Men's Tennis Fact Sheet #8

This weekThe No.56 Hogs are open SEC play this weekend against No.20 Alabama on Friday at 1:30 p.m. before hosting No. 26 Auburn on Sunday at 1 p.m.

Scouting AlabamaNo. 20 Alabama won a pair of matches last week to improve to 9-1 this season for its best start since 2003. Senior Billy Mertz and junior Saketh Myneni, currently ranked No. 27 in the ITA Doubles poll, remain undefeated at 8-0. Playing primarily at the No. 1 and No. 2 singles positions for Alabama is senior Mathieu Thibaudeau and Myneni. Thibaudeau is 6-4 on the season, while Myneni enterers Friday’s match at 5-1 in dual-match play.

Scouting AuburnThe No. 26 Auburn Tigers (5-2) are led this year by senior No. 69 Alexey Tsyrenov, who holds a 3-2 singles record this spring. Behind Tsyrenov is sophomore No. 105 Tim Puetz, who is 6-1 in singles competition. The two team up to form Auburn’s top doubles team and the No. 11 duo in the nation at 6-0. The Tigers’ second team is composed of Lukas Marsoun and Alex Stamchev and currently ranks as the No. 50 pair in the ITA rankings with a 5-0 record. The Tigers play at LSU on Friday before making the trip to Fayetteville.

January at the Auburn Spring ClassicThe Hogs face the Tigers last in January at the Auburn Spring Classic in Auburn, Ala., dropping five of seven singles matches. Then-No. 15 Blake Strode defeated then-No. 48 Alexey Tsyrenov in straight sets, 6-1, 6-3 and freshman Nikolas Zogaj bested Powell Porter, 6-4, 6-3. In doubles, the then-No. 14 duo of Strode and Matt Hogan downed No. 10 Tsyrenov and Tim Puetz, 8-5 for their first win over a top 10 opponent.

Download: 3.3 Notes 8.pdf