Texas tennis has a chance at a national championship. Who's still alive in NCAA tournament?
The Texas men's tennis duo of Eliot Spizzirri and Cleeve Harper reached the doubles semifinals at the NCAA Championships for the second straight year with a win Thursday at the Greenwood Tennis Center in Stillwater, Okla.
It is the third consecutive trip to the semifinals for Harper, who won the title in 2022 with Richard Ciamarra before reaching the finals with Spizzirri last year.
Seeded No. 24, Harper and Spizzirri claimed a 6-3, 6-3 victory over No. 11 Petar Jovanovic and Benito Sanchez Martinez of Mississippi State to advance.
They will face No. 13 Antoine Cornut-Chauvinc and Joshua Dous Karpenschif of Florida State at a time to be determined Friday.
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Micah Braswell ends career in singles round of 16
Senior Micah Braswell saw his remarkable Texas career end Wednesday with a 6-4, 6-4 loss to Alabama's Filip Planinsek in the NCAA men’s singles round of 16. The loss snapped his 37-match winning streak in singles dating back to the fall. In February, he supplanted Spizzirri as the No. 1 player in the ITA singles rankings for the first time, making him the third Longhorn since 2015 to hold that position. Outside of that, he has been No. 2 through most of the spring season.
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Overall, the All-Big 12 first-team honoree went 40-3 in 2023-24 with 26 ranked wins, 18 top-50 victories and a 21-0 mark in dual matches. He ranks third in program history with 119 singles victories. He also topped Jack Pinnington for the ITA Fall Nationals singles title to become the second Longhorn to win that tournament and give Texas a sweep of the two fall majors for just the second time in program history with Spizzirri winning the ITA All-American Championships.An All-American in singles competition for the past two years, Braswell is a three-time All-Big 12 selection with first-team honors in 2022 and 2024 and second-team accolades in 2021. Additionally, he earned the 2021 Big 12 freshman of the year award.
This article originally appeared on Austin American-Statesman: Longhorns Eliot Spizzirri, Cleeve Harper in NCAA tennis doubles semis
