No. 1 Texas swept Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 4-0, behind Sebastian Gorzny and two freshmen to reach the NCAA second round.
No. 1 Texas men’s tennis opened the NCAA Tournament exactly like a national title contender should.
The Longhorns swept Texas A&M-Corpus Christi, 4-0, on Friday at the Weller Indoor Tennis Center in Austin, advancing to the second round for the 13th consecutive season.
Texas will now face No. 32 SMU on Saturday at 4 p.m. CT at the Texas Tennis Center.
Texas grabbed control early by winning the doubles point. Oliver Ojakaar and Evan Burnett struck first at No. 3 doubles with a 6-3 victory over Ethan Dasset and Josef Zapletal.
Then the No. 21-ranked pairing of Sebastian Gorzny and Lucas Marionneau sealed the point with a 6-4 win over Mikel Garmendia and Maxime Salesses.
From there, the Longhorns didn’t let the Islanders breathe.
Marionneau, a freshman, delivered the first singles point with a dominant 6-0, 6-1 win over Zapletal at No. 5. Fellow freshman Mariano Dedura-Palomero followed with a sharp 6-1, 6-2 victory against Salesses at No. 6.
Gorzny, ranked No. 3 nationally in singles, finished the job at No. 1 with a 6-1, 6-3 win over Nicholas Niox. The senior’s clinching victory gave Texas another clean postseason result and kept its championship path moving.
The Longhorns were also leading the three unfinished singles matches when play stopped.
No. 41 Kalin Ivanovski led Omar Suarez at No. 2, No. 102 Abel Forger was ahead of Etienne Marty at No. 3, and Jonah Braswell had control at No. 4.
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Texas didn’t just win. It looked deep, balanced and ready for a much tougher second-round test against SMU.
For the Longhorns, Friday was business handled. Saturday is where the bracket starts getting louder.
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