Women's Tennis Signs Eliza Omirou
11/17/2016 12:00:00 AM | Women's Tennis
By Wake Forest Athletic Communications (@WakeWTennis)
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. – Wake Forest women's tennis Head coach Jeff Wyshner announced Thursday that Cyprus-native Eliza Omirou has signed a National Letter of Intent to attend the university. Omirou will join the Demon Deacons beginning with the 2017-18 season.
Omirou comes to Wake Forest from Nicosia, Cyprus and has achieved great success in various national and international competitions at many levels.
Omirou began competing in international tournaments in 2013, where she won the U14 Tennis Europe Development Championships in Turkey without a ranking. She then became a member of the elite team at the European Junior Grand Slam Tours for the U14, U16 and U18 levels. There, she registered countless wins including the Jugend Cup U14 Grade 1 in Germany and her first ITF Junior Grade 4 Cup in Denmark.
Omirou has claimed victory in the Aphrodite Cup in Cyprus, which marked the first time a Cypriot won the tournament. She also claimed four back-to-back ITF U18 single titles for the first time in Cyprus history.
Nationally, Omirou has been a member of the Cyprus Fedcup National Team since 2014 where she contributed significantly to the country's ranking. Joining at just age 14, she was the youngest member to ever join the Cyprus National Team where she began ranked No. 2. In 2015 and 2016, she was registered as the leading player of the team where she gathered numerous upset victories and was eventually ranked No. 1 during her time in the U12, U14, U16 and U18 levels.
Internationally, Omirou has claimed nine singles and 10 doubles titles in ITF Junior U18 as well as five singles and seven doubles titles in Tennis Europe. Her highest career rankings include No. 4 in Tennis Europe U14, No. 31 in Tennis Europe U16 and No. 140 in ITF Juniors U18.
Omirou was named the Best Female Tennis Player of the Year by the Cyprus Olympic Committee in 2014 and 2015 and was selected by the Committee to represent Cyprus in the 2015 British Commonwealth Youth Games in Samoa. She has also been given the Best Female Player award from the Cyprus Tennis Federation for three consecutive years.
"As a tennis player, Eliza is amazingly accomplished for someone her age," said Wyshner. "When I first met her, she was the No. 1 16-and-under player in Cyprus, the No. 1 18-and-under player in Cyprus and the No. 1 women's player in the country all at the same time. We believe she will make an outstanding transition to college tennis because some of her best moments as a tennis player have come under the pressure of playing the top spot for the Cypriot Fed Cup Team, not a Junior Fed Cup Team but actually the National Team."
Omirou was named the Top Female Tennis Player in Cyprus by the English School Physical Education Department. While at the English School, she was an inter-school tennis champion and led her team to third place in the 2015 Regional inter-school basketball championships. She is fluent in Greek and English, is currently learning French and Spanish and plans to complete the Business and Enterprise Management major at Wake Forest.
"We are very proud and excited to announce Eliza's commitment to the Wake Forest Class of 2021," Wyshner said. "Eliza will be a great fit with our team because of the exceptional character and commitment she brings to the classroom, to the court and to her relationships with others."
Prior to Omirou's arrival in Fall 2017, the Demon Deacons will compete in their Spring 2016 season that begins Jan. 16 against College of Charleston and Winthrop.