No. 2 Men’s Tennis clinches share of SEC regular season title with sweep of No. 18 Auburn

Auburn, Ala. – No. 2 Texas Men's Tennis swept No. 18 Auburn, 4-0, on Saturday at the Yarbrough Tennis Center to clinch a share of their second-straight SEC regular season title.

The Longhorns, who are now 11-2 in conference play and have a one-match lead in the standings over Mississippi State and Texas A&M, will have an opportunity to secure the outright title in their final regular season match. That contest will take place in Austin against No. 21 Florida on Friday at 6 p.m. CT at the Texas Tennis Center. The win against Auburn was also Texas' fourth-straight sweep and sixth-straight victory overall.

The match began with a close doubles point in which the Tigers were first off the court with a win at No. 1, but the Longhorns followed quickly with a win at No. 2 and the clinch in a tight match at No. 3. Texas then followed with singles victories by freshman No. 31 Kalin Ivanovski at No. 2, senior Jonah Braswell at No. 5, and freshman No. 97 Abel Forger at No. 4.

In the doubles point, Ivanovski and Forger first fell to the No. 10 pair of Billy and Freddy Blaydes, 6-4, at No. 1. Moments later, Texas evened the point with a 6-4 win by the No. 26 duo of senior Sebastian Gorzny and freshman Lucas Marionneau over Nicholas Heng and Alan Bojarski at No. 2. That left the deciding match at No. 3 where sophomore Sebastian Eriksson paired with sophomore Evan Burnett to deliver the clinch with a 7-5 win over Jake Kennedy and Hamza Nasridinov in a match that changed break leads three times.

Ivanovski was then first off the court in singles with a 6-4, 6-2 victory over No. 78 Billy Blaydes at No. 2. A short time later, Braswell was next to the finish with a 6-1, 6-3 win Bojarski at No. 5 for a 3-0 overall lead. The clinch was delivered by Forger, who also recorded a straight-sets win with a 6-2, 6-4 decision over Freddy Blaydes at No. 4.

In the remaining matches, No. 3 Gorzny was even in his third set, 1-6, 6-2, 1-1, against No. 26 Nasridinov at No. 1. No. 36 Eriksson dropped his first set but was up a break in his second against Heng, 5-7, 4-3, at No. 3, and Marionneau was in the same situation, 4-6, 5-4, against Manel Lazaro at No. 6.

#2 Texas 4, #18 Auburn 0

Singles – Order of Finish (2,5,4)

1. #26 Hamza Nasridinov (AUB) vs. #3 Sebastian Gorzny (TEX) 6-1, 2-6, 1-1, unf.

2. #31 Kalin Ivanovski (TEX) def. #78 Billy Blaydes (AUB) 6-4, 6-2

3. Nicholas Heng (AUB) vs. #36 Sebastian Eriksson (TEX) 7-5, 3-4, unf.

4. #97 Abel Forger (TEX) def. Freddy Blaydes (AUB) 6-2, 6-4

5. Jonah Braswell (TEX) def. Alan Bojarski (AUB) 6-1, 6-3

6. Manel Lazaro (AUB) vs. Lucas Marionneau (TEX) 6-4, 4-5, unf.

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