FORT WORTH – In a harbinger of hopeful spring success, TCU men's tennis is sending two-thirds of its roster to the ITA All-American Championships.
 
The tournament is the first of two fall national championship events and runs from Sept. 30-Oct. 8 on the courts of the Michael D. Case Tennis Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma.
 
The Horned Frogs' qualified six of nine active players for the weeklong affair. 
 
Sebastian Gorzny secured main draw invites in singles and doubles. He'll be joined in the main doubles draw alongside his partner, Pedro Vives, who was a qualifying singles selection.
 
Jack Pinnington automatically qualified for the main singles draw on the strength of his No. 26 ITA ranking. He'll also play qualifying doubles.
 
Both Lui Maxted and Tomas Jirousek were automatic qualifiers for the qualifying singles and doubles draws. Maxted is slated to play doubles alongside freshman Duncan Chan while Jirousek and Pinnington are teaming up for the first time ever.
 
About the ITA All-American Championships
 
The ITA All-American Championships is one of college tennis' signature events. Around 250 of the nation's best singles players and 64 doubles teams are converging on northeastern Oklahoma. 
 
The qualifying singles and doubles draws run from Oct. 2-3 before giving way to main draw action, which begins on Oct. 4 and concludes on Oct. 8. Singles players must win two matches to receive one of 16 qualifying spots in the 64-man main draw. The main draw doubles bracket features 32 teams, with an identical number of qualifying tandems competing for its eight at-large spots.
 
Arguably, the stakes surrounding the tournament have never been higher. Players are vying for one of just 32 coveted invitations to November's ITA National Fall Championships. Winning the ITA All-American Championships, or making a deep run through the man draw, sends players skyrocketing up the ITA national rankings, which are used to set the field for the NCAA Individual Championships in May. Players who finish with a top-20 end-of-season ranking also qualify for the ATP Challenger Tour Accelerator Programme, thereby underscoring the opportunity to bolster pro prospects by stringing together multiple ranked victories in Tulsa. 
 
A cross court cast of main draw play will be available to watch for free on the Cracked Racquets YouTube page. Fans can also catch qualifying matches via Track Tennis cameras at the Case Tennis Center.
 
Competing for TCU

• Sebastian Gorzny (main singles and doubles): The sophomore is fresh off a quarterfinal run at the Battle in the Bay Classic main singles draw. Gorzny, No. 43 in the ITA singles rankings, holds a 6-2 career record in fall invitationals. He picked up the highest-ranked victory of his collegiate career in San Francisco via a 6-3, 6-3 sweep of No. 27 Iiro Vasa of San Diego. He and Vives are TCU's highest-ranked doubles tandem at No. 13 nationally. They are 20-8 when paired together. Gorzny, who notched wins on courts three through six during his freshman campaign in 2023, boasts TCU's highest singles winning percentage (.852) behind a 23-4 career record.
• Jack Pinnington (main singles, qualifying doubles): Pinnington turned in TCU's most impressive showing at the Battle in the Bay Classic. He advanced to the semifinals in both singles and doubles. In singles, Pinnington ousted two ranked players, including No. 13 Jeffrey von der Schulenburg of Virginia, to advance to the semifinals. Pinnington is TCU's highest-ranked singles player and is 11-5 for his career. The sophomore has yet to lose to an unranked foe. Pinnington checked in at No. 17 in the preseason ITA doubles rankings alongside Jake Fearnley. He and Maxted teamed up in the Bay Area in what was their first time playing together. Pinnington, 11-4 for his career in doubles, n is ultra-reliable. Jirousek represents the fourth doubles partner of Pinnington's career. 
• Pedro Vives (main doubles, qualifying singles): Vives is as safe a bet as any player to emerge from qualifying singles and move through the main draw. He currently holds the fourth-highest universal tennis rating (UTR) among all college players at 14.11. Vives has bagged four professional titles since June. He was forced to retire from his opening round match at the Battle in the Bay Classic due to back spasms. Prior to the brief setback, Vives rattled off a string of nine consecutive professional victories from Sept. 3-15, winning the Fort Worth UTR PTT 25k and memorably advancing all the way to the quarterfinals of the ATP Cary Challenger. 
• Lui Maxted (qualifying singles and doubles): Maxted knows a thing or two about fall doubles success. Last season, he and the recently graduated Sander Jong finished as the ITA National Fall Championships runner-up. After winning two doubles tilts in San Francisco, his career doubles record stands at a robust 40-15, highlighted by a 19-6 mark in doubles. The junior turned heads in singles play in northern California as well. Maxted defeated Illinois' 54^th-ranked Alex Petrov, 6-7, 6-2, 6-4, in the opening round, then battled No. 9 Inaki Montes-De La Torre of Virginia wire-to-wire over three sets. Petrov was the highest ranked opponent Maxted has defeated collegiately.
• Tomas Jirousek (qualifying singles and doubles): The drive north represents the first fall invitational Jirousek has competed in over his five-year run in Fort Worth. Originally from Prague, Czech Republic, Jirousek competed unattached in ATP Challenger and ITF level tournaments in Europe during the past three fall seasons. Jirousek has won two-thirds of his matches in singles play at TCU. He sports a 28-14 career record and has won on courts three through six. 
• Duncan Chan (qualifying doubles): The lone freshman competing for TCU, Chan was the Horned Frogs' top performer at the inaugural US College Cup Invitational on Sept. 22-24. Chan produced a 4-2 combined record, notching a two singles and doubles victories apiece. His most notable win came in singles on day one, when he took down Baylor's Ethan Muza 6-1, 4-6, 6-2. A doubles specialist, he and Maxted received the No. 38 preseason ITA doubles ranking.

