Texas men's tennis has been one of the more consistent programs on the Forty Acres in recent memory. The Horns have reached the Round of 16 of the NCAA Tournament every year since 2014, notching four semifinal appearances, one national runner-up, and one National Championship (2019).
Seventh-year head coach Bruce Berque coached his team to a national runner-up finish last season but faced major turnover at the top of his lineup.
Court No. 1 Eliot Spizzirri, No. 2 Micah Braswell, No. 3 Gilles-Arnaud Bailly, No. 5 Siem Woldeab, and No. 6 Cleeve Harper all graduated or turned pro after historic tenures in Austin. However, Coach Berque was able to reload with guys waiting in the wings, talented freshmen, and an elite transfer.
Texas men's tennis poised for another strong season
Texas was atop the initial 2025 ITA team rankings on January 6 and has held firm in that spot after a 6-0 start to the season. The Longhorns have dropped just two points in those six matches while clinching a spot in the ITA Indoor National Championships with decisive 4-0 wins over Rice and Georgia Tech last weekend.
Spizzirri, who held down court No. 1 for the Horns over the last four seasons, departed to the professional tour where he currently holds a ranking of No. 190 in the world. Replacing the best player in college tennis over the last two seasons was not going to be easy, but redshirt freshman Timo Legout has stepped in brilliantly.
A native of Paris, France, Legout has two ITF titles and was rated as high as No. 12 in the ITF World Junior Rankings. Tennis fans knew Legout was a special talent, but you would be hard-pressed to find anyone who thought he would dominate this fast.
Legout has compiled a 16-1 singles record (with the lone loss a first-set retirement) and a 13-2 doubles mark as a Longhorn, finishing nationally ranked at No. 3 in singles and No. 7 in doubles with Lucas Brown. He has started the spring 3-0 in dual match singles contests this season, dropping no more than two games in six sets.
He has already notched nine wins over ranked opponents during his tenure at Texas, including two top-five wins and three in the top 20. Legout is currently the No. 3 ranked singles player in the country and has the game to be a force on the ATP Tour in the future.
Ranked ahead of Legout in the ITA singles rankings is TCU transfer Sebastian Gorzny. Gorzny, the No. 2 ranked player in the country, broke the hearts of Texas fans last May when he sealed the 2024 National Championship for the Horned Frogs.
The junior transferred to the Forty Acres this offseason and has put together a 12-1 singles record, including six straight wins in 2025. Legout and Gorzny form one of the best top-two duos in the nation, something Coach Berque had last year with Spizzirri and Braswell.
Behind Legout and Gorzny are returners Pierre-Yves Bailly and No. 20 Jonah Braswell. Both played a lot of tennis for the Longhorns last season, with Bailly serving as a mainstay in the lineup at No. 4 and Braswell playing in 12 of 31 dual matches. They are both undefeated in dual matches this season and provide Coach Berque with an incredibly formidable middle of the lineup.
Behind the top four, four other Longhorns have played singles in dual matches this season.
Freshman Oliver Ojakaar, with a career-high juniors ranking of No. 10, is 2-0 at No. 4 and 2-0 at No. 5. Redshirt sophomore Lucas Brown, rated No. 6 nationally by TennisRecruiting.net in the class of 2022 and currently No. 116 in the ITA singles rankings, is 1-0 at No. 3, 1-0 at No. 4, and 1-0 at No. 6.
Freshman Sebastian Eriksson, with a career-high juniors ranking of No. 21, is 4-0 at No. 5 and 1-0 at No. 6. Redshirt freshman Rahul Sachdev, rated as high as No. 13 nationally by TennisRecruiting.net in the class of 2024, is 1-1 at No. 6.
All of that is to say; this Texas team is loaded.
Coach Berque did a phenomenal job reloading in the offseason. He has recruited both the United States high school ranks and the world junior tour to perfection. In addition, he added one of the most impactful transfers in the country in Gorzny.
Despite the talent, Texas will rely on youth to propel them this season. Many dual lineups will feature three or four freshmen, something to keep an eye on as the strains of a college tennis season take their toll.
The Longhorns get their first test of the season on Sunday as they travel to take on the No. 5 ranked Virginia Cavaliers. They follow that up by welcoming No. 2 TCU to the Weller Tennis Center on Friday before heading to Dallas for the ITA National Team Indoor Championship.
Texas is slated to square off against 11 teams currently ranked in the top 25. It will once again be an eventful spring for Texas men's tennis.