©Colette Lewis 2026–
Athens GA–
When the first day at the final site ended at 10:30 p.m., the men’s quarterfinals had produced three 4-1 decisions and one thriller, with three of the top four seeds advancing to Saturday’s semifinals.
The lone exception was No. 6 seed TCU, who is No. 2 in the ITA rankings, but the formula the NCAA uses to seed teams had dropped them four spots, while their opponent Ohio State was No. 3 in both systems. That was the recipe for the 4-3 barnburner that developed, with Duncan Chan outlasting Aidan Kim 4-6, 6-4, 6-3 at line 1 to send his team to the Final Four for the fourth straight year.
TCU dominated the doubles point, getting a 6-0 win at 2 and a 6-4 victory at 3, but Ohio State came out in singles prepared to overcome it. Each team took three first sets in singles, meaning Ohio State had to force a third set somewhere. It was Nikita Filin that gave the Buckeye faithful hope, going up an early break in the second against Oliver Bonding and earning the split. But Chan returned the favor at line 1, and even then, TCU only held the slimmest advantage. TCU went up 2-0 with a win at 6, but Ohio State got the next two points at lines 2 and 4 to tie it.
Ohio State had a chance to force a third set at line 3, with Jack Anthrop getting a second set break back and putting his match with Cooper Woestendick into a second set tiebreaker, but Woestendick gave TCU a lead when he hit an ace at 6-4, which Anthrop called out, and Woestendick immediately challenged, with the Electronic Line Calling system employed this weekend agreeing that it was an ace, giving TCU a 3-2 lead.
Meanwhile, Bonding had gotten a break in the third to serve for the match against Nikita Filin at line 4, and Chan had come from 3-1 down to make it 3-all at line 1. But there was one more twist, with Filin taking four straight games from 5-3 down for a 2-6, 6-3, 7-5 win to tie it up. By that time, Chan had won his fourth straight game for a 5-3 lead and all eyes turned to Court 1, with Chan serving at 5-3, 30-15.
Chan said he knew he shouldn’t be looking at the scoreboard, but felt he played better once he thought he wouldn’t be called on to clinch.
“I have to admit, 3-2, I was down a break and I thought we were going to win, so I started going for my shots,” said the junior from Canada, the only player on the team that won the 2024 title. “Roditi doesn’t like it when we think our teammates are going to win, but it helped me. I got the break back and I saw Nikita piling on some points, and that helped me too. I have a sense of duty to my team and I just kind of rolled with it.”
Chan hit a forehand plus one winner at 30-all but didn’t get a first serve in on match point. Yet the work he has been putting in on that shot, especially the second serve, paid off. After missing his first serve, he felt no pressure on the second.
“I have confidence in my second serve, I know I need to accelerate more,” Chan said. “When I’m in those situations, I kind of free up a little bit and it helps me hit the corners sometimes and it drops in.”
The second serve was a good one, but Kim got a short ball in the rally and approached to the backhand. Chan answered with a backhand pass that sent the Horned Frogs into the jumping circuit celebration.
“I’m really proud of a very young team,” said head coach David Roditi. “Where they’ve come from the beginning of the season to be a part of the Final Four, and to win over Ohio State, one of the best programs, if not the best program, of the last 25 years. I couldn’t be happier and I couldn’t be more proud.”
On Friday, TCU will play Texas in the semifinals, a rivalry that has pushed both programs to new heights.
“We’ve had so many, I think we’re like 6-6 and that’s just in the last three years,” said Roditi, whose team lost to Texas in this year’s Team Indoor and beat them in a non-conference match the following month. “It seems like we always find a way to play each other…so many brutal moments, I’m feisty, he’s feisty. I don’t even want to think about it. But obviously, it’s a fun match, a huge match–Texas – TCU, the big, the little, all that stuff. But right now we’re just going to enjoy the win today.”
