It’s almost the end of an era for the UCF Knights Men’s Tennis team, as the final recruiting class of former head coach John Roddick, which had predominantly made up the roster since 2022, now enters their senior seasons.

Those seniors have a tough act to follow after last season. So, here’s everything you need to know about the Knights as they start their 2026 dual-match season:

How Dual-Match Tennis Works

The dual match begins with Doubles Play, in which three matches are played between a pair of players from each team. The school that wins two out of the three Doubles matches gets one point. 

After doubles play, six Singles Play matches are played between members of each school, each worth one point.

The school with the most points after all the matches are played is the victor. However, it is not uncommon that the dual match will end early once one team gets four points, since it becomes mathematically impossible for the other team to come back.

Last Season

23-9 (5-3 Big 12); 4th in Big 12; Lost in NCAA Tournament Sweet 16 to TCU

It was a season to remember for the Knights. Despite initially getting picked to finish sixth in the Big 12, they proceeded to win four Top 10-ranked teams matchups, two of them against Arizona, make it to the Big 12 Championship match, host a regional for just the second time ever, reach the Sweet 16 for the first time in program history and get their most wins ever in the program’s Division 1 era.

“It’s definitely going to be a different feel,” head coach Lloyd Bruce-Burgess said. “With everything we’ve achieved, there is obviously things ahead that we’d like to do. I think the college tennis world probably respects our program a lot more now.”

Fall Recap

The Knights only participated in three collegiate events during the fall, but despite limited appearances and no Knights making their way to the NCAA Singles and Doubles Tournaments, a couple of Knights stood out.

Oregon transfer Clement Lemire went 8-4 in singles play across all three events, partially helped by his run to the quarterfinals of the ITA Southeast Regional. He ended up being eliminated by then #32 Hugo Car of South Florida.

Meanwhile, Nicolas Oliveira, returning for his sophomore season, went 7-3 in singles play during the fall and took home the singles title on the ITF circuit in Ribeirao Preto, Brazil.

This Season

Picked to finish 4th in Big 12 Preseason Poll; Ranked #14 in Preseason ITA Rankings

The Big 12’s Coaches projected the Knights to finish exactly where it left off in 2025: fourth place.

It is not just the college tennis world that respects UCF more; the ITA rankings do too.

Both preseason favorite TCU and second-place Arizona both rank higher than UCF in the preseason ITA rankings at #3 and #11 in the nation, respectively, but third-place Baylor is actually just two spots below the Knights at #16. However, UCF has to go on the road to play all three of them this season.

Bruce-Burgess said that, on paper, the Knights have an even better team than they did last season.

“Of course, still getting those results, there’s still work to be done,” Bruce-Burges said. “Even achieving the results we did last year with this year’s team would be phenomenal. I do know we can go past that and deeper, but you know last year’s results were, at times, hard to believe, I guess. So, being able to do anything similar to that would certainly be successful, but I know we’re capable of going much further.

Who’s in Charge

Lloyd Bruce-Burgess – 5th season at UCF (3rd as Men’s Team Head Coach)

Back when we first met Lloyd Bruce-Burgess, he said he was not sure being a college tennis head coach would ever happen for him. Now, just two seasons in, he is coming off his first contract extension (two years) after leading the Knights to their first-ever Sweet 16.

However, now come the expectations as the college tennis world has taken notice.

Bruce-Burgess also made an addition to his staff, bringing on one of this season’s senior class’s former teammates, Lleyton Cronje, as a second assistant coach. Cronje has still been in Orlando since graduating after the 2024 season, and this year he wants “to make a push to pursue college tennis as a career,” Bruce-Burgess said.

Watch Bryson Turner’s preview video with Coach Bruce-Burgess here:

Players to Watch

Yassine Dlimi and Mehdi Benchakroun

This duo from Morocco is back for one last ride in the Black and Gold.

Both are coming after being named to the All-Big 12 Singles Team last season and are poised to lead the Knights on the court and in the locker room this season.

Dlimi is also coming off getting named as the ITA Southeast Region’s Player to Watch last season.

Nicolas Oliveira

While Oliveira is coming off winning a singles title on the ITF circuit in December, he also made a mark for the Knights in his true freshman season in 2025, going 13-8. He ended up getting named the ITA Southeast Region’s Rookie of the Year for his efforts.

