March 24, 2008

LUBBOCK, Texas - For the second straight week Texas Tech men's tennis has snagged a Big 12 Player of the Week honor. Junior Michael Breler was recognized today by the conference for the second time in his career, the first falling in March 2006. In Saturday's match Breler clinched both the doubles and match point to give No. 21 Texas Tech the 4-3 victory over No. 19 Texas A&M.

Playing No. 2 doubles Breler and teammate Sinisa Markovic defeated the Aggies Chris Chirico and Conor Pollock 7-3 in the tiebreaker to get the 9-8 win and sink in the doubles point for Tech. The duo began conference play 1-0 and are currently ranked No. 28 nationally with a 9-3 record this spring, 14-4 overall.

In the final singles match of the day Breler took Kayvon Karimi in three sets, winning 6-2, 3-6, 7-5. He holds a duals record of 14-1, 21-4 overall. Breler also leads his team in singles as he boasted a 13 match win streak before losing last weekend at Blue-Gray Classic to VCU's Sebastien Ripoll. This season already he has clinched five match points playing in the No. 6 spot for the Red Raiders, including wins over players from A&M, Denver, Arkansas-Little Rock, UNLV, and San Diego.