By outreach@cw.ua.edu (Cody Estremera)
The Four-in-the-Fall tournament, made up of Tulane, Columbia, Memphis and Alabama officially kicked off the fall season for the Alabama men’s tennis team.
DAY 1:
The Crimson Tide finished 6-7 in its opening-day matches Friday.
“I saw some good energy and some areas that we did well [today],” coach George Husack said. “I’m happy for the first day of the season. We have a great base to work with this year.”
The team performed best in doubles, winning four out of the seven matches played. The two singles wins were produced by Langford Hills and Matthew Rossouw.
There were a lot of close finishes that didn’t got Alabama’s way, but Husack isn’t worried at all.
“I mean it’s the first time playing,” he said. “It was super-hot and the matches could have gone either way. We just have to compete more. We’ll get better with competition. Wins are great, but wins and losses really don’t mean much of anything since it’s the team results that matter.”
Last year, the Crimson Tide lost to Ole Miss in a close 4-3 match in the second round of the SEC tournament. Husack plans to use the fall to make sure the team can make it past the second round this time around.
“We hope to do better than last year,” Husack said. “We have to finish stronger and finish higher in the conference. Those are the expectations. The fall is all about finding the standard and holding yourself to that standard. Looking for ways to get better. Succeeding, failing and doing it all over again.”
DAY 2:
Early Saturday morning marked the second day in the Four-in-the-Fall tournament.
The Crimson Tide added a couple of wins in the single matches. Thibault Cancel won his first match of the tournament. Rossouw also picked up his second win.
Alabama went just 2-5 at the end of the day, though.
Day Three:
Sunday concluded Alabama’s first fall tournament of the year. The team finished 4-4 on the last day, but 12-16 overall for the tournament.
The Crimson Tide performed best in doubles again, winning all three of the matches. The team of Rossouw and Alexey Nesterov set the tone winning their set 8-6 against Columbia’s Victor Pham and Jackie Tang. The teams of Hills and Ritchie Kruunenberg, Cancel and Hayes Brewe also won.
Hills was Alabam’s sole singles winner Sunday.
The Crimson Tide will travel to Tulsa for its next fall tournament, the ITA All-American tournament, on Oct. 1.
Source:: The Crimson White Sports