Now, he’s back for Year #2.

What to Watch For

Doubles Play

Last season, UCF was 17-3 when it won the doubles point and 5-6 when it lost it. Losing the doubles point is by no means the end of a match. It does give you a cushion of needing to win one less singles match, and sometimes, especially in high-ranking matchups, that’s all it takes.

With the departure of Liam Branger, the Knights lost a potential Top 50 doubles duo. So, the question is, can a new doubles duo come together and become reliable winners on Court No. 1?

Lineup Switches

The Knights are a deep squad in 2026. Not only do they still have highly regarded freshmen in Pedro Rodrigues and Fadi Bidan, but they also have three experienced new additions from the transfer portal. With four players from last season’s regular starting lineup returning from last season, the standard of who makes the starting lineup this season is raised.

Bruce-Burgess did point out, however, that of UCF’s close wins last season, or matches that ended in the score of 4-2 or 4-3, the Knights did not have their “full lineup” for 40% of them, whether it was due to injury or something else.

“Just reminding the guys that you may not be in the starting six when we’re at full strength, but a lot of these big matches we play, we don’t play with our full lineup because someone’s injured or something happens,” Bruce-Burgess said. “So just encouraging them to stay ready, pointing out as well that we have a lot of players currently on our team who have made big jumps and improvements that have experienced not being selected.”

Who We’ll Miss

Santiago Giamichelle

After transferring into UCF in 2023, Santiago Giamichelle hit the portal once again for a new home for his final season of college tennis. He went 15-5 in singles play and 19-6 in doubles play last season.

This season, he is competing with the Georgia Bulldogs and is part of the No. 25 doubles pair in the nation.

Liam Branger

After three seasons with the Knights, Branger has run out of college eligibility and will not be back in 2026. He went 9-8 in singles, with five of those wins being clinching points, and 8-4 in doubles with fellow Frenchman Paul Colin, who reached as high as #45 in the nation.

Who’s New That’s Good

Wissam Abderrahman

The former Clemson Tiger has made an impression on the Knights this fall as he heads into the dual match season at #59 in the nation in singles play. He also went 14-3 in doubles play last season.

Pedro Rodrigues

For the second straight season, the Knights have brought in a highly-regarded freshman from Brazil. Hailing from Belo Horizonte, a six-hour drive away from Rio de Janeiro, Rodrigues has already made it to the semifinals of an ATP Challenger event, reached as high as No. 24 in the world in the ITF Juniors ranking, and competed in the junior editions of the French Open and Wimbledon.

He also made it to the Round of 16 in the ITA Southeast Regional singles tournament in his first appearance in a UCF uniform.

Roster Breakdown

• 2 Freshman
• 3 Sophomores
• 1 Junior
• 4 Seniors
• 1 Floridian
• 9 International Players (Brazil, Morocco, France, England and Lebanon)

Schedule Breakdown

The Knights start off with a couple of double-bill match days before heading off for ITA Kickoff Weekend on in a group with #19 USC, #15 California and #21 Oklahoma, which Bruce-Burgess called “the group of death” to round out the month of January.

The rest of UCF’s non-conference slate has them welcoming four NCAA Tournament teams, Florida, Miami (FL), #25 Clemson and UNC Wilmington to the USTA National Campus.

Such home field advantage with matchups against such opponents could prove crucial as Big 12 play sees the Knights go on the road to face all three of their fellow Big 12 ITA Top 25 teams in TCU, Baylor and Arizona, with the matchups against the two Texas teams being on the same weekend.

The season does round out with the USTA National Campus hosting the Big 12 Tournament, though.

 Big 12 Conference Tournament

• Hosted by UCF at the USTA National Campus
• Dates: April 16-18

The Last Time…

UCF won a conference tournament: 2021. It was the first time the Knights won a conference tournament since the three-peat of 2003-05.

Quarter Century Team

To celebrate the quarter-century mark of the 21st century, the Banneret has been assembling All-Century Teams across all of UCF sports, covering the best players since 2000.

Here is the Men’s Tennis All-Quarter Century Team, featuring six singles players and three doubles pairs.

Singles

Doubles