Up Next
 
TCU and the Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center play host to the ITA Texas Regional from Oct. 19-24. Regional champions and finalists in both singles and doubles automatically qualify for the ITA National Fall Championships.
 
Across the ITA Rankings
 
Six Horned Frogs combined to garner a nation-leading eight preseason ITA singles and doubles rankings, which were unveiled on Sept. 6. TCU was the lone program with three projected doubles tandem ranked and one of three teams to have five ranked singles players. The eight preseason ITA ranking credentials are TCU's most in program history.
 
ITA Division I Men's Singles Rankings
7. Jake Fearnley
26. Jack Pinnington
43. Sebastian Gorzny
82. Pedro Vives
123. Lui Maxted
 
ITA Division I Men's Singles Rankings
13. Sebastian Gorzny / Pedro Vives
17. Jake Fearnley / Jack Pinnington
38. Duncan Chan / Lui Maxted
 
Team Notables

• TCU is the only program nationwide to have garnered nine consecutive top-10 ITA end-of-season team rankings. The Horned Frogs concluded the 2022-23 season ranked fourth. The No. 4 ranking marked the program's second-best end-of-season finish.
• The Horned Frogs became one of six programs in the history of college tennis to repeat as ITA Indoor National Champions in February.
• The Horned Frogs have advanced to the Elite Eight in the NCAA D1 Men's Tennis Championship in four straight seasons. TCU has reached the quarterfinals six times in the last eight years. No program nationwide has notched more quarterfinal berths than TCU since 2015.
• TCU received a program record 11 postseason All-Big 12 Conference honors in 2022-23. 
• Roditi repeated as Big 12 Coach of the Year last spring. The honor, as voted on by his conference head coaching peers, marked his fifth conference coach of the year citation. His five selections are the most received by any Big 12 head coach since the conference's inception in 19997.  
• TCU has claimed five of the last eight Big 12 regular season championships and won the conference tournament three times (2016, 2017, 2023) in that span.
• The Horned Frogs amassed a combined 468 ATP points from June-August.
• Three of TCU's 10 players have earned ITA National Fall Championships caps. Fearnley and Maxted qualified in singles and doubles, respectively, in 2022. Vives reached the grand finale of fall tennis in 2021 by winning the ITA Texas Regional doubles championship with Jong.
• Maxted pocketed two victories – one singles, one doubles – at the 2022 ITA All-American Championships
• TCU's five returning players competing this week produced a combined 56-13 singles record in 2022-23.