This weekend, the Auburn Men's Tennis team hosted its fall tournament, the Battle on the Plains. The event showcased strong performances from the Tigers, with victories in both singles and doubles matches from players Hamza Nasridinov, Joey Phillips, Jake Kennedy, and Thomas Kennedy.
"It was a great weekend of tennis with a lot of highly competitive singles and doubles matches," said Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds. "We need to continue to concentrate on being offensive and taking time away from our opponents, thus allowing us to finish points more often at the net."
Nasridinov dominated the tournament in singles play, finishing the weekend with a perfect 4-0 record. He recorded straight-sets wins over Samford's Sandeep Mohandoss, North Alabama's Lachlan Brain, and UAB's Ondrej Valek, before capping off the run with a hard-fought three-set victory against South Carolina's Charlie Swaine.
Phillips made his mark in singles play with victories over Mercer's Nemanja Stefanovic and North Alabama's Alberto Altur. Thomas Kennedy completed his weekend with a thrilling tiebreak win against Tomas Tischner of UAB, edging out a 7-6(2), 6-7(3), [11-9] victory.
In doubles, Nasridinov and Jake Kennedy secured three wins, rounding their run with a close 6-4 victory over South Carolina's Cole Henceroth and Swaine in their most challenging match of the weekend.
Phillips and Thomas Kennedy added to the team's success with doubles victories over North Alabama's Altur and Izan Orgiles, as well as South Carolina's Swaine and Henceroth.
"We'll take a lot of the specifics from this weekend and get back to work to see what we can implement on such a short week before regionals," Reynolds said.
Auburn will soon head to Tuscaloosa for the ITA Southern Regional Championships, hosted by the University of Alabama from October 9–14. The tournament will serve as a qualifier for the NCAA Singles and Doubles Championships, with two singles spots and one doubles spot up for grabs.
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Anderson is a sophomore majoring in journalism. She joined the Plainsman in the fall of 2025.
