Texas Men's Tennis '24 - '25

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Wow! Great hire!

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Becker played line #1 on Baylor’s championship team, but most notably beat Andre Agassi in his final professional tennis match. Hopefully he turns out to be a successful coach for us 

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Hi UT Tennis Fan,

I hope you are having a great summer!

Today, the ITA named Eliot Spizzirri National Player of the Year for the 2nd year in a row. Eliot is now only the 4th player in college tennis history to be named National Player of the Year on more than one occasion. Micah Braswell was named the National Senior Player of the Year. Two amazing honors for two great Longhorns! For all the details, please click on this press release. By the way, both Micah and Eliot are playing their first tournaments as full time professionals this week in Wichita. Also competing in Wichita are Cleeve Harper, Sebastian Gorzny, and Jonah Braswell, while Lucas Brown is competing in a UTR Pro Circuit event in South Carolina.

I am sad to announce that Ryan Lipman has decided to retire from college coaching and pursue other career opportunities in his hometown of Nashville. As much as Ryan enjoyed his time in Austin, this was just the right decision for his young family at this time, and we wish him nothing but the best. On the bright side, we were able to do a quick search and get our top choice to take his place. Benjamin Becker will join our coaching staff in July, and I have no doubt that he will make an enormous positive impact, just as Ryan Lipman and Brandon Wagner did. "Benni" was an NCAA singles and team champion at Baylor, and went on to a very successful career in professional tennis, reaching an ATP high ranking of #35. Please click on this press release for the full story.

Have a great weekend, and Hook'em! 

Sincerely,

Bruce Berque

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Hi UT Tennis Fan,

I am writing to share a very nice interview that was done with Eliot Spizzirri on KickServeRadio.com by Texas Tennis alumni Andy Zodin and Jonny Levine (interview with Eliot). The segment with Eliot starts at the 28:45 (28 minutes, 45 seconds) mark of the most recent interview at the top of the page.

Speaking of Eliot, he has had a great start to his full time pro career, winning the singles title at the Tulsa $25k event last week, and reaching the final the previous week at the Wichita $25k. Fittingly, his only loss was in the Wichita final to teammate Micah Braswell, who is also off to a sizzling start with the Wichita championship and a quarterfinal in Tulsa (losing to Eliot). Cleeve Harper also had two great weeks at these events, reaching both doubles finals (with Eliot in the first week). Many of our guys will be back in action next week, and I will be sure to keep you posted with any significant results. Have a great weekend, and Hook'em! 

Sincerely,

Bruce Berque

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Hi UT Tennis Fan,

Greetings from cold and wet Wimbledon! I am here recruiting at the junior event, and trying to stay warm and dry! I'm sure many of you saw former Longhorn Lulu Sun's big win today to reach the quarterfinals of the women's draw, all the way from qualifying! Pretty exciting! On the men's side, 2015 NCAA doubles champion and graduate Lloyd Glasspool is on to the 3rd round tomorrow, and I am looking forward to watching in person.

Back in North America, Eliot Spizzirri won another $25k pro event, this time in Canada. That's 2 pro tournament wins in 3 attempts this summer for Eliot. His only loss was in the final of the first tournament to Micah Braswell. Cleeve Harper also reached 3 doubles finals in a row (same 3 tournaments as Eliot). Micah Braswell won his first tournament (over Eliot in the final), lost to Eliot in the quarters in his 2nd tournament, and then dropped a 3 set match to an ATP #233 Yuta Shimizu in his first Challenger event. This coming week Eliot and Cleeve are stepping up to a $75k Challenger in Winnipeg, while Micah, Jonah Braswell, and hopefully Lucas Brown will play qualifying for the $25k event at SMU's Indoor facility starting tomorrow. I will continue to keep you posted as our players have noteworthy results.

Hook'em!

Sincerely,

Bruce Berque

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Spizzirri is playing right now on Tennis Channel just fyi. Some Rhode Island tourney.

