The Tigers hosted two ranked SEC teams at Yarbrough Tennis Center this weekend, eyeing a bounce-back performance after last week’s disappointing road trip.
“We’ve had great homestands this season, and we’ve been very successful whether it’s indoors or outdoors at home,” Auburn head coach Bobby Reynolds said before Friday’s tilt against LSU. “I’m looking for that comfort in how we play on our courts from an emotional standpoint. From a tennis standpoint, I want us to really buy into the X’s and O’s of what we need to do to be successful.”
“LSU is a great team, and they’re top 10 right now,” Reynolds said. “Their top two players are straight off the pro tour top 400, so there are going to be tough matchups, and we have to be ready for that but not play outside our comfort zone.”
Starting Friday off on the right foot, Auburn won the doubles point handily with a pair of 6-2 decisions from Billy and Freddie Blaydes and Hamza Nasridinov and Jake Kennedy. Nicholas Heng and Alan Bojarski’s set was left unfinished, with the duo trailing 5-4 when the point was clinched.
Bojarski opened singles play from the No. 5 position, taking down LSU’s Sasa Markovic with a 6-2, 6-0 decision to extend Auburn’s lead to 2-0. Matias Ponce De Leon put the visitors on the board shortly after with a 6-1, 6-2 defeat of Manel Lazaro, and the squads continued to trade blows with victories from Billy Blaydes over Erik Arutiunian and Andrej Loncarevic over Nicholas Heng to push the score to 3-2.
Nasridinov clinched the game from the No. 1 position, defeating Olaf Pieczowski with two 6-2 decisions, and Freddie Blaydes closed out the afternoon with a tiebreak victory, securing the 6-3, 6-7, 1-0 win to bring the final score 5-2.
“I felt this was a great response from last weekend,” Reynolds said. “Our guys showed up from start to finish. We played some great doubles on courts one and three to get off the court quickly and kept the momentum in singles. To beat a team that is No. 7 in the country and to do it in that fashion speaks to the level that our guys are capable of playing. I’m excited about that response and looking to take that into Sunday’s match against South Carolina.”
Focusing on Sunday’s action, the Blaydes brothers took early control in doubles play with a 6-2 first-set win for Auburn, but South Carolina secured the point off the backs of victories from Gabe Avram and Charlie Swaine and Atakan Karahan and Max Stenzer to take an early lead.
The Tigers took two of their first four singles sets with victories from Bojarski (6-1, 6-3) and Nasridinov (6-4, 7-6) to maintain their one-point deficit, but South Carolina’s group proved difficult to pick apart as the afternoon went on. Billy Blaydes struggled against Paul Barbier Gazeu, suffering a 6-1, 6-1 defeat, and Freddie Blaydes fought Max Stenzer hard through two sets before being extinguished 6-0 in the third. Atakan Karahan closed things out for the Gamecocks, defeating Nicholas Heng 6-4, 5-7, 6-4 to put the game out of reach for the Tigers.
Now 15-6 with a 5-5 conference record, the Tigers look ahead to another weekend at home. No. 10 Texas A&M will come to town on Thursday at 3 p.m. CDT, and No. 3 Texas will take the court for Senior Day on Saturday at 12 p.m.
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