The University of Texas at Austin Athletics
05.23.2021 | Men's Tennis
Men’s Tennis sophomore Eliot Spizzirri earned a top-10 win over No. 8 (9 seed) Johannus Monday of Tennessee in the first round on Sunday.
Orlando – Men's Tennis sophomore No. 23 Eliot Spizzirri advanced to the Second Round of the NCAA Singles Championship with a 6-4, 7-5 win over No. 8 (9 seed) Johannus Monday of Tennessee on Sunday at the USTA National Campus in Orlando.
Freshman No. 38 Micah Braswell also participated in the first round and nearly gave the Longhorns two top-10 wins, but came up just short in a third-set tiebreaker against No. 9 (8 seed) Gabriel Decamps of UCF, 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7).
For Spizzirri, it was his second top-10 win in his last four matches after downing No. 2 Daniel Rodrigues of South Carolina during the team Round of 16. He now has eight wins against top-60 opponents this season. Against Monday, the first five games of the match all stayed on serve, leaving Spizzirri with a 3-2 advantage. He had just missed out on a deuce point break in the game before that, however in the next game he secured one to go up, 4-2. Monday then answered the break and held to even it at 4-4 before Spizzirri reversed that with a hold and a break to take the set. In the second, almost the entire frame stayed on serve giving Spizzirri a 6-5 lead despite there being five deuce points that included a stretch of four out of five games in the first half of the set. However, Spizzirri finally snapped the streak and captured the break he needed to win the match at 7-5. The victory moved Spizzirri's overall singles record to 25-10 this season.
Braswell's match was a tale of three sets where each player controlled one of the first two sets before combining for an extremely close one in the third. The first set belonged to Braswell, as he went on a 4-0 run after Decamps held serve in the opening game. Decamps picked up one more game on a break that made it 4-2, but Braswell broke back and held for the win. The second set was Decamps', who used a pair of deuce point wins to ignite a 6-0 run after Braswell had broken his serve in the first game. That pushed it to a third set, which despite ending up close, the first six games were a microcosm of the first two sets with Braswell winning the first three, only for Decamps to come back and win the next three, one of which was on a deuce point. The final six games leading to the tiebreaker all stayed on serve with each player winning a deuce point, at 5-4 for Braswell and 5-5 for Decamps, with the second of those also being a match point for Braswell.
In the tiebreaker, Braswell served first and grabbed a mini-break on the third point to take a 2-1 lead that he extended to 4-1 on serve. The next three points were also on serve, but the two following were both mini-breaks, leaving Braswell up 6-4 with two match points. Decamps was able to fend those off to tie it at 6-6, and after Braswell regained the lead on the next point, Decamps closed on a 3-0 run for the win. The match concluded an sensational true freshman season for Braswell, who finished with a 35-7 overall singles record.
Spizzirri will return to the court tomorrow in both singles and doubles. In singles, he will face Aleksandar Kovacevic of Illinois at 1 p.m. CT/2 p.m. ET, while in doubles he will pair with sophomore Siem Woldeab against No. 24 Rithvik Bollipalli and Jacob Wojcik of South Florida at 5:30 p.m. CT/6:30 p.m. ET.
NCAA Singles and Doubles Championship
Singles
First Round – Sunday, May 23
#23 Eliot Spizzirri (Texas) def. #8 (7 seed) Johannus Monday (Tennessee), 6-4, 7-5
#9 (8 seed) Gabriel Decamps (UCF) def. #38 Micah Braswell (Texas), 2-6, 6-1, 7-6 (7)
Second Round ¬– Monday, May 24
#23 Eliot Spizzirri (Texas) vs. Aleksandar Kovacevic (Illinois), 1 p.m. CT/2 p.m. ET
Doubles
First Round – Monday, May 24
#11 Eliot Spizzirri/Siem Woldeab (Texas) vs. #24 Rithvik Bollipalli/Jacob Wojcik (South Florida), 5:30 p.m. CT/6:30 p.m. ET