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HI UT Tennis Fan,

I hope you had a great weekend!  Timo Legout, who redshirted last season, won his 3rd pro singles title last week ($15k in Bastia-Luciana, France).  He then hopped on a train to Rognac, France, and will be competing there in another $15k this week.  Also last week Eliot Spizzirri picked up his first ATP Tour win in Newport, and Evan Burnett picked up another ATP point in Rochester, NY.  This week Micah Braswell will play a Challenger in Chicago, Cleeve Harper will be playing the $25k in Champaign, and Gilles-Arnaud Bailly will be playing a $15k in Germany.  Our new assistant coach, Benjamin ("Benni") Becker has found his way to Austin, and has already been on the court with some of our guys.  Replacing Ryan Lipman was no small task, but I am happy to say that we got ourselves a great coach!  Until next time, Hook'em!

Sincerely,

Bruce Berque

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Gilles-Arnaud Bailly decided to go pro, so we have a very thin roster of 8 players for the fall. Berque needs to add a portal player or two before spring to get our roster to a healthy number for the team season.

Edited September 5 by perfectchaos007

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Supposedly he'll be back in the spring. 

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Hi UT Tennis Fan,

It has been a few weeks since I have been in touch, so I wanted to check in with a quick update. Play has already begun at the ITA All American Championships in Tulsa, OK. Lucas Brown was our only player in pre-qualifying, and he won all three of his matches in straight sets. He will begin play in qualifying today. In qualifying doubles, Pierre-Yves Bailly and Jonah Braswell will join Sebastian Gorzny and Lucas and will begin play this afternoon. Main draw play begins on Wednesday: Pierre, Jonah, and Sebastian will all be in the singles draw.

Congrats to Siem Woldeab and Cleeve Harper who each picked up pro doubles titles within the last two weeks. Siem won a $15 ITF event in Tunisia, and Cleeve continued his torrid start in pro doubles by winning his first Challenger title in Spain, and following that up with a run to the final last week. Eliot Spizzirri and Micah Braswell continue to battle on the Challenger circuit, and both have made good progress. Eliot is already in the top 300 in the world, and Micah has fallen just short in some key matches, but I fully expect that he will make a big jump soon.

On another note, as some of you may know we have recently begun to raise money for a fund we call "First Serve." First Serve is part of the Texas One Fund, but is specifically for Men's Tennis. Our goals for this fund are to encourage our team to have a greater presence in the community, help them (and their families) offset the gap between the costs they incur because of the gap between their scholarship and the actual costs of going to school at Texas (over $60k per year out of state), and to remain competitive in the new age of college athletics. Even our top players are not on full scholarships, and that is because we have only the NCAA maximum 4.5 scholarships to take care of our 10 players (10 is always the goal squad size). If you would like to learn more about First Serve please feel free to contact me directly either by e-mail or phone.

Thanks so much for your interest in, and support of our program. Have a great week! Hook'em!

Sincerely,

Bruce Berque

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Hi UT Tennis Fan,

It has been a few weeks since I was last in touch, so I am writing to catch you up on all things Texas Men's Tennis!

We had 4 players in Tulsa this past week at the ITA All American Championships. Lucas Brown won 4 qualifying rounds before falling to the eventual main draw semifinalist. Lucas played great tennis, and continues to show progress. I fully expect him to be a force this year! Jonah Braswell won 2 main draw singles matches to reach the round of 16, and picked a top 10 ranked win in the consolation to complete a very good week. The highlight of the week for us was Sebastian Gorzny's run all the way to the final, picking up several great wins along the way. Unfortunately, Sebastian was not able to take the court for the final, as he had a hand injury that he could not continue to play through. We expect that Seb will be back at it soon though.

