STILLWATER, Okla. – No. 39 Baylor men's tennis opens the Big 12 Championship as the No. 6 seed against third-seeded TCU on Friday for the two teams' third meeting this season. The tournament will be held on Friday-Sunday in Stillwater, Okla., at the Greenwood Tennis Center.
 
The Bears (18-10 (2-5 Big 12)) face off against No. 3 seed TCU (20-3 (5-2 Big12)) in the quarterfinal match on Friday at noon as they journey to the 26th Big 12 Championship in program history.
 
Live stats are available online and Big 12 Now on ESPN+ will carry Cracked Racquet's CrossCourt Cast.
 
Going into the 13th match against the Horned Frogs in the Michael Woodson era and the 73rd match all-time, the Bears trail 41-31 in the series. In the previous two matchups this season, BU fell to the Horned Frogs 4-2 in their first meeting and 4-1 in their second. Baylor has never lost a match to TCU in the conference tournament, taking five straight since 2013.
 
Advancing out of the quarterfinal matchup, BU would then face the winner of the Texas Tech (9-14 (1-6 Big 12)) and Oklahoma (19-3 (6-1 Big 12)) match. Baylor defeated Texas Tech, 4-1, in Waco, but fell to the Sooners in Norman, 4-0.
 
As the regular season concluded, Devin Badenhorst (3-3) leads the Bears in Big 12 singles, while Tadeas Paroulek and Zsombor Velcz (3-3) lead the team in Big 12 doubles at Court One.
 
Of those players, Paroulek and Velcz stayed at No. 33 in the most recent ITA doubles rankings, while singles saw Paroulek 66^th, Velcz 80^th and Badenhorst 113^th.  
 
For Baylor's first opponents of the weekend, the Horned Frogs have five singles and two doubles ranked by the ITA. No. 8 Jake Fearnley (9-2) leads the team in singles and only has one loss against nationally-ranked opponents. Shortly following him is No. 10 Jack Pinnington, while also ranked in singles are No. 55 Pedro Vives, No. 72 Lui Maxted and No. 74 Sebastian Gorzny. Leading TCU in doubles is No. 5 Gorzny and Vives (8-2), followed by No. 87 Duncan Chan and Maxted.
 
The Bears look to be back on top after Baylor claimed the 2021 and 2022 tournament titles under Woodson, and took the 2014 and 2019 championships after being the last team standing seven times in eight seasons between 2002 and 2009. In the 26 years of the tournament, Baylor is 44-15.
 
For the latest news on the Baylor men's tennis team all year long, follow its official Facebook, Twitter and Instagram accounts: @BaylorMTennis.