After finishing third in the nation in 2023, men’s tennis head coach Bruce Berque will look to seal the deal and capture the program’s second national title, the first of which came just a few years ago in 2019 when Berque was the interim head coach.
Both the direction and identity of the program will feel different this year as superstar Eliot Spizzirri, widely regarded as one of the best men’s collegiate tennis players of all time, has graduated and is playing professionally. Spizzirri, the ITA National Player of the Year in 2023 and 2024, was one of four players ever to finish as the top-ranked singles player twice.
Yet, with the coaching and recruiting skills of Berque and assistant coaches Benjamin Becker and Nick Beaty, the team will look to reload rather than rebuild with the loss of a player of Spizziri’s caliber.
Looking to take up the mantle of a team that made it to the final four in the 2023 NCAA Men’s Tennis Championship will be senior Pierre-Yves Bailly and junior Jonah Braswell. As the most seasoned veterans of the team, these two enter the season as definite leaders, both having high individual and collective expectations that rest on their shoulders.
Fleshing out the rest of the roster will be junior TCU transfer Sebastian Gorzny, sophomore Lucas Brown and a slew of redshirt freshmen, including Evan Burnett, Timo Legout, Rahul Sachdev and Calvin Wang.
Fans that are not yet familiar with Gorzny will be soon. An Austin native, Gorzny was recognized as the Big 12 Freshman of the Year in 2023 for the Horned Frogs and has an overall record of 37–10 in singles matches and 27–6 in dual matches.
Berque was a bit tongue-and-cheek, but nonetheless thrilled about Gorzny joining the roster.
“We know from experience that he is an exceptional player, and he has won at every level of his tennis career. Getting to know him better during the last week, we have also learned that he is very passionate about his tennis and his long-term goals in the sport,” he said in an interview with Texas Athletics.
The fact that half of the roster is composed of redshirt freshmen will be something to keep an eye on. However, while they may be younger than many of the opponents they will face this year, lack of experience is hardly an issue for this group. Each of them were very highly rated prospects before enrolling with the team.
Wang, Sachdev and Burnett all recently gained valuable tournament experience from the Waco Fall Playoff Classic this past weekend despite losing their matches in the first round of the tournament. The team will look to rest up before traveling to Tulsa, Oklahoma to compete in the ITA All-American Championships, starting on Saturday and concluding on Sept. 29.