In news of recent graduates on the pro tour, 2015 NCAA Doubles Champion Lloyd Glasspool is currently in the doubles semifinal of the Tokyo ATP $500k tour event; George Goldhoff reached the doubles final of the $100k Challenger in Portugal, Eliot Spizzirri reached the doubles semifinal at the $75,000 in Charleston, Christian Sigsgaard reached the semifinals of a $25k in Sweden, and Cleeve Harper reached yet another doubles final at a $25k in Spain, bringing his doubles ranking close to #250 after only 4 months on tour. Eliot has now cracked the op 300 in singles after the same 4 months, and I suspect Micah Braswell is not far behind. Eliot and Micah will be playing a Challenger in Tiburon, CA this coming week. Incoming January freshman Sebastian Eriksson has also been posting some impressive results at $15k and $25k events in Europe, including a doubles final and a singles final.

Next up for us is a trip up I-35 to Waco, where 4 of our players will participate in the Big 12 - SEC Challenge next weekend. Will keep you posted. Until next time, Hook'em!

Sincerely,

Bruce Berque

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Hi UT Tennis Fan,

I hope you are having a great week! Since my last e-mail, our team wrapped up another successful tournament in Waco, this time at ITA Texas Regionals. Timo Legout won the singles and doubles titles (doubles with Lucas Brown), and Jonah Braswell lost to Timo in the singles final. Lucas also reached the quarterfinals in singles. For the full story, please click on this press release. Next up for us is ITA Sectionals in two weeks. Sectionals will be the last qualifying event for the NCAA Individual tournament, which begins November 18 in Waco. We will be back in touch again soon with a preview. Until then, Hook'em!

Sincerely,

Bruce Berque

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So the NCAA finally split up the team and individual championships into different seasons. Instead of the individual (singles and doubles) championships being held immediately following the team championships in May, they now will hold the individual championships in the Fall. I'm not sure why it took so long for them to make this obviously needed change, but I'm glad they did. Later this month, Baylor will host the individual championships and in May they will host the Team championships. 

Edited November 8 by perfectchaos007

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https://www.ncaa.com/news/tennis-men/article/2024-11-11/2024-25-ncaa-division-i-mens-tennis-singles-and-doubles-championships-selections

 

Men's singles, doubles selections. Seb with the #1 overall seed!

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Hi UT Tennis Fan,

This last week before Thanksgiving will be a busy one for our team.  Half of our squad will head up to Waco for the NCAA Individual Singles and Doubles Championships.  Sebastian Gorzny (#1 seed), Timo Legout (seeded 9-16), and Jonah Braswell (also seeded 9-16) will play singles beginning on Tuesday, and Lucas Brown will pair with Timo in doubles beginning Wednesday.  A full preview of the event, complete with links draws, schedules, and live scoring/video will be available on our website beginning Monday afternoon.

Back in Austin, the Texas Tennis Center will once again play host to the $25k Drop Shot Series Men's Pro Tennis Open.  Pierre-Yves Bailly (defending champion), Evan Burnett, Rahul Sachdev, and Calvin Wang will all play singles main draw beginning on Tuesday or Wednesday, while Rahul and Calvin will pair up for doubles.  Pierre will also play doubles.  Recent graduate Cleeve Harper will play both singles and doubles.  For updated draws and schedules throughout the week, please click on this ITF tennis tournament page.

Speaking of Cleeve, he has been on an absolute tear on the doubles Challenger Circuit.  He reached another final last week (Drummondville, Canada), and is now up to #175 in the ATP doubles ranking.  And at the $75k Challenger in Champaign, Micah Braswell qualified and reached the quarters before falling to the eventual champion.  Micah is now approaching #450 in the ATP singles rankings after his first 6 months on tour.  I have no doubt that he will take another big jump at the start of 2025.  Speaking of big jumps, Eliot Spizzirri continued is climb up the rankings, reaching #220 in the world after reaching the semifinals in Champaign.  He has all but wrapped up a spot in the Australian Open Qualifying draw at the start of 2025.

I'll be in touch again next week with a recap of the NCAA Individual Tournament, and hopefully with some positive news on the recruiting front!  Until then, Hook'em! 

Sincerely,

Bruce Berque

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Timo is legit! Been out in Waco to watch the NCAAs and he's a joy to watch. Great all around game! ....if only he was eligible to play this past Spring!

