The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
Spizzirri named Big 12 Men's Tennis Player of the Week
01.26.2021 | Men's Tennis
Sophomore Eliot Spizzirri earns the first conference weekly honor of his career after clinching the Longhorns’ 4-3 win over No. 9 Florida.
Austin – Texas Men's Tennis sophomore Eliot Spizzirri has been named Big 12 Men's Tennis Player of the Week for the week ending Jan. 24, the conference announce Tuesday. It marks Spizzirri's first conference weekly honor of his career.
Spizzirri turned in a clutch performance with his singles win over No. 8 Sam Riffice at No. 2 singles that broke a 3-3 tie with No. 9 Florida and won the championship of the Austin ITA Kickoff Weekend, sending the Longhorns to the ITA National Team Indoors for the third-straight year. Despite multiple weather delays during the match and finally a location change indoors in between the second and third sets, Spizzirri persevered and took the deciding set from one of the nation's top singles players in Riffice, 6-3, including jumping out to a 3-0 lead. Spizzirri recovered from a 7-5 loss in the first set, which he had led 4-1, with a strong performance in the second set, winning it 6-4 with a break in the final game after the rest of the set stayed on serve.
Spizzirri is now on a nine-match winning streak in singles, is 4-0 in dual match play and 11-1 overall this year going back to fall tournament play. Along with his singles win against Florida, Spizzirri posted a pair of wins the day before as part of a 4-1 team win over Liberty with a 6-4, 6-1 victory over Josh Wilson at No. 2 singles, and a 6-4 win with Siem Woldeab over Wilson and Goncalo Ferreira at No. 1 doubles. His lone defeat came at No. 1 doubles against Florida to the No. 45 duo of Riffice and Duarte Vale (both top-12 singles players) with Woldeab.
Spizzirri and the Longhorns return to the court for two home matches this weekend, first against No. 15 Baylor on Saturday and then against Arizona State on Sunday with both starting at 12 p.m. CT.
Players Mentioned
