Athens, Ga. \u2013 No. 1 Texas Men’s Tennis advanced to the NCAA Tournament Final Four with a 4-1 win over 10 seed No. 11 Baylor on Thursday at the Dan Magill Tennis Complex in Athens, Ga. It marks the fourth-straight year the Longhorns have reached at least the semifinals and the sixth time in the last seven. Texas will next face 6 seed No. 2 TCU on Saturday, May 16, at a 10 a.m. ET\/9 a.m. CT.<\/p>\n
Baylor claimed the doubles point in an extended set of matches that the Bears emerged from with a 6-3 win at No. 1 and a 7-5 win at No. 3. Texas was sitting on a match point in a tiebreaker at No. 2, 6-6 (8-7), when play stopped. However, the Longhorns followed with singles victories by freshman No. 41 Kalin Ivanovski<\/a> at No. 2, sophomore No. 35 Sebastian Eriksson<\/a> at No. 3, sophomore No. 89 Oliver Ojakaar<\/a> at No. 4, and freshman Lucas Marionneau<\/a> at No. 6 with the clinch.<\/p>\n “I’m really proud of our team,” head coach Bruce Berque<\/a> said. “It was a pretty typical match in some ways, I was just thinking about it. We had a couple guys play great, we had a couple guys play not so great, and we had a couple guys do some of both. That’s the most common thing you see in a tennis match. It’s not about always playing our best tennis, but it’s about being composed, about being coachable, about staying connected with each other, showing great enthusiasm and playing hard. I was proud of our team for being able to do that against a very good team today.”<\/p>\n Following doubles, Texas earned three singles wins with efficient straight-sets efforts that all ended close to each other in timing. Ivanovski started it with a 6-3, 6-1 victory over No. 51 Zsombor Velcz at No. 2. Then seconds later on the next court over, Eriksson finished his 6-2, 6-2 win over No. 53 Connor Van Schalkwyk at No. 3. A few minutes after that, Ojakaar gave the Longhorns a 3-1 overall lead with his 6-3, 6-3 victory over Alexandru Chirita at No. 4.<\/p>\n That left three matches on the court, two of which were in third sets, and all of which had a chance to be the clincher. However, it was Marionneau who got home first with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 over Calvin Baierl at No. 6.<\/p>\n In the other two matches, freshman No. 102 Abel Forger<\/a> was three points away from a possible win, leading, 6-2, 3-6, 5-4, against Luc Koenig at No. 5. Meanwhile, senior No. 3 Sebastian Gorzny<\/a> was up a set and on serve trailing, 5-6, in the second set, having just had a deuce-point break chance against No. 10 Devin Badenhorst on the point before play halted.<\/p>\n Earlier in doubles, Ivanovski and Forger fell by a break to No. 69 Chirita and Velcz, 6-3, at No. 1, but the other two matches were extended and almost had a simultaneous finish. The No. 46 pair of Ojakaar and Eriksson came up just short against Baierl and Badenhorst, 7-5, at No. 3 to clinch just moments before the Longhorns could get an opportunity on match point at No. 2. There, the No. 21 duo of Gorzny and Marionneau led a tiebreaker, 6-6 (8-7), against No. 89 Koenig and Van Schalkwyk.<\/p>\n #2 Texas 4, #10 Baylor 1<\/p>\n Singles \u2013 Order of Finish (2,3,4,6) Doubles \u2013 Order of Finish (1,3) Individual Match Key Moments Doubles No. 1: Chirita\/Velcz (BU) def. Ivanovski\/Forger (TEX) 6-3 Doubles No. 3: Baierl\/Badenhorst (BU) def. Ojakaar\/Eriksson (TEX) 7-5 Doubles No. 2: Gorzny\/Marionneau (TEX) vs. Koenig\/Van Schalkwyk (BU) 6-6 (8-7), unf Singles No. 2: Ivanovski (TEX) def. Velcz (BU) 6-3, 6-1 Singles No. 3: Eriksson (TEX) def. Van Schalkwyk (BU) 6-2, 6-2 Singles No. 4: Ojakaar (TEX) def. Chirita (BU) 6-3, 6-3 Singles No. 6: Marionneau (TEX) def. Baierl (BU) 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 Singles No. 1: Gorzny (TEX) vs. Badenhorst (BU) 7-6 (7), 5-6, unf. Singles No. 5: Forger (TEX) vs. Koenig (BU) 6-2, 3-6, 5-4, unf.
\n1. #3 Sebastian Gorzny<\/a> (TEX) vs. #10 Devin Badenhorst (BU) 7-6 (7), 5-6, unf.
\n2. #41 Kalin Ivanovski<\/a> (TEX) def. #51 Zsombor Velcz (BU) 6-3, 6-1
\n3. #35 Sebastian Eriksson<\/a> (TEX) def. #53 Connor Van Schalkwyk (BU) 6-2, 6-2
\n4. #89 Oliver Ojakaar<\/a> (TEX) def. Alexandru Chirita (BU) 6-3, 6-3
\n5. #102 Abel Forger<\/a> (TEX) vs. Luc Koenig (BU) 6-2, 3-6, 5-4, unf.
