2025 Men's Tennis Season Recap2025 Men's Tennis Season Recap
Edward Finan / UCF Athletics

2025 Men's Tennis Season Recap

Take a look back at the Knights' historic campaign with insight from head coach Lloyd Bruce-Burgess through key moments of the season

by Alex Clough

How do you follow up the most successful first season as the head coach of UCF men’s tennis? That was the question surrounding Lloyd Bruce-Burgess and assistant Kareem Allaf ahead of the 2025 campaign.

Now, six months since the Knights returned to practice before the program’s second season in the Big 12, the question will seemingly once again be posed next season, as the answer was even more emphatic than the year prior.

History followed UCF every step of the way en route to the team’s first NCAA Sweet 16 appearance, boasting a resume not seen before for the Black and Gold. With insight from Bruce-Burgess himself, look back on his sophomore season with the Knights as the key moments of the season unfolded.

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SAME FACES, NEW GOALS

With the lone exit of three-year Knight and team captain Lleyton Cronje, UCF returned a talented class, highlighted by six rising juniors who already showed enormous growth during the 2024 season. A trip to the program’s second NCAA Tournament Second Round after toppling Florida for the first time highlighted UCF’s inaugural Big 12 campaign.

Yassine Dlimi, who led the Knights on court one, was primed for an exciting season, while his fellow countryman Mehdi Benchakroun was looking to follow up his breakout sophomore campaign with another level of tennis. French tandem Paul Colin and Liam Branger, who also found new success in 2024, each provided depth to the starting lineup. UT Arlington transfer Santiago Giamichelle produced a brilliant first year in Orlando, while he was joined by Emilio Sanchez and freshman Nicolas Oliveira as options at the bottom half of the singles display.

While UCF finished the season 24th in the nation, the best final ranking by a first-year coaching staff, the Knights were absent from the preseason top-25 poll. That came before the Knights were tabbed to finish sixth in the Big 12 by the coaches for the second consecutive year. An obvious source of motivation for the squad, UCF remained focused on the grueling slate ahead.

Roster Breakdown

  • 5th Year: Liam Branger (France)
  • Junior: Mehdi Benchakroun (Morocco), Paul Colin (France), Yassine Dlimi (Morocco), Santiago Giamichelle (Argentina), Luca Hotze (Florida), Emilio Sanchez (Spain)
  • R-Freshman: Simeon Terziev (Bulgaria)
  • Freshman: Adriano Dzhenev (Bulgaria), Nicolas Oliveira (Brazil)

There weren't that high expectations because we knew on paper, we weren't entering the season with a team that was expected to do amazing things. We did know we had a similar group that had an amazing season in 2024, with each being a year older. We had to work very hard for the improvement last season, and we had to ask the guys, are we willing to work hard again? It came down to the willingness to be uncomfortable and do the things I ask them to do every day and that's eventually what paid off.

Bruce-Burgess
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STATEMENT MADE OUT WEST

After handling business during a five-match homestand to open the season, the Knights ventured to Tucson, Arizona, for the program’s first ITA Kickoff Weekend since 2022. Essentially a Big 12 in-season tournament, UCF was set to face third-seeded Oklahoma State, whom the squad split a pair of dramatic matches the season prior, with the winner likely set to meet the sixth-ranked and conference newcomer Arizona.

A swift sweep of the Cowboys in the first round presented UCF with an opportunity to qualify for the program’s first ITA Indoor Championship. That wasn’t the only context of what was a monumental season out west for the Knights, as Bruce-Burgess had welcomed his first child days before the event, eventually joining Allaf and the squad the night prior to their opening contest.

In the second round, the Knights faced a daunting task as the Wildcats possessed two of the top-10 players in the nation in Colton Smith and Jay Friend, along with an experienced group who similarly swept their first-round meeting against USC. However, a doubles point from UCF led to opportunities on the back four courts in singles, with the contest eventually coming down to Liam Branger’s court four bout.

Dubbed the clincher after leading the squad in match-winners during his freshman season, the France native took down Arizona’s Casper Christensen to claim the program’s highest-ranked win in program history and first top-10 win ever. The weekend was the first sign that the 2025 season wouldn’t be in the shadows of 2024 much longer.

I decided last minute to come since my son was born a few days prior, so Kareem [Allaf] handled the prep for the Oklahoma State match and I just really followed his lead. He was very locked in, and the work had been done. The sweep over the Cowboys was a product of the work that had already happened, and with Arizona, we knew we weren't going to be favorites. We knew there would be positions we could capitalize and once we got the doubles point on the board, we could see a path to victory.

Bruce-Burgess
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AN UPSET FOR THE AGES IN WACO

UCF returned to the court with a 4-3 win at South Florida, securing the Knights with their first 8-0 start ever. A pair of contested matches at Miami, where the Black and Gold were handed their first loss, and a 4-3 comeback at Florida Atlantic brought the squad back to reality and reinstated the competitive nature of college tennis.

The stretch was a nervous lead-up to the ITA Indoor Championship, with the Knights set to face the title holders, No. 4 Ohio State. Arguably the most prolific indoor program in the nation, the Buckeyes had previously beaten UCF during the junior class's first season in 2023 at the ITA Kickoff Weekend in Columbus, Ohio.

After Ohio State claimed the doubles point in 30 minutes, the path ahead was deemed nearly impossible for those following along. But as the lead-up to the Round of 16 duel showed, nothing is guaranteed or promised when six courts are left to be played. A Dlimi triumph on court one over 22nd-ranked Aidan Kim shifted the momentum as Benchakroun and Branger followed suit to push the contest into a 3-2 UCF advantage. 

