Lubbock, Texas – No. 1 Texas Men's Tennis defeated No. 37 Texas Tech, 5-2, on Thursday at the McLeod Tennis Center in Lubbock in the Longhorns' first Big 12 road match of the season. The win moved UT to 3-0 in conference play and 19-2 overall.
Texas secured the doubles point with wins at Nos. 1 and 3 and followed with singles victories by junior No. 1 Eliot Spizzirri at No. 1, sophomore No. 27 Pierre-Yves Bailly at No. 2, junior No. 33 Siem Woldeab at No. 3 to clinch, and junior Evin McDonald at No. 6.
After the Longhorns took a 1-0 lead with the doubles point, Spizzirri put together an efficient, 6-3, 6-3 win over No. 58 Olle Wallin for his 18th win this year against a top-75 opponent. Spizzirri broke early for a 2-0 lead, and although Wallin answered it on a deuce point in the next game, Spizzirri broke again for 4-2, which carried him to the 6-3 win. In the second set, Spizzirri would need only one break, which he claimed for a 3-2 lead on his way to another 6-3 victory.
Bailly was next off the court with a matching 6-3, 6-3 decision over Franco Ribero to extend the Texas lead to 3-0. Bailly gathered the only two breaks of the first set, first for a 2-1 lead on a deuce point, and then to take the set at 6-3. He again collected two breaks in the second for advantages of 2-0 and 5-1, but Ribero stayed alive with back-to-back deuce-point wins for his first break of the match and a hold for 5-3. However, Bailly did not miss on his second chance to close on serve, which he did in the next game for the 6-3 finish.
Texas Tech got on the board with its first point after that, a 6-4, 7-5 win by Reed Collier over junior Cleeve Harper at No. 4. Harper won three deuce points in the first five games for a 4-1 lead, but Collier responded with a 5-0 run for the set. The second was then back and forth with Collier breaking first on a deuce point for a 2-1 lead that he made 3-1 on serve. Harper then mounted a 3-0 run to the lead that he capped with a deuce-point hold. The next game also went to deuce, but Collier was able to hold to even it for 4-4 before later breaking for a 6-5 lead and closing the match on serve, 7-5.
The clinch then came from Woldeab, who rallied from down a set against Isaac Arevalo for a 3-6, 6-2, 6-1 victory. Arevalo secured the only break of the first set on a deuce point for a 5-3 lead as part of a 5-0 run that also set him up with a 2-0 lead in the second. From there, though, it was all Woldeab. He set out on a 9-0 run and finished the match winning 12 of the last 13 games with only three of those coming at deuce.
That left two singles contests on the court where McDonald had breakers all around in his 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5), 1-0 (7) win over Dimitrios Azoidis. In the first set, McDonald trailed 3-0, 4-1 and 5-2 with the first of two of those being holds by Azoidis at deuce. However, McDonald rallied to tie it, 5-5, with a 3-0 run that he completed with a deuce-point hold of his own. The last two games were then on serve to head to a tiebreaker that was tight the whole way until Azoidis took the last two points for the win. In the second set, the only two breaks came on back-to-back deuce points, first by Azoidis for a 4-3 edge, then by McDonald to return it to being on serve where it stayed the breaker. This time, it was McDonald who prevailed after turning a 3-3 tie into a 6-3 lead. Azoidis pulled within 6-5, but the next point went to McDonald for the win. With the match already clinched, the players went to a superbreaker where McDonald used another key 3-0 run to turn a 5-4 deficit into a 7-5 lead that he then expanded to 9-6 en route to the 10-7 win.
The remaining match had already begun its third set when the clinch happened and was played to its full conclusion with senior Nevin Arimilli falling to Lorenzo Esquici, 3-6, 6-4, 6-4, at No. 5. The first two games were both deuce-point breaks starting with Esquici. Arimilli's then started a 3-0 run as he won five of the next six games to lead, 5-2, before closing the set at 6-3. In the second, Arimilli broke first for 2-1 and consolidated it to 3-1, but Esquici went on a 3-0 run that he capped with a deuce-point hold for a 4-3 lead. After Arimilli tied it, 4-4, Esquici emerged from the set with two more deuce-point wins. It was then Arimilli's turn for deuce wins, which he used to open the third with a break and then hold for a 3-1 lead. However, Esquici held both of his next two serves at deuce with the second beginning a 4-0 run to his win after trailing 4-3.
Earlier in doubles, the No. 3 duo of Harper and Spizzirri sprinted out to a 5-0 lead again the No. 80 pair of Azoidis and Collier on the way to a 6-1 win at No. 1. The Longhorns won three of the first four games at deuce, and the Red Raiders also took their lone game at deuce for 5-1 before Texas served out the match.
McDonald partnered with senior Chih Chi Huang for the fourth-straight match, and they then came away with their third win, a 6-3 decision over Arevalo and Wallin to clinch the point at No. 3. After a deuce point hold for a 3-2 lead, Texas produced the only break of the contest for 4-2 and maintained that to the win.
In the unfinished match at No. 2, Woldeab and Bailly trailed the No. 77 pair of Ribero and Piotr Pawlak, 5-3, when play stopped. Texas Tech broke to open the match, and the rest of the contest stayed on serve despite two deuce points on Red Raider serves, which they held for leads of 3-1 and 5-3.
Texas (19-2, 3-0) will next play the second half of its Big 12 road trip, visiting No. 41 Baylor in Waco on Saturday, April 8, at 6 p.m. CT.
#1 Texas 5, #37 Texas Tech 2
Singles – Order of Finish (1,2,4,3,6,5)
1. #1 Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. #58 Olle Wallin (TTU) 6-3, 6-3
2. #27 Pierre-Yves Bailly (UT) def. Franco Ribero (TTU) 6-3, 6-3
3. #33 Siem Woldeab (UT) def. Isaac Arevalo (TTU) 3-6, 6-2, 6-1
4. Reed Collier (TTU) def. Cleeve Harper (UT) 6-4, 7-5
5. Lorenzo Esquici (TTU) def. Nevin Arimilli (UT) 3-6, 6-4, 6-4
6. Evin McDonald (UT) def. Dimitrios Azoidis (TTU) 6-7 (6), 7-6 (5), 1-0 (7)
Doubles – Order of Finish (1,3)
1. #3 Cleeve Harper/Eliot Spizzirri (UT) def. #80 Dimitrios Azoidis/Reed Collier (TTU) 6-1
2. #77 Piotr Pawlak/Franco Ribero (TTU) vs. Pierre-Yves Bailly/Siem Woldeab (UT) 5-3, unf.
3. Chih Chi Huang/Evin McDonald (UT) def. Isaac Arevalo/Olle Wallin (TTU) 6-3
