No. 7 Texas takes down UTSA and No. 12 Georgia
January 23, 2023
The Texas men’s tennis team had a busy weekend, sweeping UTSA 7–0 in its home opener on Friday and defeating No. 12 Georgia 4–3 on Sunday.
The No. 7 Longhorns pulled off a clean sweep vs. the Roadrunners on Friday at the Texas Tennis Center. In singles play, every Longhorn won outright, including four straight set victories from No. 13 junior Siem Woldeab, sophomore Pierre-Yves Bailly, senior Chih Chi Huang and No. 104 junior Evin McDonald.
The Longhorns also swept every doubles match, including an upset from junior Eliot Spizzirri and redshirt junior Cleeve Harper over the No. 6 ranked duo of Alan Magadan and Sebastian Rodriguez. Woldeab and sophomore Pierre-Yves Bailly defeated Tiago Torres and Jackson Ross 6–1 and the duo of Huang and junior Eshan Talluri defeated the pair of Tomas Pinho and Garrett Skelly 4–3, unf.
With its victory over UTSA, Texas extends its all-time record versus UTSA to 16–0, dating back to 2008. In that span, the Longhorns have swept the Roadrunners ten times, including Friday’s victory.
Following its victory against UTSA on Friday, Texas turned its attention to a top-15 matchup vs. No. 12 Georgia, less than 48 hours later.
Georgia, coming off its season-opening 5–2 loss last Sunday in Tallahassee against Florida State, was a tough test for Texas with many long rallies during both the singles and doubles matches. The top 15 matchup did not disappoint, with Texas prevailing 4–3 on Sunday afternoon.
In doubles play, Georgia’s No. 55 pairing of Blake Croyder and Britton Johnston got the Bulldogs off to a good start defeating Texas’ pairing of Talluri and Huang. Shortly after, Texas’ Woldeab and Bailly beat Georgia’s pairing of fifth-year seniors Teodor Giusca and Phillip Henning. All attention turned to court one, where Texas’ No. 7 pairing of Harper and Spizzirri outlasted Georgia’s No.19 pairing of Ethan Quinn and Trent Bryde in a tightly contested 7–6 (7–4) match to clinch the doubles point for the Longhorns.
Woldeab got the Longhorns started in singles play with a strong straight-set win over Teodor Guisca 7–5, 6–4. Woldeab continued his momentum from Friday, building an early 5–2 lead, but Guisca showed resolve and won three games in a row to get it back to 5–5. Woldeab won the next two games, which included a deft drop shot to go up 6–5 after a long rally.
Bailly, the Belgian sophomore, also won in straight sets over No. 10 Phillip Benning 6–3, 7–5, giving Texas a commanding 3–0 lead.
Georgia’s first point came as Georgia’s No. 21 Blake Croyder beat Texas’ Huang 3–6, 6–3, 6–4.
The most anticipated singles matchup of Texas’ season so far was a matchup on court 1 between Texas’ Spizzirri and Georgia’s Quinn, two of the highest-rated players in the country. The back-and-forth first set did not disappoint, with multiple rapid serves and huge forehands from each player, with Quinn narrowly winning 6–7 (5–7). Similar to his response following his surprising first-set loss to UTSA’s Tiago Torres on Friday, Spizzirri flipped a switch and roared back resoundingly. He dominated the final two sets to upset the nation’s top-ranked singles player, winning each 6–1 convincingly to seal Texas’ third victory of the season.
The last singles matches to finish were Georgia’s No. 106 Trent Bryde besting Texas’ Harper 6–4, 2–6, 6–2 and Georgia sophomore Miguel Perez Peña defeating Texas’ No. 104 McDonald 4–6, 6–4, 6–4.
Next up for the Longhorns is unranked Cal in the first round of the ITA Kick-Off Weekend at the Texas Tennis Center next Saturday, with the winner playing either No. 15 Arizona or Florida Atlantic.
