Men’s Tennis: TCU earns comeback win over #19 Illinois

Top ranked TCU Men’s Tennis found itself in an unfamiliar position on Sunday in it’s contest with #19 Illinois Fighting Illini, needing to fight back from a deficit. Until Sunday, TCU had secured the opening Doubles point in each match this season, and in a nation-leading 18-straight dating to last season. The Illini were able to take the point from the Frogs when #52-ranked pairing Mathis Debru & Oliver Okonkwo took down TCU’s #73 pair of Sebastian Gorzny & Pedro Vives in tiebreakers 7-6 (7-5).

The Frogs bounced right back up from that setback, as both Gorzny (ITA Singles #61) and Vives earned straight-set singles victory. Vives made quick work of Illinois’ Nic Meister from Court 6, cruising to a 6-1, 6-2 victory to tie the match.

TCU’s top-ranked singles player, #14 Jake Fearnley earned his 11th ranked singles win of the season, swiftly toppling the Illini’s #96 Alex Petrov 6-2, 6-3 to put the Frogs ahead 2-1.

On Court 5, Gorzny delivered the third point for the Frogs, this time getting the best of Okonkwo on a tiebreaker first set, earning a 7-6 (7-1), 6-3 win.

The match could have been sealed by any of the three remaining Horned Frogs, as Sander Jong & Luc Fomba were each well ahead in decisive sets that ultimately went unfinished as Freshman Jack Pinnington reached the finish line first, taking down Hunter Heck 7-6 (7-3), 6-1 to maintain TCU’s unbeaten streak as the Frogs improve to 15-0 on the season.

The Horned Frogs will be back on the purple courts in Fort Worth on Wednesday, March 22 at 5:30 PM to take on the #3 Texas Longhorns and top-ranked singles player Eliot Spizzirri for the second of three showdowns between the programs this season. TCU defeated UT in a 4-0 sweep in the ITA Indoor National Championship final. The Top-5 squads will square off again to close the regular season in Austin, TX on April 15.