ORLANDO - Following a strong weekend at the ITA Indoor Championship, junior Yassine Dlimi has been named the Big 12 Conference Player of the Week, marking the third edition this season a Knight has taken home the honor.
Announced Tuesday afternoon, the award secures Dlimi his second player of the week placement in his career, with his first coming during a storied freshman campaign in the American Athletic Conference.
Leading UCF as it embarked on its first ITA Indoor Championship, the Moroccan authored a trio of gritty displays on court one in singles. The highlight came during the squad’s first bout with No. 4 Ohio State, with Dlimi serving as the turning point for a remarkable win.
Opposite former Florida Gator, Aidan Kim, he was energetic in his straight-set victory, besting the 22nd-ranked player in the country 6-3, 6-4. The win sparked an eye-catching 4-2 win over Ohio State in the first round, securing the program with its highest-ranked win and a spot in the final eight.
In a competition filled with the 16 best teams in the nation, Dlimi immediately followed up the triumph with a hard-fought match against Stanford’s Samir Banerjee. The 2022 Juniors Wimbledon champion had previously beaten the nation’s top-ranked player in Columbia’s Michael Zheng the day prior, with the Cardinal sitting at No. 31 himself.
After falling in the first set, Dlimi responded resoundingly with a 6-3 win in the second before their duel went unfinished in the third. On Sunday, the junior faced off with the second-ranked Oliver Tarvet, proving his talent with two highly-contested sets en route to an eventual defeat.
Currently holding an 8-3 record in dual matches, Dlimi has consistently battled with the top players in the nation, all while leading his team to a pair of top-10 wins throughout the opening month of the season.
The Knights will be back in action this weekend at the USTA National Campus as it opens a seven-match homestand with a pair of contests against UAB (Friday at 6 p.m.) and Stetson (Sunday at 6 p.m.).