer a cramp during that game and Legout held.
Braswell was serving from behind throughout the third set, but said he managed to cope with that pressure.
"It was tough," said the junior from Florida, who lost the deciding match in the NCAA final against TCU last May. "It was definitely a lot of pressure. Props to Keegan Rice, a freshman, a Canadian, I think he played really, really well and I think he likes these indoor courts. I felt the pressure, he was coming after me really good but I was able to stay calm, use my experience a little bit, use that to my advantage. I wasn't playing my best tennis today, but Bruce was able to keep me calm, give me some good advice and it was a team win."
Braswell had a 4-1 lead in the tiebreaker, but gave won of those mini-breaks back, as the baseline rallies went to the server in the next four points. That made it 6-4 Braswell, who lost his second mini-break and first match point, but was able to coax a backhand error from Rice at 5-6 to take the victory and end the Longhorns' 10-match losing streak to the Cavaliers.
At the time the match was clinched, Dietrich led Gorzny 5-2 and Legout led Jodar 3-1 in their third set tiebreakers.
"They are a great team," Berque said. "I was really impressed with Virginia today. They came out great in doubles, and they were really determined. And the singles, as you saw, was a battle."
Quarterfinal:
Doubles:
1. Keegan Rice and James Hopper(UVA) d. Lucas Brown and Timo Legout(TEX) 6-3
2. Mans Dahlberg and Dylan Dietrich(UVA) d. Pierre-Yves Bailly and Sebastian Gorzny(TEX) 6-3
3. Jangjun Kim and Rafael Jodar(UVA) v Jonah Braswell and Oliver Ojakaar(TEX) 4-3, unf.
Order of finish: 2, 1
Singles:
1. Rafael Jodar(UVA) v Timo Legout((TEX) 6-4, 4-6, 6-6(1-3) unf.
2. Dylan Dietrich(UVA) v Sebastian Gorzny(TEX) 6-7(6), 6-3, 6-6 (5-2) unf.
3. Pierre-Yves Bailly(TEX) d. James Hopper(UVA) 4-6, 6-1, 6-3
4. Jonah Braswell(TEX) d. Keegan Rice(UVA) 3-6, 6-3, 7-6(5)
5. Oliver Ojakaar(TEX) d. Mans Dahlberg(UVA) 6-2, 3-6, 6-1
6. Sebastian Eriksson(TEX) d. Jangjun Kim(UVA) 6-4, 6-1
Order of finish: 6, 5, 3, 4
The fans barely had time to catch their collective breath before the second quarterfinal of the day, featuring top seed Wake Forest and No. 5 seed NC State, began moving toward an only slightly less tense conclusion, with Wake Forest again surviving a stern challenge, this time by a 4-2 score.
Wake took the doubles point, although NC State did take No. 1 doubles before the Demon Deacons closed out the point at lines 2 and 3.
The teams split first sets, so NC State needed to find a split, which they got, at line 5, with Wolfpack newcomer Nikolay Nedelchev forcing a third with Luciano Tacchi. They also earned a split on 2, with Martin Borisiouk taking the second from DK Suresh, while Wake Forest countered with a split on 6 with Luca Pow taking the second from Jules Leroux and Ioannis Xilas forcing a third from Fons Van Sambeek at line 4.
The matches that were decided in straight sets took two hours to finish, and they too were split, with NC State's Luca Stahaeli beating Charlie Robertson at line 3 6-3, 7-6(5) to make it 1-1 and a minute later, Wake's Stefan Dostanic defeating Braden Shick 7-6(4), 7-6(3) to immediately put the Deacons back in front.
Tacchi made it 3-1 with a 6-3, 3-6, 6-3 win over Nedelchev, after dropping the first two games of the third set, but Borisiouk had taken a big lead over Suresh in their third set. Von Sambeek was up a break in the third for NC State, but the Wolfpack needed to win the remaining three matches, which was certainly possible, given how close they were.
Borisiouk needed nine match points, having 15-40 leads in the final three games of the third set, before finally closing out Suresh 3-6, 6-4, 6-3 to make it 3-2. Pow had a 5-2 lead and had served for the match before Borisiouk could close out Suresh, but Leroux broke at love, which is not how Pow had envisioned that final game.
"I came out at 5-2 and told coach, I've got this, and got broke to love" said the sophomore from England. "And then we sat down at 5-4 and I said again, I've got this. Because I kind of like having the pressure on me. I don't shy away from that. I had to serve for it in doubles with Tacchi and that went great. But it was key getting that first point after losing four points in the previous game on my serve. But I like the pressure and I was ready for it."
Up 30-0, Pow was fortunate that Leroux missed a routine overhead, but Leroux saved the first match point by making another overhead for 40-15. But Pow's good fortune continued with a Leroux's shot clipping the tape and sitting up for him, and he made no mistake on the finish.
