The No. 3 seed Texas Longhorns captured its first ITA Men’s National Team Indoors title on Tuesday as they defeated top seed Ohio State 4-2 at Southern Methodist University in Dallas.
The Longhorns opened the 16-team tournament in Waco with a 4-2 victory over rival Texas A&M last Friday and followed with a 4-3 win over last year’s finalist TCU on Saturday. They then traveled to Dallas on Sunday and defeated Baylor 4-0 in the semifinals on Monday. The Buckeyes were trying to win their second ITA Men’s National Team Indoors championship in three years after capturing the 2024 title.
All three doubles matches on Tuesday went down to a tie-break and the Longhorns won at No. 2 with Sebastian Gorzny and Lucas Marionneau prevailing 7-5 in the tie-break. No. 3 Sebastian Eriksson and Oliver Ojakaar clinched the doubles point with a 7-3 tie-break win. The No. 1 match was also in the middle of a tie-break before it was abandoned with Ohio State up 6-5 in the tie-break.
The Buckeyes tied the match at 1-1 as Jack Anthrop defeated Abel Forger 6-3, 6-2 at No. 3. Anthrop went 4-0 in singles during the tournament. The Longhorns went ahead 2-1 as Gorzny defeated Aidan Kim 6-4, 6-4 at No. 1. Gorzny was unbeaten in his three completed matches during the tournament.
Ohio State evened the match at 2-2 as Alex Okonkwo beat Eriksson 7-6(1), 6-2 at No. 4. Texas answered with a 3-6, 6-2, 6-3 victory by Lucas Marionneau over Nikita Filin, who suffered his first singles loss (3-1) in the tournament. The Longhorns clinched the match at No. 2 with Ivanovski, who defeated Preston Stearns 7-5, 6-4.
Former ATP Tour star and Dallas resident John Isner along with former Dallas Mavericks superstar Dirk Nowitzki and Rolando Blackman, a four-time NBA All-Star with the Mavericks, were in attendance.
