Austin – Texas Men's Tennis junior Eliot Spizzirri has been named Big 12 Men's Tennis Player of the Week for the week ending April 9 the conference announced Tuesday. With the honor, he ties his own single-season Big 12 record with his fifth weekly award this year and extends his own career record to 10. He previously had five in a season in 2021.
The Longhorns have garnered six of the awards this year following Spizzirri's previous four on March 28, Feb. 14 and 28 and Jan. 24, along with junior Siem Woldeab's on Jan. 17.
Spizzirri led Texas to two Big 12 road wins starting with a 5-2 victory at No. 37 Texas Tech on Thursday, followed by a 4-0 sweep at No. 41 Baylor on Saturday. In doing so, he went a combined 3-0 on the top line in singles and doubles with all three coming over top-80 opponents, including one top-20. Against the Red Raiders, he was first off the court in both doubles and singles, helping the Longhorns clinch the doubles point with a 6-1 win with Cleeve Harper over No. 80 Dimitrios Azoidis and Reed Collier. He then posted another efficient win over No. 53 Olle Wallin, 6-3, 6-3, in singles, leading to Texas clinching the overall match at 4-1.
At Baylor, Spizzirri and Harper clinched doubles with a 7-5 win over the No. 20 pair of Finn Bass and Juampi Mazzuchi for their sixth top-20 win of the year. His singles match against Zsombor Velcz was then on serve in heading to the second game of the third set when the Longhorns clinched.
For the year, Spizzirri is now 29-4 overall in singles and 16-1 in dual matches, all of which have been at the No. 1 line. He became the first Longhorn since 2015 to ascend to No. 1 in the ITA singles rankings on Feb. 8 and has maintained that since. Spizzirri is 21-1 against all ranked singles players, including 14-0 against the top-50, and 9-0 versus the top-25. In doubles, he and Cleeve Harper moved up to No. 2 in the national rankings, are 19-11 overall and 14-7 in dual matches, all of those at No. 1, and have won their last six matches.
Spizzirri has helped guide the Longhorns through one of the most difficult schedules in the country this season. Of their 20 wins, only two have come against teams not ranked in the top-45, including Pepperdine, which was receiving votes in the top-25 coaches poll at the time. Meanwhile their only two losses have come against teams that rose to No. 1 the following week in Ohio State and TCU, and Texas avenged both defeats when playing those teams a second time.
The Longhorns (20-2, 4-0) will conclude the regular season with an opportunity to play for the Big 12 title against No. 3 TCU, which is also 4-0 in the conference, on Saturday, April 15, at 7 p.m. CT. That match will air on Longhorn Network.
