Head Coach Woodson Earns 100th Win in Baylor Men's Tennis Season-Opener

WACO, Texas – Baylor men’s tennis opened the 2025 campaign in style on Sunday, defeating Lamar and ACU, 7-0.

The two wins on the day marked a new milestone in head coach Michael Woodson’s career as he earned his 100th win in his head coaching tenure after taking the ACU match.

THE RUNDOWN

MATCH ONE

Baylor came out in pure dominant fashion for its season-opener against Lamar. The No. 17 doubles duo of Devin Badenhorst and Zsombor Velcz wasted no time finding a 6-1 result on Court One over Fabian Anthin and Leon Nickel. Right behind them to clinch the first point on the board for Baylor was Luc Koenig and Louis Bowden who defeated Lamar’s Fabian Anthin and Leon Nicken, 6-1.

Playing through, Justin Braverman and Arman Zamani capitalized doubles play with a 6-3 win over Stefano Chappuis and Santiago Ledesman to give BU all the momentum moving into singles play.

Making his Baylor debut, Alexandru Chirita led the squad in rapid fashion, dominating Stefano Chappuis 6-0, 6-1 on Court Four to begin his Green and Gold career.

Bowden on Court Three followed his teammate’s momentum, wrapping his match 6-1, 6-1 against Anthin. Finishing back-to-back, Zamani and Marko Miladinovic wrapped their singles wins to clinch the match for Baylor, 6-3, 6-2 and 6-0, 6-2.

Continuing the match, Quintan Van Wijk, an Omaha transfer, earned a 6-3, 6-2 win on Court Six. Wrapping up the dominant sweep for the Bears, No. 54 Zsombor Velcz concluded the final dagger in the match, defeating Nickel 7-6, 6-3 to give the Bears a prevailing 7-0 victory.

MATCH TWO

In one of the many first accomplished in the nightcap of Sunday’s doubleheader, Badenhorst and Luis Jose Nakamine came out swinging and punched in a 6-1 win in the two’s first time playing doubles together this season. Chirita and Koenig followed behind on Court Two with 6-2 victory over ACU’s Lima and McDonald to give Baylor the first of many points on the board.

Into singles, No. 58 Oskar Brostrom Poulsen make quick work over ACU’s Deli, taking down the Wildcat 6-0, 6-2 on Court Two.

Miladinovic picked up on his fellow senior’s stride and took the next match, 6-2, 6-2 to make him 2-0 to open the season. Bowden, following his pattern from the Lamar matched, earned his second 6-1, 6-1 victory on the day. Chirita battled back from a 3-2 deficit in the first set and take his Wildcat opponent in straight sets, 6-3, 6-3 in his first full day of competition as a Bear.

No. 25 Devin Badenhorst dominated the first set and pushed through ACU’s Morozov attempts of a comeback to win out 6-2, 7-5. Going into a 10-point third set, ACU looked to put a lone point on the board in the final match on Court Three, but Koenig held his opponent off to take a 6-1, 5-7, 10-2 win and claim the double-sweep on the day, 7-0.

HIGHLIGHTS

• BU is 19-1 in season openers since the 2004 national championship team.

• Saturday's 2-0 start is the 19th for Baylor men's tennis since 2000.

• Last time Bears won their first two matches 7-0 was 2023.

• Baylor is 2-0 when winning the doubles point.

STAT OF THE MATCH

100 – Number of wins in Woodson’s head coaching career with an all-time record of 100-37 over his last five seasons as head coach.

WHAT THEY SAID

Head coach Michael Woodson

On the team in the first two matches…

“I thought we did a pretty good job. It’s always hard to play your first dual match of the year. I think they’ve got an excitement, nerves, just getting the juices flowing. It’s not easy to handle being back out here and I think everybody has high expectations. We want to play really well. That can be a hard thing to manage when you get out onto the court. I thought our guys hit in stride pretty well. I think we had a really good training week in Palm Springs and came back feeling pretty good. I thought the guys took that into the matches today and started pretty fast and finished pretty strong in a lot of positions.”

On Alexandru Chirita’s Baylor debut…

“He is a heck of a competitor. The thing that I love the most about him is how coachable he is. He really, really wants to bring value to the team. He wants to make an impact, not just for himself, but for everybody. He’s willing to do whatever it takes in order to reach the success that we want as a team. It’s not easy to do what he did today. I thought he was near flawless in all three matches that he played. I give him a ton of credit. It’s hard to do in your first dual matches of any career and to do it so smoothly as he did, it didn’t show much signs of nerves or of anything. Just a fierce, fierce competitor. It was fun to watch.”

On earning 100 career wins as head coach…

“There are too many people to thank. That’s really all that comes to mind is just how many people have poured into me. My family, my mentors, my coaches that got me into coaching, all of the amazing players we’ve had, the staff. Jacqui [Haddock] and Izak [Van Der Merwe] have been with me the whole time. It’s even more of them than me to be honest, and just all the other coaches and support staff and just fans and student-athletes. It’s just incredible to be here at Baylor. Hopefully I’m just getting started.”

WHAT’S NEXT

The Bears now prepares for a big upcoming weekend as they host the No. 4 and No. 2 teams in the nation with Wake Forest on Friday, Jan. 17, at 1 p.m. CT and TCU on Monday, Jan. 20, at 6 p.m. CT.