TCU[6] 4 Ohio State[[3] 3
Doubles:
1. Duncan Chan and Cosme Rolland De Ravel(TCU) v Nikta Filin and Brandon Carpico(OSU) 5-4, unf.
2. Cooper Woestendick and Albert Pedrico(TCU) d. Alex Okonkwo and Alex Bernard(OSU) 6-0
3. Oliver Bonding and Maximus Dussault(TCU) d. Bryce Nakashima and Aidan Kim(OSU) 6-4
Order of finish 2, 3
Singles:
1. Duncan Chan(TCU) d. Aidan Kim(OSU) 4-6, 6-4, 6-3
2. Preston Stearns(OSU) d. Cosme Rolland De Ravel(TCU) 6-2, 7-5
3. Cooper Woestendick(TCU) d. Jack Anthrop(OSU) 6-3, 7-6(4)
4. Nikita Filin(OSU) d. Oliver Bonding(TCU) 2-6, 6-3, 7-5
5. Bryce Nakashima(OSU) d. Albert Pedrico(TCU) 6-2, 7-6(6)
6. Roger Pascual(TCU) d. Alex Bernard(OSU) 6-2, 6-2
Order of finish: 6, 2, 5, 3, 4, 1
In the first quarterfinal of the day, No. 2 seed Texas defeated No. 10 Baylor, the only men’s team outside the top eight advancing to the final site, 4-1.
The Bears took the doubles point, with an impressive performance at line 1 and a late break at line 3 to grab the momentum. But the Longhorns are no strangers to needing four singles points and they quickly took first sets on four courts, with Texas’s Sebastian Gorzny making it five at line 1. Gorzny and Devin Badenhorst finished their first set nearly a half hour later, with Gorzny taking it in the tiebreaker 9-7.
Baylor had one first set at 6 and earned a third set at 5, but Texas had their freshman Lucas Marionneau at line 6, which no doubt was a relief to the Burnt Orange-clad fans supporting him in the “pit.” Marionneau clinched Texas’s first ITA Team Indoor title in February over Ohio State and its SEC tournament championship last month over Mississippi State, both by 4-2 scores, so he was not a freshman unfamiliar with pressure in big moments, as he again demonstrated with his 3-6, 6-2, 6-2 win over Calvin Baierl.
“I don’t know honestly, but every time it’s on me, and I love it, so much confidence in these huge moments,” said the 19-year-old from France, who took the advice of compatriot Timo Legout, the former No. 1 at Texas, to explore playing for the Longhorns. “From indoors and then after Mississippi State in the SEC tournament, I don’t know, I’m just really happy to be in this moment; we train and live for these moments, so I’m really happy to put this match away.”
Texas head coach Bruce Berque wasn’t surprised by any of the ups and downs his team experienced this morning.
“It was a pretty typical match in some ways, I was just thinking about it,” said Berque, whose team had beaten Baylor 4-0 in the ITA Team Indoor Championships semifinals. “We had a couple of guys play great, we had a couple of guys play bad and we had a couple guys do some of both. That’s the most common thing you see in a tennis match. It’s not about playing our best tennis, but it’s about being composed, about being coachable, about staying connected with each other, showing great enthusiasm and playing hard. I was proud of our team for being able to do that against a very good team today.”
Texas[2] 4 Baylor[10] 1
Doubles:
1. Alexandru Chirita and Zsombor Velcz[BAY] d. Abel Forger and Kalin Ivanovski[TEX] 6-3
2. Sebastian Gorzny and Lucas Marionneau[TEX] v Luc Koenig and Connor Van Schalkwyk[BAY] 6-6, 8-7 unf.
3. Calvin Baierl and Devin Badenhorst[BAY] d. Sebastian Eriksson and Oliver Ojakaar[TEX] 7-5
Order of finish: 1, 3
Singles:
1. Sebastian Gorzny[TEX] v Devin Badenhorst[BAY] 7-6(7), 5-66] unf.
2. Kalin Ivanovski[TEX] d. Zsombor Velcz[BAY] 6-3, 6-1
3. Sebastian Eriksson[TEX] d. Connor Van Schalkwyk[BAY] 6-2, 6-2
4. Oliver Ojakaar[TEX] d. Alexandru Chirita[BAY] 6-3, 6-3
5. Abel Forger[TEX] v Luc Koenig(BAY] 6-2, 3-6, 5-4 unf.
6. Lucas Marionneau[TEX] v Calvin Baierl[BAY] 3-6, 6-2, 6-2
Order of finish: 2, 3, 4
Defending champion Wake Forest continued their quest for another title Thursday evening, with the top seeds defeating No. 8 seed Arizona 4-1.