A pair of three-setters on the back two courts served as the decider, with Oliveira embarking on uncharted territory at the collegiate level. The Brazilian showed impressive composure, prevailing in a second-set tiebreak before dominating the rubber-set, pushing the Knights into the quarterfinals with yet another top-10 win and first over Ohio State. While UCF was bested by Stanford and San Diego in the two days after, its performance in Waco pushed its reputation into another gear.

It's easy to get wrapped up in the "we're happy to be there" sentiment, but we made sure the guys knew we came here to win the tournament. We didn't practice indoors going into so we weren't really prepared, but looking at Ohio State, I knew we had a chance to beat them in specific spots. To go there as a team that had qualified for the first time and do what we did, I was really impressed.

Bruce-Burgess
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CONFERENCE LOWS AND BIGGER HIGHS

A defeat to South Florida in the non-conference finale preceded a Big 12 weekend slate against the conference's best, welcoming the reigning NCAA national champions, TCU and Arizona, to Orlando. While at the time, the Knights weren’t aware their duel with the Horned Frogs would be the first of a dramatic trilogy, they gave the conference favorites a gritty performance, eventually falling 4-2. 

A new normal playing in one of the country's best conferences, UCF welcomed the 10th-ranked Wildcats just two days later. The opening phase of the contest authored a similar result, with the Black and Gold taking the opening doubles point. Unlike the first duel, however, Arizona took two points on the back four courts to leave ninth-ranked Jay Friend with the chance to avenge his team.

What transpired was a career-defining effort from Benchakroun, who battled through cramps and exchanged blows with the All-American in the third set before taking the tiebreak 7-4, proving that lightning can strike twice. After the third top-10 win in 14 matches, UCF was handed a tough defeat at unranked BYU, dropping the No. 11 ranking even after responding against Utah before returning home.

With four down and four to go, the Knights fell to 2-3 after being swept by Baylor, the program that provided UCF its first win in the Big 12 a year prior. Thankfully, Bruce-Burgess and his squad were tenured vets with their backs against the wall, following up the result with three consecutive wins to finish conference play at 5-3 and fourth in the conference for the second-straight season.

There have been so many ridiculous matches over the past two years where you ask yourself, how did we win? But the preparation we do during the week puts you in the position to compete. To be cramping during the whole third set and beat a top-five player in the country, it was absurd from Mehdi [Benchakroun]. It was all down to him and how he's involved in such a remarkable way. His physicality went from being one of his weakest areas to arguably his strongest.

Bruce-Burgess
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WACO PROVIDES FIREWORKS AGAIN

Making the trip to Central Texas for the second time, the Knights were looking for not only their first Big 12 Tournament victory but the boost needed for their resume to potentially host an NCAA regional.

A quarterfinal sweep against Utah eliminated the jitters, setting up an anticipated final-four bout with the regular-season champions and one-seeded TCU. Head coach David Roditti and his squad knew what the Knights were capable of, as their regular-season match was joined by a tight 4-3 result in Fort Worth a season ago. However, this match seemed to be an outlier after TCU jumped out to a 3-0 lead and looked primed for a sweep into the finals.

Somewhat resembling the program’s win against the reigning indoor national champions earlier this season, Dlimi fired off a court-one triumph over a top-25 opponent, securing a career win over seventh-ranked Jack Pinnington in straight sets to turn the tide. After Colin claimed three, it was once again down to Giamichelle and Oliveira on the back two courts. After the junior tallied the leveler on five, the Brazilian freshman sensation turned heads again, defeating Filip Apltauer on six to seal the program’s highest-ranked win of all-time (again) and a spot in the title decider.

While second-seeded Arizona went on to defeat UCF in the third episode between the teams, the Knights didn’t leave Waco with their heads down as just a week later, it was announced they would welcome three schools to Orlando for the NCAA first and second rounds as the nation’s 15-seed.

TCU was a team we always felt good playing against, and we knew they had a few guys missing. Yassine beating Jack [Pinnington] on court one, especially at that moment, to get the point on the board down 3-0, he came up clutch for us. For Nico, to clinch the match, having already done the same against Ohio State as a freshman, was incredible.

Bruce-Burgess
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A HISTORIC WEEKEND IN NONA

Rewarded with the most difficult regional on paper with the highest average rank of opponents, the Sunshine State tournament presented an abundance of storylines. UCF’s first-round match was Miami, which defeated the Knights during the regular season and jumped within the top-25 at times during the season. 

In front of a great crowd at the USTA National Campus, the Black and Gold dominated the Hurricanes 4-1 to claim their second-straight NCAA First Round win. The other portion of the bracket was South Florida, which also spent time in the top-25 and took one of two contests of the Knights earlier in the season, and last season’s opponent, Florida. 

After the Gators advanced, a telling duel between two Florida programs on different paths proved to be a defining collision for the Knights. While it took a three-set tiebreaker decider to defeat the former national champions in 2024, UCF ran away with the second-round bout, defeating its former tormentor emphatically, 4-1. The first regional win in just two hosting bids propelled the Knights into the Sweet 16, the only program in Florida left standing.

While a third episode in an exciting trilogy with eventual NCAA finalists No. 2 TCU went the Horned Frogs’ way, the growth from 2024 to 2025 was evident in every facet. Bruce-Burgess and Allaf instilled a mentality within the team that extended past the court, navigating a grueling schedule against the nation's best.

We got to the point we wanted to get to, we had talked the year prior about wanting to host and that being a goal. We knew what it meant, giving us a better chance to get to the Sweet 16. We had been given a challenging region, with two teams who had already beaten us. We played incredibly well and we came out with the right attitude. There was a reminder that even though we were tired, every other team was as well, so don't expect every team to be fresh. The guys thrived on it and put Florida away for the second season in a row.

Bruce-Burgess
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