Austin – Texas Men's Tennis junior Eliot Spizzirri has been named Big 12 Men's Tennis Player of the Week for the week ending March 26, the conference announced Tuesday.
It marks the ninth weekly honor of his career, setting a conference record previously held by former Longhorn Yuya Ito, who had eight. It is also the fourth time he has earned the honor this season. The Longhorns have garnered five of the awards this year following Spizzirri's previous three on Feb. 14 and 28 and Jan. 24, and junior Siem Woldeab's the week before that.
Spizzirri led Texas to a pair 4-1 wins against top-10 foes, including at No. 1 TCU and at home against No. 10 USC. In doing so, he went a combined 4-0 on the top line in singles and doubles with three of those coming over top-35 opponents. Additionally, he clinched the doubles point and the overall match in both contests.
In singles, Spizzirri claimed two ranked wins, first over No. 21 Jake Fearnley of TCU, 6-3, 3-6, 6-3, followed by No. 32 Stefan Dostanic of USC, 3-6, 6-0, 6-4. In doubles, he and partner Cleeve Harper won both matches in tiebreakers with the one against TCU being over the No. 13 pair of Fearnley and Luc Fomba, 7-6 (5), in the deciding match for the doubles point. The one over Bradley Frye and Peter Makk of USC was also in dramatic fashion, 7-6 (1), as all three matches went to tiebreakers with Texas winning both that finished.
For the year, Spizzirri is now 26-4 overall in singles and 13-1 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. His only four losses this year have come against Ethan Quinn of Georgia in tournament play, who later reached No. 1, Nishesh Basavareddy of Stanford, who later was ranked No. 2, in the final of the ITA Fall National Championships, and No. 77 Rafa Izquierdo Luque of NC State. Spizzirri lost twice to Quinn in the fall, but later avenged those by defeating Quinn when Quinn was No. 1 in a dual match win over Georgia. Spizzirri is now 19-0 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 are 15-11 overall and 10-7 in dual matches, all of those at No. 1, including six top-20 wins. The wins over TCU and USC give Texas five top-10 victories this season, two of which avenged the team's only losses to TCU and Ohio State, and 12 top-25 wins.
Texas returns to the court to open Big 12 play with a pair of home matches this weekend at the Texas Tennis Center, first against No. 36 Oklahoma State on Friday at 6:30 p.m., then versus No. 44 Oklahoma on Sunday at 1 p.m. Both matches will air on Longhorn Network.