The doubles point was over in less than a half hour, with Wake, who hasn’t lost a doubles point since February, getting a 6-0 win at line 2 and a 6-2 victory at line 1.
Freshman Mees Rottgering, who has been a sure point for Wake Forest since he moved up to line 2, gave them a quick 2-0 lead, beating Filip Gustafsson 6-2, 6-1 in under an hour.
Once Wake took four first sets in singles, the outcome appeared to be ordained, but Arizona, playing in the program’s first NCAA team quarterfinal, wasn’t ready to concede, even after Aryan Shah posted a win at line 5 to make it 3-0.
Arizona’s Sasha Rozin gave the Wildcats their first point with a 6-3, 7-5 win at line 3 over Luca Pow, another of Wake Forest’s most reliable points. Wake Forest’s DK Suresh had a chance to close the door against Jay Friend at line 1, but Friend took a second set tiebreaker, and once Charlie Robertson of Wake lost his second set tiebreaker at line 4, Arizona had a glimmer of hope.
But by that time Wake’s Joaquin Guilleme had turned around his match at line 6. After dropping the first set to Alejandro Arcila 6-0, the sophomore from Nicaragua found his form and ended with the clinch 0-6, 7-5, 6-3.
“It’s never easy losing the first set, especially 6-0,” Guilleme said. “But my coach told me just try to make balls, try to start winning games. I felt like I never left the match and I won the first game of the second set and that obviously helped a lot, and my teammates and the fans helped me to keep pushing and keep fighting. Luckily tennis is two out three sets.”
Head coach Tony Bresky spoke in the press conference about the pressure of defending an NCAA final.
“We talk about that a lot, the pressure is obviously a privilege,” said Bresky, whose teams have now reached the Final Four the past three years. “The biggest thing is we try to take the pressure off the guys, I feel our preparation and fitness is top notch, they way the guys practice and they way we treat every match during the season, so hopefully that takes pressure off them. You’re not going to be successful in these moments if you want to win too much. You have to perspective on it and realize it’s just tennis and go out and do your best. The goal is to take as much pressure off them, know they want to win really bad and make them actually want to win a little less.”
Wake Forest[1] 4 Arizona[8] 1
Doubles:
1. DK Suresh and Andrew Delgado[WAKE] Filip Gustafsson and Glib Sekachov[UA] 6-2
2. Mees Rottgering and Kacper Szymkowiak(WAKE) d. Jay Friend and Sasha Rozin[UA] 6-0
3. Cole Stelse and Alejandro Arcila(UA) v Luca Pow and Aryan Shah(WAKE) 4-3
Order of finish:
2, 1
Singles:
1. Jay Friend(UA) v DK Suresh(WAKE) 6-7(7), 7-6(2), 5-3 unf.
2. Mees Rottgering(WAKE) d. Filip Gustafsson(UA) 6-2, 6-1
3. Sasha Rozin(UA) d. Luca Pow(WAKE) 6-3, 7-5
4. Charlie Robertson(WAKE) v Zoran Ludoski(UA) 6-3, 6-7(2) unf.
5. Aryan Shah(WAKE) d. Glib Sekachov(UA) 6-4, 6-2
6. Joaquin Guilleme(WAKE) d. Alejandro Arcila(UA) 0-6, 7-5, 6-3
Order of finish: 2, 1, 3, 6
The last quarterfinal saw No. 4 seed Virginia duplicate their 4-1 decision over No. 5 seed Mississippi State in February’s ITA Team Indoor quarterfinals, with the Cavaliers setting the tone early in the match with the third dominant doubles point put up by the eventual winners.
Virginia, which had struggled in doubles throughout the season, had found the right combinations in the past three weeks according to head coach Andres Pedroso.
“We’ve been playing good doubles the last few weeks, we’ve worked a lot on it and taken a close look at it,” Pedroso said. “These guys have been really coachable and we’re really organized, we know what are roles are on the doubles court…we feel really good about our doubles ,so it’s been a very productive three weeks of practice when it comes to that part of our team.”