Props to Lucas in doubles as well. Great tandem with Timo!

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16 minutes ago, 10SNE1 said:

Timo is legit! Been out in Waco to watch the NCAAs and he's a joy to watch. Great all around game! ....if only he was eligible to play this past Spring!

Props to Lucas in doubles as well. Great tandem with Timo!

I watched the second set today in singles where he came back from being down 5-2 in the 2nd. He has that dog in him. We would have won the national championship last year if he weren't redshirted. Sucks

Edited November 21 by perfectchaos007

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Timo won his singles quarterfinal in straights today. Semi finals tomorrow 

Edited November 22 by perfectchaos007

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Sad to see Timo stop play during his Semis due to sickness. He did not look himself. He's had a great run! 

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Probably food poisoning. If he plays doubles later, Lucas will have to carry the load

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Timo gave it a go, but him and Lucas lost 4,2 to TCU. Good run for them.

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Hi UT Tennis Fan,

As we wrap up our Fall Season, and take a little break for Thanksgiving I thought I would check in with some program updates:

Our performance last week at the NCAA individual tournament was highlighted by Timo Legout reaching the singles semifinals, and partnering with Lucas Brown to reach the doubles semifinals. With those results, Timo secured All American status in both singles and doubles, and Lucas wrapped up that honor in doubles. Timo also guaranteed himself a spot in the ATP/ITA Accelerator Program. Unfortunately, both Timo and Lucas got hit with a bad stomach bug during the event, and Timo had to retire after just 5 games in the semifinals. Jonah Braswell lost a heartbreaker in the first round, but played a very good match, while Sebastian Gorzny advanced to the 2nd round after being out of action since September's run to the final of the ITA All American. For more details on the week that Timo and Lucas had, please click on this press release.

Meanwhile back in Austin the rest of our players played in the Dropshot Series $25k ITF Pro Tennis tournament at the Texas Tennis Center. One of the highlights for the week was Evan Burnett's run to the quarterfinals, which included a big win over #1 seed and ATP #343 Toby Kodat. And a special shout out goes to Pierre-Yves Bailly for winning his first pro doubles title, and reaching the singles final (coming up just 1 win short of defending last year's singles title). It was definitely a great finish to the Fall season for Pierre!

We are also very happy to announce two great additions to our program! Oliver Ojakaar (Estonia) will, along with previously announced Sebastian Eriksson, join us in January for the upcoming dual match season. Oliver was one of the top juniors in the world (ranked #10 in the ITF rankings), and is a US Open Junior Doubles Champion. Mariano Dedura-Palomero (Germany) will join us next fall. He has focused primarily on ITF Men's Circuit events over the last few years, and has demonstrated significant success at that level. We expect both of them to be difference makers for the Longhorns! Please click on today's press release for more detail on Oliver and Mariano.

And we are not quite done yet! Beginning on Friday, Sebastian Gorzny will represent the United States at the annual Master U Competition in France. Based on his unpublished #1 national singles ranking heading into last week, he was selected as 1 of 3 male players for Team USA. Stay tuned to our website over the weekend for updates, but here is a link to the results and live scoring page for the event.

Have a great holiday season! And Hook'em! 

Sincerely,

Bruce Berque

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Hi UT Tennis Fan,

I hope you had a nice Thanksgiving!

Sebastian Gorzny was the only Longhorn competing last week, as he was part of Team USA and competed in the Master'U BNP Paribas Championship in France. Sebastian was an integral part of the team's 5th straight run to the title, winning both of his singles matches, and all 3 of his doubles matches. Here is a link to the full recap. Meanwhile in Mexico, recent graduate Cleeve Harper finished the year with another Challenger title, this time in Manzanillo, Mexico. Cleeve has now gotten his ATP doubles ranking up to #159 after only 6 months on tour!

Thanks for your ongoing interest in UT Men's Tennis. I will be back in touch with you again soon. All the best, and Hook'em! 

Sincerely,

Bruce Berque