CHICAGO – For the second straight year, TCU stands alone as the indisputable best atop the college indoor tennis landscape.
The Horned Frogs walloped Big 12 Conference rival Texas 4-0 on Monday to collect their second straight ITA Indoor National Championship.
"Incredible performance from our boys," head coach
David Roditi said. "One through six in singles, one through three in doubles, the guys on the bench – everybody contributed. As coaches, we couldn't be prouder of the way they showed up today. The seniors, the juniors, the sophomores, the freshman – unbelievable day."
TCU became the seventh program in the 50-year existence of the tournament to win back-to-back championships. The Horned Frogs are the first repeat winner since Virginia notched consecutive titles in 2010 and 2011.
The 4-0 blanking of the Longhorns marked just the sixth shutout in Indoor Nationals Championship history.
Monday's clean clinch was the apex of a Frog-fueled rampage over the first five weeks of the 2023 campaign.
TCU concluded the indoor season 12-0 – its first-ever undefeated mark in indoor play. The Horned Frogs are now the only Division I program nationwide in possession of an unblemished record.
The triumph also extended TCU's program record and nation-leading indoor winning streak to 24. Of the victories, 16 have come at the expense of ranked opponents.
Texas, which entered the 16-team tournament as the No. 6 seed, represented the seventh straight ITA top-15 foe the third-ranked Horned Frogs have downed in the last two-and-a-half weeks.
Shutouts were a recurring theme for TCU on the indoor courts. Six of TCU's 12 opponents failed to score a point against the Horned Frogs. TCU commenced its stay in the Windy City with respective 4-0 and 5-0 skunks of No. 10 Baylor and No. 13 Georgia on Friday and Saturday. The Horned Frogs then outlasted No. 2 Kentucky – still the last program to defeat TCU – 4-2 on Sunday to secure their spot in the grand finale.
And the championship match was arguably TCU's most dominant showing of them all.
TCU surrendered just two sets all dual, both of which went to tiebreakers. The Horned Frogs led wire-to-wire in the second and third doubles flights achieve the doubles point. TCU then won five of the first six singles sets to close in on the clinch. The knockout blow arrived in the form of sweeps on courts three, four and five soon thereafter.
Doubles Rundown
Sander Jong and
Jack Pinnington blitzed a pair of ITA-top 35 players in Pierre Yves-Bailly and Siem Woldeab 6-2 to garner TCU's first doubles victory.
The duo won five of the final six games in the set.
Jong, a national runner-up at the ITA National Fall Championships alongside
Lui Maxted, was paired with Pinnington in each of TCU's four Indoor Nationals outings.
Jake Fearnley and
Luc Fomba then closed the show with the Horned Frogs' most significant doubles victory of the spring. Fearnley and Fomba, the preseason ITA No. 1 doubles team, bested the No. 4 ranked pair of Cleeve Harper and Elliot Spizzirri 7-5.
Harper and Spizzirri represented the highest-ranked doubles duo a TCU team has downed this season.
Fearnley and Fomba have played to a 31-8 doubles record since 2022. They have clinched seven of TCU's last 11 doubles points.
Sebastian Gorzny and
Pedro Vives led 6-5 over Micah Braswell and Chih Chi Huang as doubles play was halted.
TCU has now won 16 consecutive doubles points – a school record and nation-leading streak.
The Horned Frogs have won 24-of-30 completed doubles sets in 2023.
Doubles Results
- Jake Fearnley / Luc Fomba def. #4 Cleeve Harper / Elliot Spizzirri (UT): 7-5
- Sander Jong / Jack Pinnington def. Pierre Yves-Bailly / Siem Woldeab: 6-2
- Sebastian Gorzny / Pedro Vives (TCU) vs. Micah Braswell / Chih Chi Huang (UT): 6-5
Order of Finish: 2, 1
Singles Rundown
The doubles point proved to be a standing eight count for Texas. Whereas TCU got off the court quickly in its first two matches, Texas was forced to go the distance with No. 1 Ohio State and No. 4 Michigan in its quarterfinal and semifinal contests.
Pinnington, quickly increased TCU's lead to 2-0 with a comfortable 6-4, 6-0 win on court three over the 65
th-ranked Braswell. The victory was the second in Pinnington's TCU tenure, both of which have been against ranked players. Pinnington, a freshman from Ashtead, England, is the former British ITF juniors No. 1.
His play was a microcosm of TCU's battering of the Longhorns in singles play.
Jong attained the highest-ranked win of his senior season via a 6-2, 6-3 takedown of No. 25 Woldeab in the No. 4 flight to position TCU for the clinch.
Gorzny, No. 124 in the ITA singles rankings, did the honors moments later. The freshman rallied for a come-from-behind set one win over the 112
th-ranked Harper on court five, then slammed the door 6-1 in the second frame to commence the celebration.
The final margin of victory may very well have swelled to 7-0 had the match not been contested as a clinch.
Fearnley was on his way to the biggest win of his career. He faced Spizzirri, the No. 1 overall singles player, and rolled to a 6-1 win in the opening game.
Fomba rallied past No. 33 Yves-Bailly 6-4 out of the No. 2 post in the first set of their match.
TCU garnered its third straight win over Texas following its singles performance. The Horned Frogs are now 8-6 vs. their central Texas rival in the Roditi era.
Singles Results
- #17 Jake Fearnley (TCU) vs. #1 Elliot Spizzirri (UT): 6-1, 6-7
- #49 Luc Fomba (TCU) vs. #33 Pierre Yves-Bailly (UT): 6-4, 3-4
- Jack Pinnington (TCU) def. #65 Micah Braswell (UT): 6-4, 6-0
- Sander Jong (TCU) def. #25 Siem Woldeab (UT): 6-2, 6-3
- #124 Sebastian Gorzny (TCU) def. #112 Cleeve Harper (UT): 6-4, 6-1
- Tomas Jirousek (TCU) vs. Evin McDonald (UT): 6-7, 1-1
Order of finish: 3, 4, 5
Final Stats – ITA Indoor National Championships
Sebastian Gorzny – 6-0 overall (3-0 singles, 3-0 doubles)
Sander Jong – 6-1 overall (3-0 singles, 3-1 doubles)
Jack Pinnington – 5-2 overall (2-1 singles, 3-1 doubles)
Jake Fearnley – 4-2 overall (2-1 singles, 2-1 doubles)
Luc Fomba – 4-1 overall (2-0 singles, 2-1 doubles)
Pedro Vives – 3-0 overall (3-0 doubles)
Tomas Jirousek – 1-0 overall (1-0 singles)
Career Stats – ITA Indoor National Championships
Sander Jong – 23-6 overall (12-3 singles, 11-4 doubles)
Luc Fomba – 20-8 overall (10-2 singles, 10-5 doubles)
Jake Fearnley – 12-7 overall (5-3 singles, 7-4 doubles)
Pedro Vives – 6-1 overall (3-1 singles, 3-0 doubles)
Sebastian Gorzny – 6-0 overall (3-0 singles, 3-0 doubles)
Lui Maxted – 5-1 overall (2-1 singles, 3-1 doubles
Jack Pinnington – 5-2 overall (2-1 singles, 3-1 doubles)
Tomas Jirousek – 3-1 overall (3-1 singles)