Mississippi State got their only singles point early, with Raphael Vaksmann getting off the court in less than an hour at line 5, but Virginia countered with two straightforward wins from Keegan Rice at line 2 and Dylan Dietrich at line 1. The fourth point proved elusive however, with Virginia’s best chance to close it out quickly coming with freshman Andres Santamarta up 3-0 in the second set against Mario Martinez Serrano at line 4.
Martinez Serrano won the next three games however, with neither player gaining an advantage until Santamarta forced a deciding point with Martinez Serrano serving at 4-5. Martinez Serrano came up with a stellar passing shot to save it, and looked to be heading to a third set when he went up 5-2 in the tiebreaker.
That’s when the Electronic Line Calling system threw a lifeline to Santamarta however. After Martinez Serrano called Santamarta’s ball out, Santamarta challenged the call, and instead of 6-2, the score ended up at 5-4, with ELC showing the ball good. Because Martinez Serrano had already had a call challenged and overturned, he also received a point penalty. Santamarta had his first match point at 6-5, but netted a forehand, and Martinez Serrano was unable to convert his two set points at 7-6, and 8-7. Santamarta got his third match point at 9-8 and Martinez Serrano double faulted to give the Santamarta a 6-2, 7-6(8) victory and send Virginia to a Final Four matchup with Wake Forest.
Santamarta appreciated having access to the Electronic Line Calling system, which may have helped him avoid a third set.
“That made a big difference,” said the 19-year-old from Spain, a former ITF Junior No. 1. “I saw the ball in, so that’s why I asked the referee if I could check it. Depending on the score, it can be a big change. It’s a good thing, I like it, yeah.”
Although the top four teams in the ITA rankings have made the Final Four, all of whom have won NCAA titles in the past six years, Pedroso said that favorites will continue to be challenged given the depth in the sport now.
“College tennis is in a really good place, a really good place,” Pedroso said. “If you’re the four or five team in the country and you play the number 45 or 50 team in the country and lose the doubles point, it’s a dogfight. It’s a credit to the coaches, how hard they’re trying, the athletic departments pouring resources into these programs. I’m so happy to see Arkansas coming back, that’s awesome news for our sport. But college tennis is in a great place, it’s the best developmental pathway for young men 18, 19, 20 years old who are not quite ready to turn pro, they come to college, they mature, have Top 100 resources, great coaches, amazing people around them. It’s the best place for someone not quite ready to play pro tennis.”
Virginia[4] 4 Mississippi State[5] 1
Doubles:
1. Benito Sanchez Martinez and Michal Novansky(MSST) v Mans Dahlberg and Dylan Dietrich(UVA)
2. Andres Santamarta and Jangjun Kim(UVA) d. Niccolo Baroni and Mario Martinez Serrano(MSST) 6-2
3. Petar Jovanovic and Bryan Hernandez Cortes(MSST) v Stiles Brockett and Keegan Rice(UVA) 5-5 unf.
Order of finish: 2, 1
Singles:
1. Dylan Dietrich(UVA) d. Benito Sanchez Martinez(MSST) 6-4, 6-3
2. Keegan Rice(UVA) d. Petar Jovanovic(MSST) 6-3, 6-2
3. Niccolo Baroni(MSST) v Jangjun Kim(UVA) 3-6, 6-3, 4-4, unf.
4. Andres Santamarta(UVA) d. Mario Martinez Serrano(MSST) 6-2. 7-6(8)
5. Raphael Vaksmann(MSST) d. Stiles Brockett(UVA) 6-1, 6-2
6. Mans Dahlberg(UVA) v Bryan Cortes Hernandez(MSST) 4-6, 6-2, 5-4 unf.
Order of finish: 5, 2, 1, 4
The women’s quarterfinals begin at 10 a.m. Monday with No. 2 Auburn facing No. 10 seed LSU in a rematch of the SEC tournament final.
Auburn[2] v LSU[10] 10 a.m.
Ohio State[3] v Pepperdine[11] 1 p.m.
Georgia[1] v North Carolina State [8] 4 p.m.
Texas A&M[4] v North Carolina[5] 7 p.m.
The NCAA finals tournament page is here; live scoring is provided by iOnCourt, with the men’s link here and the women’s link here.
All matches are being streamed on ESPN+(subscription required). Cracked Racquets will be providing the commentary for the women’s quarterfinals.