TEMPE, Ariz. — BYU men’s tennis juniors Wally Thayne and Zach Fuchs have entered the ITA Collegiate Tennis Rankings sponsored by Tennis-Point with a No. 71 national doubles ranking. The duo moved into the rankings after a 7-6 (8) win over Texas Tech’s No. 40 Piotr Pawlak and Sebastian Abboud last week.
Thayne and Fuchs hold a team-leading 10-5 doubles record together on the season, including a 3-3 Big 12 mark and two ranked wins. The Cougars’ No. 1 doubles tandem has won two straight, having previously defeated third-ranked TCU’s Jack Pinnington and Pedro VIves 6-4 on April 4.
The duo’s other victory in conference play was a dominant 6-2 home win over then fourth-ranked Texas’s No. 53 Eliot Spizzirri and Siem Woldeab. Thayne and Fuchs will likely face the same tandem when BYU faces off with top-seeded Texas in the opening round of the Big 12 Championship.
In singles, Thayne holds a 14-6 record while Fuchs stands at 10-8. The pair also competed at last fall’s ITA National Fall Championships, becoming the first Cougars to advance to the Sweet 16 in the event since 2010. The performance earned them a spot at No. 35 in the ITA’s end-of-fall rankings.
Thayne is a two-time All-WCC Honorable Mention Singles recipient, in addition to claiming All-WCC Second Team Doubles with Fuchs in 2022-23. Fuchs finished last season with a team-high singles winning percentage for BYU.
BYU’s match with first-seeded No. 5 Texas in the opening round of the Big 12 Championship is set to begin at 2 p.m. MDT on Friday, April 19.