MEN’S TENNIS
April 6: Alabama men’s tennis makes history, beats No.21 Georgia, 4-2
Alabama defeated No.21 Georgia for the first time since 2003. The victory over defending SEC champion Georgia also marks the first win over a Top 25 opponent this season for the UA men’s tennis team.
The doubles point went to UA with the No. 68-ranked pair in the country in Mazen Osama and Edson Ortiz dropping Bulldog opponents Montgomery/Ponwith, 6-2, and sophomore duo Thiabault Cancel and Alexey Nesterov dropping UGAs duo of Zielinski/Phillips.
Alabama extended their lead 2-0 with a win from Zhe Zhou over Alex Phillips, 6-1, 6-2. UGA got on the board when No. 27 Jan Zielinski a defeated Cancel, 6-2, 6-4.
UGA’s Robert Loeb tied the match by dropping UA freshman Patrick Kaukovalta,7-6 (4), 6-3. No. 50 Osama dropped No.19 Wayne Montgomery, giving Alabama the 3-2 lead and marking the third nationally-ranked opponent he’s beat in the last four matches.
Nesterov clinched the match for the Tide by beating Alex Diaz in an intense singles match.
April 8: Alabama men’s tennis drops to No.24 Tennessee, 5-2
Alabama started the match by winning the singles point. UA duo of Thibault Cancel and Alexey Nesterov defeated Stodder/Walton, 6-4.
Tennessee took care of Alabama in singles play by winning five of six singles matches. Edson Ortiz fell to No.93 Adam Walton, 6-1, 6-1. UT took a 2-1 lead with a win from No.20 Timo Stodder over No.50 Mazen Osama, 7-5, 6-2. A win for Tennessee’s Preston Touliatos over Nesterov gave UT a 3-1 lead.
Kaukovalta kept the Tide in the match with a 6-4, 7-5 victory over Scott Jones, however, shortly after, Luca Wiedenmann clinched the match for the Vols with a 6-4, 6-3 win over Zhou.
WOMEN’S TENNIS
April 6: Alabama women’s tennis falls on the road to Arkansas, 4-1
Arkansas started off the day winning the doubles point. Daniell/Hinton and Moulin/Pelletier lost to their Razorback opponents, 6-2, respectively and Selim/Cortina-Pou dropped Pairone/Jurasic, 6-2.
In singles play, Cortina-Pou defeated Tatum Rice, 6-2, 6-2, to tie the match. From there, it was all Arkansas. Andie Daniell fell to No.52 Giulia Pairone, Jacqueline Pelletier fell to Mia Jrasic and Anna Selim fell to Natsuho Arakawa.
April 8: Alabama women’s tennis takes care of Missouri, 4-2
After dropping the doubles point, Alabama won four out of five singles matches to snag its first conference win of the season.
Missouri headed into singles play 1-0 after clinching the doubles point with wins over Moulin/Gintrand and Selim/Cortina-Pou.
In singles play, No.91 Andie Daniell dropped Serena Nash, Smith Hilton downed tiger Taylor Gruber and Selim took cared of her opponent after losing the first set 4-6. Tiger Mackenz Middlebrooks defeated sophomore Jacqueline Pelletier, 7-5, 6-2 to bring Missouri within reach, but, remaining perfect on the weekend, Cortina-Pou clinched the match for Alabama by winning 7-5, 6-4.