\n6. Lucas Marionneau<\/a> (TEX) def. Calvin Baierl (BU) 3-6, 6-2, 6-2<\/p>\n
\n1. #69 Alexandru Chirita\/Zsombor Velcz (BU) def. Kalin Ivanovski<\/a>\/Abel Forger<\/a> (TEX) 6-3
\n2. #21 Sebastian Gorzny<\/a>\/Lucas Marionneau<\/a> (TEX) vs. #89 Luc Koenig\/Connor Van Schalkwyk (BU) 6-6 (8-7), unf.
\n3. Calvin Baierl\/Devin Badenhorst (BU) def. #46 Oliver Ojakaar<\/a>\/Sebastian Eriksson<\/a> (TEX) 7-5<\/p>\n
\n(by order of finish)<\/p>\n
\nMatch:\u00a0Baylor broke first for a 3-1 lead, but Texas broke back and held at deuce for 3-3. The Bears later broke at deuce for a 5-3 lead before serving out the match.<\/p>\n
\nMatch:\u00a0Both teams had a deuce point hold with Baylor’s for 1-1 and Texas’ for a 5-4 lead, but the Bears picked up the only break of the match on a deuce point after the Longhorns had led, 40-15.<\/p>\n
\nMatch:\u00a0Baylor won consecutive deuce points to hold for a 2-1 lead and break for 3-1. Texas got the break back to pull within 5-4 before holding for 5-5 on the way to a tiebreaker.
\nTiebreaker: Texas grabbed a mini-break on the first point to start a 3-0 run. Baylor then won five of the next six points to lead, 5-4. The teams alternated points until the Longhorns won two-straight for an 8-7 lead and had a match point when play stopped.<\/p>\n
\nSet One:\u00a0Ivanovski bookended the set with breaks in the first and last games.
\nSet Two:\u00a0After both players held, Ivanovski held at deuce to start a 5-0 run that he capped with another deuce-point hold.<\/p>\n
\nSet One:\u00a0Van Schalkwyk broke to open the match, but Eriksson broke back to start a 3-0 run. After Van Schalkwyk broke again to trail 3-2, Eriksson closed on another 30 run capped by a deuce-point break.
\nSet Two:\u00a0Eriksson held at deuce to start the set, and after Van Schalkwyk also held, Eriksson produced another 3-0 run for 4-1. Van Schalkwyk held one more time, but Eriksson held and broke for the match.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
\nSet One:\u00a0After holding at deuce for 1-1, Chirita broke first for 2-1. However, Ojakaar broke back and later broke again for 5-3 before serving out the set.
\nSet Two:\u00a0Chirita held at deuce to start the set, but Ojakaar broke two games later for 2-1 and broke again for 6-3 and the match.<\/p>\n
\nSet One:\u00a0After Marionneau held at deuce for 3-3, Baierl ended the set on a 3-0 run.
\nSet Two:\u00a0Baierl opened the set with a break, but Marionneau broke back. After Baierl held at deuce for 2-2, Marionneau closed on a 4-0 run winning the last two games at deuce.
\nSet Thee:\u00a0The first five games were on serve despite Baierl holding at deuce in the second game. Marionneau once again finished on a 4-0 run with the last two games at deuce.<\/p>\n
\nSet One:\u00a0Badenhorst broke first for 2-1 and consolidated at deuce for 3-1, however Gorzny answered with a 3-0 run, including a deuce-point break that made it 3-3. The set then stayed on serve to a tiebreaker.
\nSet One Tiebreaker:\u00a0Gorzny started up, 2-1, then trailed, 4-2, but regained the lead, 5-4. The players then alternated points until Gorzny claimed the last two for a 9-7 win.
\nSet Two:\u00a0Badenhorst broke for a 3-1 lead, but Gorzny broke back. The set was then on serve to a 6-5 lead for Badenhorst when play stopped, although Gorzny fended off a deuce-point break chance for Badenhorst to make it 4-4, while Bandehorst did the same for a 6-5 lead before play stopped.<\/p>\n
\nSet One:\u00a0Forger jumped out to a 4-0 lead with two deuce-point breaks for 1-0 and 3-0, and a deuce-point hold for 4-0. The last four games were then held.
\nSet Two:\u00a0Koenig collected the only break, doing so on a deuce point for a 4-2 lead.\u00a0
\nSet Three:\u00a0Koenig broke in the first game, but Forger got it back for 3-3. Forger later led, 5-4, when play halted.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Athens, Ga. \u2013 No. 1 Texas Men’s Tennis advanced to the NCAA Tournament Final Four with a 4-1…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":643633,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[72],"tags":[99,428],"class_list":["post-643632","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-tennis","tag-sports","tag-tennis"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643632","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=643632"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/643632\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/643633"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=643632"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=643632"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=643632"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}