April 4, 2007
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - For a third consecutive week, San Diego State senior Markus Dickhardt has been named Mountain West Conference Men's Tennis Player of the Week, the league announced Wednesday afternoon. Dickhardt becomes the first conference tennis player, both men and women, to win the weekly honor three straight weeks.
Dickhardt helped San Diego State post a perfect 3-0 mark to open league play and extend the Aztecs' season-long winning streak to seven matches. Individually, he went a combined 6-0 on the week, beating a pair of nationally-ranked players in singles action, and teaming with senior Christian Groh for a win over a nationally-ranked duo in doubles play.
The 52nd-ranked Dickhardt opened singles action with a 6-1, 5-7, 6-1 victory over No. 59 Elliot Wronski of UNLV, then registered straight-set wins against New Mexico's Max Jones (6-3, 6-3) and TCU's No. 106 Cosmin Cotet (6-2, 6-1).
In doubles, the No. 17 duo of Dickhardt and Groh pocketed wins over UNLV's Elliot Wronski and Brett Hunter (9-7), New Mexico's Max Jones and Kamil Pajkowski (8-3) and TCU's No. 23 pair of Cosmin Cotet and Kriegler Brink (9-8). The win over the nationally-ranked Cotet and Brink was the first of the season for the SDSU tandem.
A native of Marburg, Germany, Dickhardt is currently on a career-high 14-match winning streak, one that includes a six-match win streak over nationally-ranked players. He is now 16-2 in the dual season with a 12-1 mark at No. 1 singles and a 22-5 singles record overall. In doubles, Dickhardt and Groh have won four straight and are 7-2 at the No. 1 position.
In addition to being honored three times in a row, Dickhardt joins former SDSU All-American Oliver Maiberger (2003) as the only Aztecs to earn four weekly awards in one season. For his career, Dickhardt has six player of the week awards to his credit, the second-most in school history behind Maiberger's 12.
The Aztecs will return to the court Thursday, April 5, when they take on Air Force in Colorado Springs, Colo., at 3 p.m. MDT.