Wake Forest head coach Tony Bresky acknowledged that luck has played a role in his team's best start to the season since their NCAA championship in 2018, but he also credited his team's physical condition and their experience with coming through so many close matches.
"Knock on wood, I think we're in incredible shape," Bresky said. We work really hard on our fitness, thinking that's one variable we can take out of the equation. And guys who have been in moment. Obviously, a guy like Luca, losing the first set and doesn't panic, or Tacchi, who's been in that moment now. I think he had a super valuable experience against Ohio State (a 4-3 win for Wake) where he was up in the third and kind of lost his focus and ended up losing. And sometimes a little luck doesn't hurt."
Quarterfinal:
Doubles:
1. Braden Shick and Fons Van Sambeek(NCST) d. Stefan Dostanic and DK Suresh(WAKE) 6-3
2. Luca Pow and Luciano Tacchi(WAKE) d. Jules Leroux and Luca Staeheli(NCST) 6-4
3. Ioannis Xilas and Franco Capalbo(WAKE) d. William Manning and Nikolay Nedelchev(NCST) 6-3
Order of finish: 1, 3, 2
Singles:
1. Stefan Dostanic(WAKE) d. Braden Shick(NCST) 7-6(4), 7-6(3)
2. Martin Borisiouk(NCST) d. DK Suresh(WAKE) 3-6, 6-4, 6-3
3. Luca Staeheli(NCST) d. Charlie Robertson(WAKE) 6-3, 7-6(5)
4. Fons Van Sambeek(NCST) v Ioannis Xilas(WAKE) 6-4, 4-6, 5-2, unf.
5. Luciano Tacchi(WAKE) d. Nikolay Nedelchev(NCST) 6-3, 3-6, 6-3
6. Luca Pow(WAKE) d. Jules Leroux(NCST) 3-6, 6-3, 6-4
Order of finish: 3, 1, 5, 2, 6
The last main draw matches at the Baylor University site were completed today, with No. 6 seed Stanford ending the Cinderella story of Central Florida by a 4-0 score, and top seed TCU, the 2022 and 2023 National Indoor Champions and 2024 finalist, now able to return closer to home, after claiming a hard-fought 4-2 win over No. 5 seed San Diego, who suffered its first loss of the season.
Quarterfinal:
Doubles:
1. Liam Branger and Paul Colin(UCF) d. Kyle Kang and Max Basing(STAN) 6-4
2. Samir Banerjee and Alexander Razeghi(STAN) d. Mehdi Benchakroun and Santiago Giamichelle(UCF) 7-5
3. Nicholas Godsick and Henry Von Der Schulenburg (STAN) d. Yassine Dlimi and Emilio Sanchez(UCF) 6-4
Order of finish: 3, 1, 2
Singles:
1. Samir Banerjee(STAN) v Yassine Dlimi(UCF) 6-1, 3-6, 2-1 unf.
2. Max Basing(STAN) d. Paul Colin(UCF) 6-0, 6-4
3. Mehdi Benchakroun(UCF) v Kyle Kang(STAN) 6-4, 3-3, unf.
4. Henry Von Der Schulenburg(STAN) d. Liam Branger(UCF) 6-3, 6-2
5. Hudson Rivera(STAN) v Santiago Giamichelle(UCF) 7-6(2), 3-2, unf.
6. Alexander Razeghi(STAN) d. Nicolas Oliveira(UCF) 6-1, 6-1
Order of finish: 6, 2, 4
Doubles:
1. Lui Maxted and Pedro Vives(TCU) d. Stian Klaassen and Oliver Tarvet(USD) 6-3
2. Jack Pinnington Jones and Cooper Woestendick(TCU) d. Savriyan Danilov and Iiro Vasa(USD) 6-3
3. Adrien Berrut and Nikhil Niranjan(USD) v Duncan Chan and Albert Pedrico(TCU) 5-5, unf.
Order of finish: 2, 1
Singles:
1. Oliver Tarvet(USD) d. Jack Pinnington Jones(TCU) 6-4, 6-2
2. Pedro Vives(TCU) d. Savriyan Danilov(USD) 6-1, 7-6(7)
3. Lui Maxted(TCU) d. Iiro Vasa(USD) 6-4, 3-6, 6-1
4. Stian Klaassen(USD) d. Duncan Chan(TCU) 6-4, 6-2
5. Adrien Berrut(USD) v Cooper Woestendick(TCU) 4-6, 6-4, 4-3, unf.
6. Albert Pedrico(TCU) d. Neo Niedner(USD) 3-6, 6-4, 6-2
Order of finish: 4, 1, 2, 3, 6
Sunday is an off-day for the semifinalists this year, with the four teams returning to action on Monday at 3:30 pm and 6:30 pm at SMU. The final is scheduled for 6:30 pm on Tuesday. (All times Central).
Cracked Racquets will continue their coverage then at their YouTube Channel.
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