The Auburn Tigers traveled to Tuscaloosa this past weekend to compete in the ITA Southern Regional Championships hosted by the University of Alabama. The Tiger doubles team, composed of Joey Phillips and Nicholas Heng, advanced to the semifinals. Additionally, singles players Billy Blaydes and Hamza Nasridinov each reached the quarterfinals round.
“Disappointing not to get some of the guys through to the NCAA Tournament with this regional,” Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds said. “In the next couple of weeks of practice and even tournaments, we’ll continue to focus on being aggressive, playing with trust and trying to win matches when the opportunity presents itself.”
Heng and Phillips began the tournament by beating Juan Pablo Valdez Guzon and Conor Flynn from UAB with a score of 8-4 after receiving a first-round bye.
The Tiger duo of Heng and Phillips continued their strong performance on Sunday, first defeating Lachlan Brain and Alex Despoja in a tiebreaker. They then secured an 8-6 victory over Sebastian Harrison and Vitorio Sardinha.
On Monday, the pair faced Ole Miss players Isac Stromberg and Kai Milburn in the semifinals, but came up short 6-4, 6-2.
In the singles main draw, Billy Blaydes and Nasridinov delivered skilled runs to the quarterfinals, notching a series of hard-fought victories. Nasridinov took control in straight sets over Troy’s Stephan Noale, South Alabama’s Juan Accossatto and Mississippi State’s Niccolo Baroni. Blaydes opened with a straight-sets win over Mississippi State’s Michal Novansky, followed by a three-set battle against Tulane’s Daniel Phillips and another impressive victory against Alabama’s Andrii Zimnokh.
Thomas Kennedy earned a place in the singles main draw after achieving two wins in the qualifying rounds, defeating Gianluca Filoramo of Louisiana and Martin Schwartzman of Samford. In the main draw, Phillips also added to the team’s success with a victory over Louis Boilevin of Troy.
"At times, we're still trying to feel our way into matches and hoping for unforced errors rather than taking the match by the hands and going after it," Reynolds said. "We'll continue to work on more aggressive tennis and look forward to another opportunity at sectionals."
The Tigers tennis team will be back in action on October the 24th at the CCB Collegiate Invitational.
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Anderson is a sophomore majoring in journalism. She joined the Plainsman in the fall of 2025.
