TCU
Baylor
No. 3 TCU Primed for Big 12 Championship
4/18/2024 10:03:00 AM | Men's Tennis
Horned Frogs to play Bears on Friday at Noon
STILLWATER, Okla. - No. 3 TCU heads north to Stillwater, Okla., for the 2024 Big 12 Tennis Championship, held at the Greenwood Tennis Center.
TCU enters as the three seed and will face six-seed Baylor in the opening round on Friday at noon.
TCU enters the tournament with a record of 20-3 overall and 5-2 in the Big 12. The Horned Frogs are the defending Big 12 tournament champions after they took down Texas, 4-1, last year in Lawrence, Kan.
The Horned Frogs and Bears have met twice this season. The first meeting was a nonconference match in Forth Worth that TCU won, 4-2. The second meeting came in Waco a part of Big 12 competition. TCU won that matchup, 4-1.
The winner of Friday's match will play the winner of No. 2 seed Oklahoma and No. 7 seed Texas Tech on Saturday at 3 p.m. in the semifinals. The championship match is scheduled for 1 p.m. on Sunday.
Series History: Baylor
All-Time: 41-26
Home Record: 20-10
Away Record: 16-12
Neutral Record: 5-4
Conference Record: 4-2
First Matchup: 6-1, Baylor on April 2, 1974 in Fort Worth Texas.
Last Matchup: 4-1, TCU on March 22, 2024 in Waco, Texas
Winning Streak: TCU W5
Follow Along
Live Stats: gofrogs.co/3VXJzba
Live Stream: Big 12 Now on ESPN+
2024 So Far
● The Horned Frogs notched their sixth consecutive ITA Kickoff Weekend championship to begin the season.
● While playing host to ITA Kickoff Weekend, TCU pitched consecutive 4-0 shutouts of Rice and Tulsa to punch its ticket to ITA Indoor Nationals. Both the Owls and Golden Hurricane have since cracked the top-75 of the ITA team rankings.
● After ITA Kickoff Weekend, TCU welcomed a pair of top-15 teams to the indoor Bayard H. Friedman Tennis Center on Feb. 2 and Feb. 4, respectively in No. 15 Stanford and sixth-ranked Tennessee.
● After winning the doubles point, TCU claimed wins on courts two, three, four and five to secure a 5-2 win over the Cardinal.
● Just two days later, TCU played in an instant classic against the Volunteers. TCU trailed 3-1 and was down to match point on court one, before Jake Fearnley earned his biggest collegiate victory thus far. Fearnley took down his Wimbledon doubles partner, Johannus Monday, who is currently ranked No. 4 in the nation. Fearnley fought off match point to win, 7-5, 6-3, 7-6(3). Fearnley's win fueled the TCU comeback which led to Tomas Jirousek clinching the match on court six over Tennessee's Chris Li, 6-3, 6-2.
● TCU then traveled up north to play No. 13 Michigan (Feb. 13) in its indoor regular season finale and won 4-0 in Ann Arbor.
● TCU made its third-straight ITA Indoor National Championship.
● TCU went 3-1 in the ITA Indoor National Championships
● TCU took down No. 15 Arizona State (Feb. 16), No. 10 Texas A&M (Feb. 17) and No. 6 Wake Forest (Feb. 18) in the ITA Indoor National Championships before falling to No. 1 Ohio State (Feb.19), 4-3.
● In its first outdoor dual of 2024, TCU defeated No. 10 Texas (Mar. 2), 4-3 in a thrilling collegiate tennis match.
● Jake Fearnley clinched the match with a win over the No. 1 ranked Eliot Spizzirri, 4-6, 7-6(6), 6-4.
● TCU won three straight ranked road matches from March 13-17 over spring break, defeating, No. 29 UCLA, No. 44 USC and No. 40 Pepperdine.
● TCU is 15-3 against ranked foes.
● TCU took down No. 27 Baylor (Mar. 22) 4-1 in its opening conference match on the road in Waco.
● The Horned Frogs swept BYU (April 4) and Texas Tech (April 6).
● The Horned Frogs went 2-0 last week with ranked wins against No. 40 SMU (April 11) and No. 31 UCF (April 13).
● TCU finished the regular season unbeaten at home for the first time under head coach David Roditi (10-0).
Frog Focus
● TCU was picked second in the Big 12 Men's Tennis Preseason Poll.
● TCU is No. 3 in the ITA rankings.
● The Horned Frogs have been ranked in the top-five the entirety of the season.
● TCU had two selections on the ITA Indoor National Championships All-Tournament Team as Jake Fearnley and Jack Pinnington garnered the honors.
● No. 72 Lui Maxted owns 15 single wins in 2024.
● No. 10 Jack Pinnington leads the Horned Frogs in overall wins with 27 wins dating back to the fall.
● Pinnington has a record of 15-4 in 2024.
● Pinnington filled in for the injured Jake Fearnley (March 13-17) on court one and went 3-0.
● Pinnington defeated three ranked foes March 13-17 on court one and was named Big 12 POTW.
● Pinnington was named Big POTW for the second time this season.
● Pinnington went 3-1 (April 11-13) with two ranked wins in singles.
● Pinnington is 9-2 in 2024 on court one.
● Jake Fearnley is 9-2 in 2024.
● All nine of Fearnley's wins have come on court one.
● Fearnley owns six wins over nationally ranked foes.
● No. 74 Sebastian Gorzny, the 2023 Big 12 Freshman of the Year, is 7-4 so far in 2024.
● Two of TCU's three doubles pairs are nationally ranked.
● The fifth-ranked duo of Sebastian Gorzny and Pedro Vives are 9-2 on the year with all matches on court one.
● The 77th-ranked tandem of Duncan Chan and Lui Maxted are 13-6 in 2024.
● Jake Fearnley and Jack Pinnington are 6-4 with five wins coming on the second flight.
● Duncan Chan played on court six vs. No. 25 Baylor (Mar. 10) and clinched the match for the Horned Frogs.
● Chan clinched the match against No. 44 USC on court six.
● Chan is 7-2 in 2024.
● Chan tallied his first Big 12 win at Baylor on Mar. 22.
● Chan clinched the match against No. 31 UCF (April 13).
● Tomas Jirousek is 9-7 in 2024 and is a combined 6-3 on courts four and five.
● Julian Alonso is 4-1 in 2024.
● Alonso registered his first career Big 12 win at Oklahoma State (March 30).
Players Mentioned
