The Texas men’s tennis team took the court for the first time in several months after traveling to Frisco, Texas this weekend for the Lakes Tennis Invite tournament.
The Longhorns collected 15 singles victories and three doubles victories over Oklahoma and Texas Tech in the three-day round robin tournament, playing the two Big 12 rivals for the first time since the 2018-19 season. Though not a formal tournament, the Longhorns outplayed Texas Tech who garnered six singles wins and five doubles wins. Oklahoma earned three singles wins and three doubles wins.
At the end of the tournament, Texas freshman Micah Braswell tallied 24 points from singles and eight points from doubles for a total of 32 points, which earned him the Lake Tennis Invite overall title.
After the 2019-2020 season was canceled in March, two main contributors to the Longhorns’ past success, Yuya Ito and Christian Sigsgaard, graduated. Along with Braswell, Texas introduced two more new faces this weekend: freshman Leighton Allen and senior graduate transfer Payton Holden.
The tournament kicked off on Friday when Texas sophomores Eliot Spizzirri and Jacob Bullard, and junior Chih Chi Huang took three singles wins over Oklahoma. Braswell took a singles win over his Texas Tech opponent. In doubles, Braswell and sophomore Eshan Talluri earned a win over Oklahoma.
Texas earned five singles wins Saturday. Spizzirri and sophomore Cleeve Harper won over their Texas Tech opponents, and Braswell, Huang and sophomore Evin McDonald took singles wins over Oklahoma.
The Longhorns took two doubles victories when Braswell and Harper won their match over Oklahoma and Huang and Holden defeated Texas Tech.
To close out the tournament on Sunday, Holden and McDonald took singles wins over Oklahoma, while Braswell took a singles win over Texas Tech, earning the Longhorns three singles victories in the first round.
In round two of singles, Texas earned three victories. Braswell and McDonald took two singles wins over Texas Tech, while Allen earned a singles victory over Oklahoma.
The Longhorns will take the courts for another three-day tournament at the ITA Texas Regional Championship in Waco, Texas Oct. 23-25.
