Eliot Spizzirri inspired to take on tennis’ top tier after Jannik Sinner thriller at Australian Open

MELBOURNE, Australia—Players don’t often hear “Congratulations” in a post-loss press conference but after Eliot Spizzirri’s effort on Rod Laver Arena, it was certainly appropriate.

The former college standout from the University of Texas gave world No. 2 Jannik Sinner all he could handle a grueling third round on Saturday, taking the first set and leading by a break in the third before the two-time defending champion rallied from a bout of cramps to survive, 4-6, 6-3, 6-4, 6-4.

“You could say it's lucky, but he's also very experienced and handled it, you know, pretty well, I would say,” Spizzirri said when told of Sinner’s post-match assessment.

The 24-year-old, who only played one Top 20 player before Sinner, let out a wry smile when the Laver roof closed when he broke for 3-1 in the third, the tournament’s Extreme Heat Policy kicking in in the middle of the previous game, but felt physically strong throughout the three hour, 45-minute encounter.

“I thought that it was an opportunity to showcase my physicality,” Spizzirri said of his pre-match mentality.

“I was talking to a couple of people in the locker room that I did my preseason with, and this heat's nothing compared to what we deal with in Florida and what I went and trained in in Austin, even New York in the summers with the humidity.

“I played a match in China last year. I think it was 123 on-court temp. I don't think it was even ballpark close to that today. So, yeah, I felt pretty fresh, to be honest, and felt like I could have gone a lot longer.”

Spizzirri will need that stamina throughout the season to come; projected to rise around 14 spots in the ATP rankings, the Connecticut native sounds more than ready to embrace more challenges in the coming months:

Q. On a tennis level, how do you feel about your game? Going toe-to-toe with the two-time defending champion, Sinner, for four sets out there, how encouraging is that for you as a sign of what you can be at this level?

ELIOT SPIZZIRRI: Yeah, definitely encouraging. I never played, you know, especially in a formal match, a player of his caliber. To kind of feel out my game and go toe-to-toe with him, yeah, it felt good. It definitely gives me some confidence to keep going. I have some areas that I definitely need to work on, I think, and maybe that were a little bit exposed. I knew that coming in.

He's one of the best players in the world, so he's going to kind of make you feel where your weaknesses are more than other guys and exploit them. Yeah, I definitely felt like I'll hopefully learn a lot from this match but also take some confidence from it.

Unseeded in Melbourne, he began he week by stunning No. 28 seed Joao Fonseca in four sets and shook of a lost two-set lead over Wu Yibing to secure a career-best Grand Slam finish. While he didn’t beat Sinner on Saturday, a “congratulations” on a breakthrough week, indeed.